COST OF FOREIGN SERVICE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27533, 15 December 1954, Page 10

COST OF FOREIGN SERVICE

SIR ANTHONY EDEN’S VIEW AVERSION TO COCKTAIL PARTIES (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 13. The Foreign Secretary (Sir Anthony Eden), in the House of Commons today, confessed that he hated attending “international cocktail parties,” and said he believed that nearly every British Ambassador abroad felt the same way. “No-one would do such a thing for pleasure,” he said. But Sir Anthony Eden agreed that the scale of entertainment by British diplomats abroad should be carefully weighed and examined. He joined issue with Mr Victor Yates (Labour), chairman of the subcommittee, Parliament’s “watchdog” committee on Government spending, who last week branded British diplomatic- entertainment overseas as “simply fantastic.” Sir Anthony Eden said it was "rather a pity” that the chairman had used this term, when the committee’s report admitted that the committee could not establish whether the entertainment allowances were inadequate or extravagant, because the committee itself was unable to go overseas. When Mr Julian Snow (Labour) said that diplomats’ cocktail parties were too often “just one long round of meeting the same people,” Sir Anthony Eden retorted: “If you dislike attending international cocktail parties you cannot bate it more than I do.” The Foreign Secretary said that publication of the committee’s report had given rise to certain “misleading impressions.”

The total expenditure on the foreign service at home and abroad was not £200.000,000 yearly as had been reported in some newspapers, but just under £20,000,000, Sir Anthony Eden said.

The £200,000.000 covered not onb the foreign service, but also the Armj the colonies and overseas commitment? ®ut he promised to inquire without de lay whether the committee’s recom

mendations on investigating enter tainment costs and other matters weti