May 4, 1948 (20th Parliament, 4th Session)

Mr. CHURCH:

I just want to call the
minister's attention to one thing. I am opposed to these estimates being dealt with in such a committee. I opposed this way of considering foreign affairs consistently right from the start, because the onus is on the government itself.
The second thing is this. What are we doing at the present time? The government depends on UNO, so does the opposition.

Estimates oj External Affairs
Their policy is based on Lake Success. 1 want to point this fact out, it is one which is forgotten. The Soviet union has been using the UNO to insult Britain and the United States in every known way and in the worst language ever known, which in any other age would have led to the severance of diplomatic relations. I believe the Soviets will soon leave UNO for keeps. The Soviets are using this for home consumption in Russia, to tell the people there that the United States and Britain will attack them. That is what they are doing. They are using that at all times in Russia, or they would have had serious internal trouble there. They would have trouble in their own country but for UNO, which is a most mischievous agency. The way business is carried on down there, the thing is a tower of Babel. We are making a great mistake. If we could get a one year's holiday at Lake Success, we would have peace and happiness.
I do not believe that the external affairs committee will ever do anything. I have found that some of these committees, like the external affairs committee, as the minister knows, do not know anything about the matter, and the public today do not know anything about it except what they read in the press, because they do not come down to fundamentals or consider the experience of history. I believe it would be better for the government to take the responsibility, because they must take it. By the action taken, we are just inviting something which the Soviet wants at Lake Success. Our policy should be to work with Britain and the dominions and America and obtain security by re-armament. Lake Success has been a failure for a long time, and I believe it would be far better if we were to give Lake Success six months' or a year's holiday. It would be the best thing for the British empire and the world.