HC Deb 11 March 1941 vol 369 cc1153-4
50. Dr. Salter

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the German Government, prior to the departure of the British Ambassador to Berlin, had undertaken not to use poison-gas in the forthcoming war if similar measures were not employed by Great Britain; and whether His Majesty's Government will give an assurance that the undertaking still stands?

Mr. Butler

As I informed the learned and gallant Member for Kingswinford (Mr. A. Henderson) on 4th October, 1939, the German Government gave an assurance on 8th September, 1939, through the Swiss Minister in London, that they would observe, for the duration of the war, the prohibitions which formed the subject of the Geneva Protocol of 17th June, 1925, provided that His Majesty's Government also observed the terms of the Protocol. The German Government clearly remain bound by their undertaking.