Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: The hon. Gentleman the Member for Edge Hill (Mr. Irvine) opened his speech by saying that between the two sides of this Committee there was a deep cleavage of opinion on the question of German re-armament. I have been here throughout this debate and it seems to me that the majority of speakers from his side have emphasised the bi-partisan nature of their policy. In particular, the right hon....
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I have not intervened in the Purchase Tax debate on textiles so far although it is a matter which concerns my constituents very closely. I have, however, listened throughout all the many debates on this subject and it has emerged quite clearly that there is an irreconcilable dilemma in the imposition of this tax. I was much struck by a statement made by the hon. Lady the Member for...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: asked the President of the Board of Trade (1) what is the size of the staff at present employed in the Statistics Division of his Department; (2) whether he will consider simplifying and reducing the questionnaire sent out by the Statistics Division of his Department.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Is my right hon. Friend aware that his answer will give immense satisfaction to industry?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: asked the President of the Board of Trade whether the results of the questionnnaires sent out from the Statistics Division of his Department to the paint trade for the year 1949 have yet been issued.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Is my right hon. Friend aware that owing to the lateness of the publication of these results they are quite useless?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: In view of the fact that this firm is engaged on defence orders, among other things, has the Minister any information to show that this strike is in any way Communist inspired?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Give the hon. and learned Gentleman three years.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: It is my duty tonight to raise a matter that has received a great deal of publicity over the past fortnight, and which is causing a good deal of bewilderment and intense interest in the county, one of whose representatives I have the honour to be. This is the account we have had of large so-called trade agreements being signed in Moscow for the sale of textiles both to the U.S.S.R. and China....
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: It is even worse than that because, under the 1950–51 Adoption Act, adopted children are treated as if they were of the whole blood. Therefore, we get the situation where adopted children are preferred to those of half-blood, and thus the half-blood, who cannot get adopted because they are blood relations, will be discriminated against even in favour of persons who are not blood relations...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I believe that there is much more interest in the subject of wills and intestacy than the number of hon. Members present today would seem to imply. In the last century the subject of the will was the great subject for friction and I believe, even today, the question who is to get "Aunt Maude's" money is still of great interest to thousands of people. Therefore, anything that seeks to put the...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: They might, but they might not. If everyone is going to help everyone else there is no need to make legal rules as to where the money goes, but the object of this provision is to guard against the natural selfishness of people and to see that the money goes to the people who need it most. On balance the widow needs it, because she cannot earn in the future as the children can. If the widow is...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: It is a perfectly fair point, but I think we have to proceed on the basis, as is done in the courts, that we must not trust anybody too far, because if we are going to trust everybody all the way there is no need to make provision such as this at all. The argument for giving it to the widow is not made because she will not do the best for the children. In nine cases out of 10 she does, and...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: asked the President of the Board of Trade what measures have been taken by the United States authorities to implement the Ten-Point Washington Declaration of September, 1949, signed by representatives of the United States, Canadian and British Governments, by which the United States and Canadian Governments undertook to examine ways and means by which the United Kingdom would be enabled to...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I beg to move, to leave out from "That," to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof: this House urges Her Majesty's Government to institute an impartial inquiry into the working of Coastal Command in order to ascertain the most efficient method of administration, operation and control of this essential arm of our maritime forces for the future. This is an old problem—the problem...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I am sure that the Air Force is very versatile and undertakes all these jobs. My only point is that if one was going into the Air Force as a pilot it would not be the height of one's ambition to go into Coastal Command and stay there.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I cannot give way. There are plenty of hon. Members who have served in Coastal Command and who, as my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Stockport, North (Wing Commander Hulbert) said, regard the Amendment as doing disservice to the country in some sort of way, and I will leave them to make their case.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: That was precisely my point, and I am obliged to my hon. and gallant Friend for making it. Those hon. Members who share my views agree that this is a specialised job, that the pilots who should fly Coastal Command machines should be students of sea war, that any other task that they perform when flying Coastal Command machines should be in connection with the sea war, and that they should not...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Primarily, sweeping mines, but laying mines as well. The logical case of the matter is, I submit, really unanswerable. But the case is not based on logic. The logical case, of course, is that in all these matters of warfare the correct categories are those of function and not of appearance. The function of keeping open the sea lanes of this country are a single and undivided function, and it...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: So should I.