§ 9 and 10. Mr. CHARLES BROWN (for Mr. EDWARD WILLIAMS)asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1) if the list of loans contracted in 1926 by Dr. Hernandi Siles, the then president of Bolivia, included a loan in December of that year from Messrs. Vickers-Armstrong for the purchase of war material in England; and, if so, for what amount and what were the conditions attached to it;
(2) whether the Vickers contract which, among other debts, necessitated the securing by the Bolivian Government of the seven per cent. external sinking fund bonds of 1928, issued for 23,000,000 dollars in the United States, referred to a previously contracted loan which had then to be repaid or to fulfilled orders for armaments?
§ Sir J. SIMONI am informed that no loan was made by Messrs. Vickers-Armstrong to the Bolivian Government in 1926 or in any other year. According to my information a part of the 23,000,000 dollar loan obtained by the Bolivian Government from Messrs. Dillon-Read and Company in 1928 was used to make payments to Messrs. Vickers-Armstrong in respect of an old contract.