§ 38. Mr. THORNEasked the Secretary of State to the Overseas Trade Department whether he can give any information regarding the Russian-German Trade Agreement resulting in an order to Germany amounting to £16,000,000; whether he can state the terms and conditions of this agreement, including the credit facilities given by Germany; whether these facilities were more advantageous than in the recent agreement between France and Russia in connection with the trading value of £6,000,000; and how 320 the facilities offered by His Majesty's Government compare with those of France and Germany?
§ Lieut.-Colonel J. COLVILLE (Secretary, Overseas Trade Department)I would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave to the hon. Member for Consett (Mr. Dickie) on 24th June regarding the Russian-German Trade Agreement. As regards the second part of the question, I have no information that the French Government has recently offered new credit facilities to the Soviet Union for the amount stated. With regard to the last part of the question, I do not feel that a useful comparison of terms can be made at the present time since requests for credit in respect of United Kingdom exports to the Soviet Union are now negligible. The position in the event of substantial credit enquiries being received was explained in my reply to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Limehouse (Mr. Attlee) on 4th February.