HAILE SELASSIE, EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA (PROPERTY). (Hansard, 22 November 1938)

§ Mr. Arthur Henderson

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to safeguard the title of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, to property within the jurisdiction of the Courts of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. The House will remember that last Session I was given leave to introduce a similar Bill. Since then events have taken place which render it of even greater importance that this Bill should be placed on the Statute Book. The House will know that in January of last year the Emperor brought an action in the courts of this country seeking to recover the sum of £10,600 payable under an agreement made between the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs on behalf of the Emperor of Ethiopia and a British company known as Cable and Wireless, Limited. The claim was in respect of wireless services, and in the action the company admitted liability in respect of this sum, but a claim to the money was received on behalf of the Italian Government.

On 27th July of this year judgment was eventually given by the judge who tried the case, Mr. Justice Bennett, ordering payment of the sum claimed to the Emperor. On 3rd November an appeal was lodged by the defendant company, and during the hearing counsel on behalf of the defendant company quoted from a statement made in this House by the Prime Minister on 2nd November announcing that new credentials were to be issued to the British Ambassador in Rome according legal recognition to Italian sovereignty over Abyssinia. It was further argued that the granting of de jure recognition is retrospective in law. If this be so, the effect will be that the Emperor's claim to this money—I again remind the House that the judge ordered payment to him in July of this year—cannot succeed unless his rights are protected by this House. In these circumstances the hearing was adjourned over 1534 four weeks, and when the hearing is resumed on 1st December the Court of Appeal will doubtless decide against the Emperor on the ground that the court can no longer recognise him as de jure Ruler of Ethiopia.

The position to-day is in several respects unprecedented. Ethiopia is still a member of the League of Nations. The Emperor is still regarded as the de facto and de jure Ruler of Abyssinia by a large section of the people of that country, and yet, apparently, to-day in our own country he has to be regarded as a private citizen and treated as such by the courts of the country. The object of the Bill is to secure that this sum of £10,600 shall be paid to the Emperor and not to the Italian Government. The Bill provides that the Emperor shall continue to be regarded as the de facto and de jure Ruler of Ethiopia for the purpose of proceedings in respect of any property within the jurisdiction of the British Courts.

I would like to emphasise the fact that the Bill will not confer any new rights upon the Emperor, but merely preserve rights accruing to him at the time of the Italian invasion of his country. It is true that the Government have now recognised Italy as the Sovereign Ruler of Ethiopia, and I am afraid that that cannot be undone. But the fact remains that the Italian invasion was an unlawful act and in breach of the Covenant of the League. Abyssinia was, and is today, a member of the League and entitled to the protection of the League. Our own country was legally and morally bound to stand by her. Recognition of the Italian conquest of Ethiopia may have been politically expedient, but I believe it can never be morally justifiable. Surely no decent-minded person can contemplate the tragic position of the Emperor and his country without feelings of shame and humiliation. Our Government with others indeed have purchased the friendship of Italy, but the price has been paid by the Emperor and people of Abyssinia.

1535 In these circumstances, I submit that the least this House can do is to safeguard the rights of the Emperor. This Bill is put forward by Members of all parties, because we believe that the Italian Government have no moral right whatsoever to this money, and that it should be paid to the Emperor Haile Selassie as the lawful Ruler of Ethiopia when the transactions involved in this litigation took place. I, therefore, appeal to all sections of the House to support this Bill, not as a measure of charity, but as a small measure of justice in favour of a man whose tragic sufferings have won him the sympathy of us all.