§ 18. Sir W. DAVISONasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is now in a position to inform the House as to the further action which has been taken by His Majesty's Government to secure payment from the Russian Soviet Government of the arbitral award of approximately £13,000,000 in favour of Lena Goldfields, Limited; and the result of such action?
§ Mr. BALDWINYes, Sir. My right hon. Friend has not hitherto made a statement on this case, but I now propose, if I may, to circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT a statement giving the history of the case since the arbitral award of the 2nd September, 1930, and explaining the present position and the attitude of His Majesty's Government thereto.
§ Sir W. DAVISONAs this is a matter of importance affecting 3,000 British nationals, and there are only 52 questions on the Order Paper, may we have the statement read now, Mr. Speaker, or at the end of Questions?
§ Mr. BALDWINI am perfectly willing to read it now, although it is rather long.
§ At the end of Questions—
§ Sir W. DAVISONOn a point of Order. May I ask the Lord President of the Council if he will now read the statement which he said he would be willing to give to the House with regard to the Lena Goldfields?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat is a matter for the House, and not for me.
Following is the statement:The Arbitration Court awarded the company compensation to the amount of some £13,000,000; but this award was ignored by the Soviet Government, and after a delay of two months His Majesty's Government were obliged to ask the latter how they proposed to implement it. The Soviet Government replied that, as they had already stated, they did not regard the Arbitration Court as competent; but the Chief Concessions Committee in Moscow, with whom the company's contract had been signed, finally1596suggested that they should meet representatives of the company in Berlin with a view to arriving at a settlement of the case by direct negotiation, on condition that the arbitral award was not mentioned. These negotiations, however, which began in July, 1931, broke down in September of the same year, since the company's representatives, though willing, for the sake of an early and satisfactory settlement, to accept a great reduction in the amount of compensation awarded by the Arbitration Court, were unable to obtain from the Soviet representatives anything beyond a purely derisory offer of £800,000.The company then again applied for assistance from His Majesty's Government, and representations were accordingly made to the Soviet Government both through the Soviet Ambassador in London and through His Majesty's Ambassador at Moscow. The Soviet Government, however, still maintained that the matter was one for direct settlement between the company and the Chief Concessions Committee; and though they were warned that His Majesty's Government could not accept this point of view, and would be obliged, if no settlement were reached by other means, to claim from them the full amount of the arbitral award, it was nevertheless felt desirable, in order to explore every possibility of effecting an amicable settlement, to authorise His Majesty's Ambassador at Moscow to discuss unofficially with the then President of the Chief Concessions Committee, Monsieur Kameneff, the prospects of a settlement at a sum of £3,500,000, representing approximately the proved capital losses of the company after taking into account all counter-claims put forward on behalf of the committee. Monsieur Kameneff, however, refused even to submit to the Soviet Government any figure beyond one million pounds, which was almost as derisory as the figure of £800,000 offered at Berlin; and M. Litvinoff, the Commissar for Foreign Affairs, though urged both by His Majesty's Ambassador at Moscow and by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at Geneva on the 21st July last, to make further efforts for a settlement, has refused to take any action.One last opportunity of settling the case seemed to have arrived when the Soviet Ambassador in London represented last month that it would be unfortunate if public agitation on this question were to revive during the continuance of the present Anglo-Soviet commercial negotiations. My right hon. Friend then informed His Excellency that it lay with the Soviet Government to prevent that danger by offering an early and satisfactory settlement, which would effectively contribute to that spirit of confidence in the relations between the two countries which it is the object of the negotiations to promote, and requested him to warn them that in default of an offer of such a settlement he would be obliged to make a public statement on the lines of that which I am now making.1597Since, however, no such offer has been received from the Soviet Government, the situation necessarily reverts to that reached prior to the direct conversations between the company and the Chief Concessions Committee and the subsequent negotiations for a settlement without reference to the award; and the payment to be claimed is the full amount specified in the award, namely, £12,965,000.