§ 5. Sir CYRIL COBBasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will ask the German Government for an estimate of the percentage of the sterling funds retained, under the German debt moratorium, which will be used for financing German exports and for the recently announced increased expenditure on German re-armaments, respectively; and will he forward the information to the British representative on the German debt moratorium for his use at the conference in Berlin on 27th April?
§ Sir J. SIMONAs stated in the Reich-bank communiqué of the 1st February-last, the Gold Discount Bank at Berlin is prepared to purchase scrip from British holders of German external loans at 67 per cent. of its par value. German exporters are allowed in certain cases to purchase the scrip at a correspondingly reduced price from the Gold Discount Bank and to resell it at par to the German Conversion Office. In this way the sterling sums which the British creditors forego are used to promote German exports. They are not available as revenue to cover the expenditure of the German Government, whether on armaments or otherwise. 1365 As regards the second part of the question, the representatives of the British bondholders who will attend the meeting at Berlin on the 27th April are already aware of the facts given in the reply to the first part of the question.