HC Deb 04 December 1933 vol 283 cc1299-300
10. Mr. MAXTON (for Mr. McGOVERN)

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the amount of money paid to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Clay Cross, as chairman of the Disarmament Conference, for entertainment, and the amount drawn for personal staff since the opening of the conference?

Sir J. SIMON

Later information received from the League of Nations Secretariat at Geneva enables me to take this opportunity of correcting in one particular the answer with which the Secretariat supplied me on the 27th November. The total amount paid to the President of the Disarmament Conference from League funds was 71,945 Swiss francs and not 73,271 Swiss francs as I had originally been informed. In addition, the total sum paid in respect of the President's secretarial staff from the beginning of the Conference until the 30th November, 1933, amounts to 41,484 Swiss francs. The sum first mentioned, namely, 71,945 Swiss francs, is made up of subsistence allowance of 63,750 Swiss francs, travelling expenses of 4,130 Swiss francs and entertainment allowance of 4,065 Swiss francs. I am informed from Geneva that the subsistence allowance drawn by the President is the normal allowance laid down for the Presidents of League Conferences; secondly, that travelling expenses were incurred on the business of the Conference and included visits to various capitals undertaken by the President last summer; and thirdly, that the limited sum drawn by the President in respect of entertainment arises from the duties laid upon him during the last two years by his office as President.

Mr. MAXTON

Does the right hon. Gentleman himself regard this as an adequate sum, knowing as he does the duties of the position

Mr. CHARLES WILLIAMS

Will the right hon. Gentleman put the salary sum into pounds sterling for the benefit, of the House; and will he say how that salary compares with the salary of the Prima Minister?

Captain P. MACDONALD

Does a teetotaller require as large a subsistence allowance—

Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKER

Mr. T. Williams.