ملف ٤٥٣٥/١٩٢٨ الجزء ٥ "السيطرة السياسية في الخليج الفارسي:" [و‎‎١‎٢‎٩] (٧٦٧/٢٦٠)

1311
Air
Mail.
1312
[ 20 May 1931 ]
satisfactorily. Just as on the one side
we have the three Service Departments
represented by the Committee of the
three Chiefs of Staff—we cannot reduce
it to a smaller unit than that—so on the
other hand we have the necessary De
partments united in an analogous way,
and I believe that the organisation is
now working reasonably satisfactorily.
At any rate, it does not seem possible
to^^^^ive at any improvement by turn
ing out the Foreign Office and the India
Office and saying the Colonial Office alone
shall deal with these matters ; or, simi
larly, turning out the Colonial Office
and the India Office and saying the
Foreign Office shall deal with it; or—
there is still a third alternative—turning
out the Colonial Office and the Foreign
and saying the India Office shall deal
with it. We cannot see any improve
ment in working in any of those ways,
and we have not yet come to believe
that the creation of a separate Ministry
and a separate Minister, a separate
Secretary of State for the Middle East, is
at all warranted.
Consequently, I can only repeat that
the Government have considered the
matter very carefully. They have taken
into account the considerations which
have been urged in the course of this
debate. They have made an organisation
which is an improvement on anything
that has gone before, and which, we
think, secures constant vigilance with re
gard to minor matters, and the reserva
tion of all issues of policy for the Cabinet
as a whole. I do not want to go into
the details of that organisation. It
would not be proper to do so, for part of
it is confidential; but at any rate those
are the lines on which the Government
have proceeded and on which they intend
as at present advised to continue. We
do not think that it is practicable to get
a single Ministry in charge. Whatever
changes may come in any direction the
present Government have no intention
of parting with the control of policy from
the hands of the Cabinet as we know
it. That I think would be the answer
to the noble Lord, Lord Stonehaven,
who suggested that the Empire looks to
Great Britain to administer those terri
tories in the Middle East, and, speaking
generally, I accept that. The Govern
ment, I do not like to say administer,
that is a little too detailed and tech
nical, but the Government is respon
sible for every decision of policy—small
policy as well as large policy—in all these
territories, and we have no intention,
whatever changes are made, of parting
with that control of policy from the hands
of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
Lord TRENCHARD : My Lords, I am
grateful to the noble Lord the Secretary
of State for the Colonies, Lord Passfield,
for his reply, but I will not follow him
upon the subject of the departmental
squabbles in Whitehall. I purposely, in
my opening remarks, said that I was not
touching on that question, but was deal
ing with the Persian Gulf and Aden.
The noble Lord, if I understood him
rightly, made an announcement of the
greatest importance. I understood him
to say that the Government have no in
tention of parting with the control of
policy in the changes that are being dis
cussed in Whitehall now.
Lord PASSFIELD: Yes.
Lord TRENCHARD: In those circum
stances, I beg leave to withdraw my
Motion.
Motion, by leave, withdrawn.
AIR MAIL.
Lord SANDHURST asked His
Majesty’s Government whether it is the
practice of the Poet Office in the case of
packets marked for despatch by air mail,
but insufficiently stamped, to despatch
them by ordinary mail; and whether they
will consider the alteration of the prac
tice so as to admit of despatch by air
mail subject to payment of a penalty fee
on delivery.
The noble Lord said : My Lords, I rise
to put the Question which stands in my
name, i have here an envelope which
bears a date and stamp, and is marked
“ For despatch by air mail.” When this
came to me I had the curiosity to weigh
it, because it was delivered by ordinary
mail and marked, “ insufficiently paid
for transmission by air mail.” The
weight shows that there is only a very
small balance against the missive. No
doubt the authorities were perfectly right-
in saying it was insufficiently stamped
for the purposes of the air mail, inasmuch
as it exceeded half an ounce. I only
mention these details to show the bona
‘fides of the sender. I understand that