Mr Nigel Fisher: I am coming to the question of price. The essentials would be an adequate supply of cement, timber and bricks. With the record output of cement under private enterprise I hope there will be no difficulty, and I was encouraged by the confirmation of the hon. Member for Hammersmith, North (Mr. Tomney) on that. There is no world shortage of timber, if housing is given first priority after...
Mr Nigel Fisher: I am not making a controversial point. Moreover, over and above that price, councils have to pay architects' fees and surveyors' fees so that the price is at least £1,600 per house, whereas the plans and specifications of these two houses at Ipswich can be purchased by any local authority for the sum of two guineas, so that architects' and surveyors' fees are saved. This large saving of...
Mr Nigel Fisher: Where are we now?
Mr Nigel Fisher: Is the right hon. Gentleman suggesting that this man was not serving his country and was not on war service at the time of his death?
Mr Nigel Fisher: Why not give her a pension?
Mr Nigel Fisher: Grossly unfair.
Mr Nigel Fisher: asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement in regard to the Government's policy towards the inclusion of Spain in negotiations for the defence of Western Europe.
Mr Nigel Fisher: Does not the hon. Gentleman agree that in these dangerous times the strategic considerations should really take precedence over the political considerations? Would it not be more statesmanlike to create a new defensive association than to perpetuate an old ideological feud?
Mr Nigel Fisher: Does the hon. Gentleman remember his right hon. Friend the present Foreign Secretary praising the late Mr. Bevin in this House for his Palmerstonian attitude in foreign affairs? Will he not now be a little more Palmerstonian himself in looking after British territory overseas?
Mr Nigel Fisher: asked the Lord Privy Seal (1) if he will explain the delay, revealed in the report submitted to him by independent accountants, between the decision to inaugurate the Festival Gardens at Battersea and the setting up of Festival Gardens, Limited to implement the project; (2) why, in view of the comments by the independent accountants, Messrs. Moores, Carson and Watson, the structure of the...
Mr Nigel Fisher: asked the Attorney-General whether he is aware of the recent visit of Mrs. Monica Felton to North Korea and of her statement since her return to this country; and whether he has considered prosecuting her on a charge of treason for consorting with the enemy abroad and for spreading enemy propaganda at home.
Mr Nigel Fisher: While appreciating that, may I ask the right hon. and learned Gentleman whether he would agree that, quite apart from Mrs. Felton, this case raises important considerations of principle as to what may be permitted to a British subject in relation to an enemy State? Is is not high time that we had a ruling on what is and what is not permissible?
Mr Nigel Fisher: asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to the recent visit of Mrs. Monica Felton, the chairman of the Stevenage Development Corporation, to the enemy forces in North Korea; why he franked her passport for this purpose; and whether he will ensure that no such visit is permitted in future.
Mr Nigel Fisher: Should not a passport endorsement be required for a British subject to travel to visit an enemy State with whom we are actually engaged in war? Surely an inquiry ought to be made before a British subject travels in this way.
Mr Nigel Fisher: In view of Strauss's expulsion for espionage will the right hon. Gentleman see that he leaves the country again as soon as possible?
Mr Nigel Fisher: I am most grateful for this opportunity of intervening very briefly because I have a close constituency interest in this matter due to the fact that Mrs. Felton was until yesterday Chairman of the Stevenage Development Corporation in my constituency. I must say that since this matter arose I have been inundated with letters and telegrams from my constituents protesting at her recent...
Mr Nigel Fisher: I was saying, did the Foreign Secretary not know that she was going under Communist auspices?
Mr Nigel Fisher: I willingly leave that point and turn to another matter in support of what the hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. C. S. Taylor) was saying on the question of prosecution. I appreciate that the Attorney-General must take advice on this matter, because there is an important principle involved; that is, ought we not now to decide what is permissible for British subjects in relation to what is an...
Mr Nigel Fisher: If a British subject had gone to Germany, consorted with the enemy, returned to this country and spread Nazi propaganda here, it seems to me he could have been indicted for treason.
Mr Nigel Fisher: What is the difference in this case? Are we not, in practice, at war with North Korea, whatever the finer shades of opinion upon the matter may be. I submit that this woman has consorted with the enemy abroad and has spread enemy propaganda at home, and that she ought to be prosecuted by the Crown with all the severity which the law of the land allows.