§ 8. Sir CYRIL COBBasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will inquire of the Chilean Government if they will not make proposals to implement their undertaking to make good their contractual obligations on the Chilean Government debt in the hands of British subjects, in view of the recent nitrate agreement?
§ 9. Sir NICHOLAS GRATTAN-DOYLEasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will request the 1762 British commercial representative in Chile to ascertain whether the agreement about Chilean nitrate exports can, with the assistance of the Chilean Government, be used to terminate the default to British subjects in respect of Chilean Government loans floated in British for the development of Chilean resources?
§ Sir J. SIMONI assume that my hon. Friends have in mind the agreement recently reached in principle between the representatives of the Chilean nitrate industry and of the synthetic nitrate producers in Europe, reference to which was made in the Press on the 16th July. I understand that the details of this agreement still remain to be settled, and it is therefore clearly premature to attempt to estimate the effect which it may have upon Chile's ability to meet the service of her foreign debt. In the meantime I can assure my hon. Friends that His Majesty's Government are carefully watching the position as regards the possibility of a resumption of the service of the Chilean foreign debt, both through His Majesty's Ambassador at Santiago, and by maintaining close contact with the interests concerned, including the Council of Foreign Bondholders, who are themselves in touch with the competent Chilean authorities.