HC Deb 05 March 1941 vol 369 cc906-7
23. Rear-Admiral Beamish

asked the Minister of Economic Warfare whether he will request His Majesty's Ambassador in Moscow to report on the large and unusual imports to Russia from the United States of America of copper, cotton, wheat, motor-spirit, etc., and the indications that equivalent products are reaching the enemy from Russia?

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Warfare (Mr. Dingle Foot)

My right hon. Friend receives regular reports from His Majesty's Ambassador at Moscow on this and similar questions, and I can assure my hon. and gallant Friend that it is not necessary for us to make any such special request as he suggests.

Rear-Admiral Beamish

Can the Parliamentary Secretary say whether the situation, described as serious by the Minister not long ago, has improved from our point of view?

Mr. Foot

No, Sir. I think the position is still as described by my right hon. Friend in the answer he gave on 28th January; but the conversations to which he referred in that answer are proceeding.

Mr. G. Strauss

Is it not a fact, to put this matter in its true perspective, that these imports into Russia are an insignificant percentage of Russia's home production of these goods?

Mr. Foot

I do not think they are insignificant when compared with the needs of the enemy, and, as my right hon. Friend pointed out on 28th January, there is a good deal of evidence that these imports go into the Soviet Union and allow equivalent exports to the enemy.

Mr. Marcus Samuel

Are not the Communists trying to make profits out of the war?