Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I have said that I acquit the Government and the right hon. Gentleman from any connection with them, but I have said that, on the other hand, there is a danger that it is very much easier to support established institutions of a Right Wing character and to be put off from the really democratic view, because it is expressed more turbulently and incoherently.
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Having said that, I want to give one or two illustrations from history showing how that happened. It will be remembered that there was a time when there was a very Left-Wing Government in Hungary. I am not going to say whether that was a good Government or not, but the British Government of the day destroyed that Government by a food policy and definitely set up the Government of Horthy,...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: The Government of Bela Kun was destroyed, and I suggest, without expressing any opinion whether it was a good Government or not—that is not my point—that the influence of the Allies at the time, and, I think, mainly of this country, destroyed that Government and set up, in fact, Horthy's Government to take its place. I will give another illustration. There was a time when King Fuad in...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Yes, I think that the right hon. Gentleman made that Treaty. I am very glad he did. I said that prior to his time there was an unfortunate position set up in the opposite direction. Of more recent date, there was the case of Admiral Darlan, which, whatever may have been the justification for it, certainly created a very great deal of misunderstanding in this and in other countries. I have...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Those who speak in the name of the Allies have, themselves, very grave dangers on both sides to consider and to face. They have great powers and they have to avoid these dangers—on the one hand, to do nothing to thwart democracy, and on the other, to allow nothing to interfere with their most active prosecution of the war. Those are the general guide-posts within which my mind approaches...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: We do not share the hon. Member's views.
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: While appreciating the great delicacy of the situation, I desire to ask the Prime Minister two questions arising out of his statement. Is he aware of the very grave anxiety felt in all sections in this country with regard to what has taken place, and will he undertake to keep the House informed from time to time in the immediate future so that we may know what the situation is from day to...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: May I press the Prime Minister to answer a question put by me, which I do not think he did quite answer? I appreciate that the British Government are holding the ring for some future election in Greece, and the question I put to him is: Will he assure us that, so far as the British Government are concerned, any support that we give to the Government of Greece is accompanied by recommendations...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: May I respectfully point out to you, Mr. Speaker, that my hon. Friend behind said nothing of the kind. What he was endeavouring to do was to give a picture of opinion. He made no criticism himself. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] He made no criticism himself. He was endeavouring to give a psychological picture. What he said was that there were certain people who took that view.
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Before the right hon. Gentleman goes on to the next phase, I think it would be useful if he would elucidate the statement he made that this phase will be conducted under the aegis of the military authorities—under the Commander-in-Chief. Do I understand it will be under the United Nations, or under the British Government?
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: It is a floor and not a ceiling.
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Might we have an explanation from the right hon. Gentleman of what that means? Do I understand that that applies to each examination as it comes along, or does it cover the whole field?
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I think we have had an important discussion to-day, and, when my hon. Friend the Member for Wallsend (Miss Ward) expresses regret that this House has not been filled, I would remind her of two facts. First, some of us, who usually sit on these benches, are to-day in what I might call another place, and, further, the absence from these benches of a large number of hon. Members is due to the...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: The Financial Secretary agrees, I understand, with the interpretation I have put on these proposals. With regard to the nature of the examinations, when boys and girls come straight from school or young men and young women come from their university, the last two or three years of their life before they come out has been devoted to a certain amount of book knowledge and when you subject them...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Then to that extent it appears that my fears are justified.
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: Taking the figures the right hon. Gentleman has given, who are the 1,000—all the candidates, or all the men who are not ex-Servicemen, or all the women?
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I once spent a very unhappy weekend. I went to stay with a married couple, both of whom were my intimate and very dear friends, and with whom I had had a close association for a considerable part of my life. To my grievous distress I had been there hardly five minutes when I found that they were wrangling and describing one another in terms of abuse. When I pleaded with them for their sake,...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: As a Member of the Speaker's Conference, I supported all of the more important recommendations of that Conference, and I am very happy to find to-day that, in the main, at any rate, those recommendations are embodied in the present Bill, and that the House of Commons, in their discussion to-day, have, with few exceptions, supported the Bill. The main point is, of course, that of the...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I did not misunderstand the hon. and gallant Member, but I think that he has misunderstood the objection to his argument. I am not discussing Service people away from home, but Service personnel when they come back. At that time, owing to the shortage of houses, a great many of them will be lodgers in the constituency and it is of the essence of the old system of municipal voters that the...
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence: I quite appreciate that, but I am pointing out what an absurd result it would produce. It would mean that a man coming into a constituency would not get a vote, but would remain a voter in a place which he has left and from which, presumably, his interests have departed, and although the hon. Member says that the inconvenience would only be for a time, it would be for a continuing number of...