§ 9. Mr. DAGGAR (for Major MILNER)asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has noted the resolution on refugees passed by the League of Nations Assembly on 10th October; whether he proposes to take any steps to assist in the obtaining of funds for the Erivan settlement scheme; and whether he can report as to the measures taken to alleviate the situation of the 20,000 Russian refugees in China rendered destitute by recent floods?
§ Mr. EDENHis Majesty's Government have given careful and sympathetic consideration to the resolution of the 10th of October, as they have done to all Assembly Resolutions dealing with the problem of Armenian refugees. They have come to the conclusion, however, that the present time is hardly suitable for setting up in this country a national committee for the specific purpose of obtaining funds for the Erivan Settlement Scheme. I would at the same time refer the hon. and gallant Member to the statement made by the United Kingdom representative before the Sixth Committee of the Ninth Assembly of the League of Nations on the 19th of September, 1928, when he pointed out that His Majesty's Government had already spent a sum of approximately £5,500,000 on the settlement of Armenian refugees in Iraq, this sum representing, moreover, only a small fraction of the £60,000,000, which His Majesty's Government had spent since the War in order to relieve refugees throughout the world. I regret that I have no information as to the measures taken to alleviate the situation of Russian refugees in China rendered destitute by recent floods.