HC Deb 04 November 1919 vol 120 cc1287-8
2. Colonel WEDGWOOD

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any promises or offers of aid, military, diplomatic, or otherwise, have been made to the Governments of Esthonia, Livonia, Poland, Finland, and Lithuania, or any of them, with the object of defending them against the semi-Germans of Von der Goltz?

Mr. HARMSWORTH

In view of the German attack on Riga, His Majesty's Government decided that small arms and ammunition to the value of £16,000 should be sent to the Provisional Government of Latvia. At the same time a strongly-worded Note was addressed by the Peace Conference to the German Government. insisting on the immediate fulfilment of the Allied demand for the evacuation of all German troops from the Baltic States, and it has been decided to dispatch an Allied Representative Commission, under a French General, to control the execution of the necessary measures on the spot.

Colonel WEDGWOOD

Has the British Admiral in the Baltic had orders to protect these small States as much from German aggression as from the Bolsheviks? Have they been co-operating in the defence of Riga against these German troops?

Mr. HARMSWORTH

That is a question for the Admiralty.

Colonel WEDGWOOD

But the answer was that we had sent small-arms ammunition. Are we going to have the British Fleet used to protect these small States against the German adventurers?

Mr. HARMSWORTH

I have as much as I can do to answer questions relating to my own Department. Will the hon. and gallant Member address his question to the Admiralty?

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