§ 12. Mr. R. E. Winterbottomasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he has completed his inquiry into the allegations concerning the participation in Nazi activities of Herr Boemcke, an official in the German Ministry of Labour; and if he is now in a position to make a statement.
§ Mr. Selwyn LloydI take it that the hon. Gentleman is referring to the allegation in a German newspaper that a Herr Boemcke had attended a meeting in 1951 872 with persons then or subsequently connected with Naumann and his associates.
Her Majesty's Government have no responsibility for this newspaper article, nor have they any evidence that Herr Boemcke was, in fact, present at the meeting in question.
§ Mr. WinterbottomWill the Minister make it clear that the article in question derived from information supplied by the Secret Service to our own authorities, which was then sent back to Germany, and that there has been a leak in that information, the consequence of which is that Herr Boemcke is now suffering in his work in the Ministry of Labour at Bonn because of his relationship with a trade union? Will he make it clear that, as far as the Foreign Office is concerned, Herr Boemcke had no relations with Naumann?
§ Mr. LloydI do not know how this matter came to be published in the German Press, but I am very pleased to be able to say that we have no evidence at all that Herr Bomcke was present at the meeting in question.