§ 74. Sir W. Smithersasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will give the reasons why he accepted the demand that the whole of Transylvania should be given to Rumania, contrary to the declared British policy of September, 1940, and January, 1945.
Mr. McNeilI cannot agree that the statements made on 5th September, 1940, by the then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and by the right hon. Member for Woodford (Mr. Churchill) contained any precise undertaking as to the settlement of the frontier between Rumania and Hungary. His Majesty's Government have made no subsequent declaration on this question. After full discussion of the matter in the Council of Foreign Ministers in London in September of last year and recently in Paris, it was decided not to intervene in this difference between two ex-enemy countries other than to reverse the decision imposed by Nazi Germany in August, 1940.
§ Sir W. SmithersWas this last development of policy by His Majesty's Government designed to placate Russia?
§ Flight-Lieutenant HaireDoes the hon. Gentleman agree that an arrangement which places a Hungarian minority of some one and a half million in Rumania and leaves only a minority of some 40,000 Rumanians in Hungary cannot be described as fair or just, and would he undertake to see that representations from both sides of this problem are heard before the decision taken at Paris is finalised at the Peace Conference?
§ Sir Arthur SalterMay I ask whether a large minority of something like a million and a half Magyars in Transylvania will have the protection of the Minority Treaty which has hitherto been in force?
§ Sir W. SmithersCan the hon. Gentleman answer my question?
§ Professor SavoryIs not my hon. Friend aware that it is proposed to transfer certain districts almost entirely inhabited by Magyars, and will he have this question reconsidered so that genuine bona fide Magyars are not transferred to alien administration?
§ Mr. MackIs my hon. Friend aware that this considerable minority of Hungarians in Transylvania have been afforded absolute equality in every direction by the present Rumanian Government and that they have expressed to me personally their satisfaction with the arrangement which has been made at the present time for their treatment?
§ Flight-Lieutenant HaireIs it not a fact that no Government was more surprised by the Paris decision than the Rumanian Government itself which expected that there would be a fair division of Translyvania which would equate minorities of both sides, thus guaranteeing their citizen rights?
Mr. McNeilI have no doubt that my hon. and gallant Friend enjoys the confidence of the Rumanian Government more closely than I do.