§ 58. Mr. WISEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state, in view of the decision to raise a reparations loan in the principal financial centres to enable France to capitalise her prospective reparations receipts, whether he has been consulted with regard to the proposed flotation of a portion of this loan on the London market; and whether, in view of the consequences to employment in this country of a transfer of capital from Great Britain to France at the present time, he will take steps to discourage the issue?
§ 59. Mr. BRACKENasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much of the proceeds of the forthcoming reparations loan this country is entitled to; and whether allowance was made for this receipt in framing the revenue estimates for the current year?
§ 67. Sir LAMING WORTHINGTON-EVANSasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportions of the proceeds of the proposed £60,000,000 reparations loan will the British and the French be entitled to, respectively; and what amounts of the loan will be offered on the London and French markets, respectively?
§ Mr. P. SNOWDENUnder the special arrangement concluded at The Hague, 756 Germany will be entitled to receive one-third of the proceeds of the proposed loan. Of the balance, France will be entitled to 78 per cent. and the British Empire to 13.1 per cent. in the absence of any special agreement to vary these percentages. It has not yet been decided on what markets the loan will be issued, but His Majesty's Government intend in any case to stipulate that the amount to be offered on the London market shall not exceed the sum which will be retained by the British Empire. With regard to the second part of the Question No. 59, the proceeds of a loan for mobilising the reparation annuities are capital receipts which will be applied to debt redemption, and no allowance was therefore made for such receipts in estimating the revenue of the current year.
§ Sir L. WORTHINGTON-EVANSCan the right hon. Gentleman say why there is so large a reduction in the British Empire proportion compared with the percentages that were agreed at Spa?
§ Mr. SNOWDENThey are mobilising the unconditional part of the German annuities, and under the Young Report France got by far the larger percentage of them, and therefore her share of any mobilisation must be larger.
§ Sir L. WORTHINGTON-EVANSI asked the right hon. Gentleman whether the British Empire got any compensation for forgoing so large a proportion of the share to which it was entitled?
§ Mr. SNOWDENYes, of course; the concession that I was able to get at The Hague was to bring the British percentage of the Germans' receipts to the Spa percentage.
§ Sir L. WORTHINGTON-EVANSThe right hon. Gentleman speaks of a concession that he was able to get; was it not rather a concession that he gave away which reduced the proportion which we should otherwise be now receiving by nearly one-half?
§ Mr. SNOWDENThe right hon. Gentleman seems to forget that under the Young plan, as compared with the Dawes plan, there was a reduction of the total amount of the annuities.
§ Sir L. WORTHINGTON-EVANSBut is it not a fact that the result to Great Britain to-day is that she is re- 757 ceiving out of the cash raised by the reparations loan something like one-half of what she would have received if the Spa percentages had not been given away by the right hon. Gentleman?
§ Mr. SNOWDENI did not give away the Spa percentages; I succeeded in maintaining them. May I remind the right hon. Gentleman again that we are dealing only with part of the German annuities, the unconditional part. Our percentage of the conditional part of the annuities is much higher.
§ Sir L. WORTHINGTON-EVANSYes, but we lose the money.
§ Mr. SNOWDENWe do not lose it. We are getting it in annuities instead of in a mobilised form. I do not attach very great importance to mobilisation. It may seem to suit the Germans, but I do not think it suits this country very much.
§ 62. Sir B. PETOasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why the certified schedule of the monthly and annual shares of each creditor Government to reparations from Gemany, which is referred to as Exhibit C in the text of the agreements concluded at the Hague Conference, is not printed in Command Paper 3484; and whether he will have it printed as a White Paper, so that Members may be able to compare it with the figures of the shares proposed by the committee of experts which are set out in Command Paper 3343 before these agreements come before the House for ratification?
§ Mr. SNOWDENThe draft Trust Agreement, which forms Annex VIII to the Agreement with Germany concluded at the Hague Conference, did not include the detailed table which will form Exhibit C, and this table is not therefore included in Command Paper 3484 which gives the texts as signed at the Hague. This table will merely set forth the shares of the creditor Governments in the German annuities as proposed in the Experts' Report (Command Paper 3343) and will not include the additional annuities which Great Britain will receive from France, Belgium and Italy in accordance with the Hague Protocol of 31st August, 1929 (Command Paper 3392). I will consider the suggestion that the Trust 758 Agreement as finally signed, including Exhibit C, should be presented to Parliament as a White Paper.
§ Sir B. PETODo I understand that the House will be in a position to compare the figures given in detail in Exhibit C before this question is discussed?
§ Mr. SNOWDENI have already said that I am quite prepared to consider the issue of a White Paper, and then the hon. Member will be able to make any comparisons he desires.
§ Sir L. WORTHINGTON-EVANSWill the right hon. Gentleman issue a White Paper showing exactly what the British Empire is going to get both in conditional and unconditional annuities, so that we may be able to compare it with what we should have got under the Spa percentages?
§ Mr. SNOWDENI do not understand what the right hon. Gentleman means by constantly referring to the Spa percentages. As I have pointed out, the Spa percentages have been maintained.
§ Sir L. WORTHINGTON-EVANSThey have not.
§ Mr. SNOWDENThey have been maintained, and if the right hon. Gentleman had listened to my answer this table will give the share of the creditor Governments in German annuities as proposed in the Experts' Reports, but it will not include the additional annuities which Great Britain is to receive from France, Belgium and Italy in accordance with the Protocol of 31st August, 1929.
§ Sir L. WORTHINGTON-EVANSIt is because I listened to the answer that I asked the right hon. Gentleman another question. Will he publish a White Paper so that we may know exactly what Great Britain is to receive under the agreements and the Protocol which he made at the Hague, for I wish to compare it with what we should have got if he had not given away the percentages at Spa.
§ Mr. SNOWDENI have not the slightest hesitation in supplying the information which the right hon. Gentleman wishes, and he can put it to any purpose he thinks fit.
Mr. MACLEANOn a point of Order. On a previous question the right hon. Gentleman put six supplementary questions to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and on the present question he has put three supplementaries, and you do not allow, Mr. Speaker, any question to be put by an hon. Member on this side of the House.
§ Mr. SPEAKERIt does not occur to me that any point of Order arises.