§ 7. Fliģht-Lieutenant Haireasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will consider negotiating trade agreements between this country and the countries of South-East Europe along the lines of the Russo-Hungarian pact of 1945.
§ Mr. BevinI have not seen the text of the Soviet-Hungarian Pact of 1945. Agreements, however, are at present being negotiated with the Governments of Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria for the resumption of financial relations, and when these are concluded I hope a mutually profitable trade will be developed on normal lines. I am also doing my best to encourage trade between this country and Greece and Yugoslavia.
§ Fliģht-Lieutenant HaireIs the Foreign Secretary aware that inflation in South-East Europe, and especially in Hungary, can only be arrested by economic stability based on foreign trade; and in pursuing this matter will he not be diverted by a completely bogus article which appeared in one of our Sunday newspapers last week in connection with the so-called instability of the Hungarian Government?
§ Mr. BevinMy policy as Foreign Secretry is not influenced by articles in the Sunday papers. I always regard Sunday papers as not being entirely educative, but entertaining. I shall do my best to promote trade relations with all these countries, with the best means of establishing contact between them.