HC Deb 02 March 1920 vol 126 cc224-6
4. Colonel WEDGWOOD

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign affairs if he can state the approximate number of persons suspected of socialism and communism now interned or imprisoned in Hungary; whether any visits have been paid by Allied officials to the internment camps; and whether reports on the camp conditions have been received?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

The answer to all parts of this question is in the negative.

Colonel WEDGWOOD

May I ask whether any steps are being taken by H.M. Government to mitigate the White Terror in Hungary, and whether the hon. Gentleman can find out whether there are not 40,000 people interned there?

Mr. SPEAKER

The hon. and gallant Member should put that question down.

Colonel WEDGWOOD

It is oh the Paper, Sir.

Mr. SPEAKER

Then the hon. and gallant Member has got an answer.

6. Mr. ROBERT RICHARDSON

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to a Memorandum sent by four leading Hungarian liberals to Sir George Clerk in which the responsibility for the terrorist régime of the present Hungarian Government is placed on the British representatives in Hungary; and whether any action is being taken to put a stop to the excesses of the present Hungarian Government and its supporters?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

The answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. It is not clear to what excesses the hon. Member is referring in the second part.

Colonel WEDGWOOD

May I ask whether steps will be taken by H.M. Government to inquire into these excesses in Hungary and to lay on the table of this House some sort of report as to what is going on in that country under our sanction and approval?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

No excesses, in Hungary or anywhere else, are carried on with the approval of H.M. Government. In answer to the other part of the question, I am sorry I cannot add to what I have already stated.

Colonel WEDGWOOD

Is it not possible for H.M. Government to communicate with our representatives in Hungary asking them to make a report on these concentration camps, where these people are being slowly done to death by the new Hungarian Government?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

In answer to these supplementary questions, may I point out that it is not clear to what excesses the hon. Member and hon. Members refer, and I must say, on behalf of the Foreign Office, that it does not help the Government to allege excesses against the Hungarian or any other Government.