§ 7. Sir CYRIL COBBasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the Hungarian Government in 1881, 1895, and 1914, and the City of Budapest in 1910 and 1914, borrowed in London from British subjects large sums of money and that the Hungarian Government and the authorities of the City of Budapest have defaulted on those obligations since the year 1914; whether he has succeeded in arriving at an arrangement in the interests of British creditors with the defaulting parties; and, if so, will he say what the terms of the proposed arrangement are?
§ 1. Mr. ALFRED SHORTasked the President of the Board of Trade what terms of agreement, if any, the British Government has made, or proposes to make, with the Hungarian Government for the purpose of securing the discharge to British subjects of Hungarian pre-War debts and obligations, both State and municipal?
§ Mr. BALDWINNo specific agreement is required in so far as the claims referred to come within Article 231 of the Treaty of Trianon. A Convention has been concluded which permits British creditors to negotiate, subject to the consent of the Hungarian and British Clearing Offices, private agreements with their Hungarian debtors for the direct settlement of the debts owing to them. It is understood that the British holders of City of Budapest Municipal Loan have deputed the Council of Foreign Bondholders to 951 negotiate on their behalf a settlement of this kind with the Hungarian authorities concerned.