BRITISH SUBJECT (COMPENSATION CLAIMS) (Hansard, 18 November 1954)

§ Mr. Michael Stewart (Fulham, East)

I feel that I should express my regret at adding still further tonight to the labours of the Foreign Office, but such is the fortune of the Ballot for the Adjournment. I believe that the case I have to raise is one the seriousness and gravity of which justifies my bringing it to the attention of the House, and particularly to the attention of the noble Lord the Joint Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who is to reply to this short debate.

The case concerns a constituent of mine, Mr. L. E. Bressey, who is 76 years of age, is injured, is partially blind, and is now living in unhappy conditions after many years' useful service in Hungary. Mr. Bressey was employed for many years by the City Council of Budapest as a lecturer in English. That was doubly valuable work. It was educationally valuable to the Hungarian people and valuable to this country in that he was able to put before them not only a knowledge of the English language, but of English culture and the English way of life.

He continued in this work for many years and was in Budapest when war broke out in 1939. Following the advice that he had been given by the British representative, he remained there. Inevitably, he was imprisoned by the Germans at a later stage in the war. After a time he was released and appears to have lived for some time under a kind of house arrest. Actually, the home in which he was living, and which belonged to him, was damaged in the course of the war, and he had to move from there to other quarters. There he remained until the end of the war in 1945.

Hon. Members will recollect that at that stage in the war the Russian troops entered Budapest. Mr. Bressey was very seriously injured by Russian soldiers, and that appears to have happened not because he was Mr. Bressey and not because he was of British nationality, but simply because he happened to be in the way 698 at an unfortunate moment. It was quite undisciplined brutality. As a result of those injuries he is now permanently crippled.

When he came to see me at the place in my constituency to which constituents come to me for advice, his wife and I had to help him into the room and we had to assist him to sit down in the chair. He is also partially blind. Indeed, very little of his sight is left, and these are the result of the injuries which he sustained in 1945. He pursued, as soon as he was able, the correct course. He reported the incident to a British military representative, a Major Mackenzie. As he was asked, he made a full statement of what had happened to him.

The first question I want to put about this case to the noble Lord is this: is there still any record of the complaint and information which was duly filed then by Mr. Bressey with the British military representative in Budapest at the time? Secondly, has there at any time since then been any attempt to claim on the strength of that statement any form of compensation from the Soviet Government for the acts of its citizens? And, since we have been hearing so much in the last two days of the possibility of a change of attitude by the Soviet Government towards the West, of a desire on its part—at any rate, in some minor matters—to be more conciliatory, in the light of those possibilities will Her Majesty's Government now be prepared, through their representatives, to raise this matter again?

An act of justice or of generosity by the Soviet Government to a British citizen who had suffered severely at the hands of Russian troops would at least be a helpful gesture, showing a desire by the Soviet Government for good relations with the West, and one that would in no way injure her security, and one could say that it would cost her nothing. So I put that group of questions about this first aspect of the matter of Mr. Bressey's injuries at the hands of Russian troops.

Mr. Bressey remained in Budapest after 1945. On one or two occasions, I understand, he endeavoured to leave, but there were difficulties about getting an exit permit from the Soviet authorities. In 1951, he was told by the British representatives there that they could no longer undertake to give him any kind of protection and 699 that the sooner he returned to this country the better. I make no complaint of that. It seems to have been entirely sensible advice to give him in those circumstances. He returned in 1951 to this country, where he is now living in my constituency.

By then, however, he had suffered in addition to the severe physical injuries I have mentioned from Russian soldiers the following wrongs at the hands of the Hungarian Government. First, there was a pension due to him from the City Council of Budapest for his long years of service. That pension would amount in sterling to about £140 a year. None of it is forthcoming. I understand that Her Majesty's Legation in Budapest have made representations on these matters to the Hungarian Government, but so far without success and without answer.

Mr. Bressey's second wrong at the hands of the Hungarian Government is that he should be entitled by the terms of the Treaty of Peace to compensation in respect of the damage done to his house during the war. There again, I understand, representations have been made, but the Hungarian Government so far has not been prepared to fulfil its obligations to pay compensation in a case like this in accordance with the terms of the Treaty.

His third wrong at the hands of the Hungarian Government is that there are two life insurance policies which he had taken out in that country, from which again he can at present draw no benefit. I should have mentioned that I have been in correspondence with the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State and with the Under-Secretaries of State at the Foreign Office. They have furnished me helpfully with a good deal of information about the case and I understand that by an agreement made on 19th August the Hungarian Government should make good these life insurance policies to Mr. Bressey, and that they have said they are prepared to start negotiations on these and cognate matters on or before 1st September, 1955.

In addition to the group of questions which I have already put to the noble Lord about the injuries suffered by Mr. Bressey at the hands of Russian soldiers, I want to put a question arising from the 700 Hungarian side of the matter. Can he say what prospect there is of Mr. Bressey's just claims against the Hungarian Government being met? I am sure that it will not be disputed by Her Majesty's Government that those claims are just. Indeed, I understand that it is not really disputed by the Hungarian Government that the claims exist. The only thing which, apparently, they are not prepared to do is to meet them.

On the Hungarian side of the matter as well as on the Russian, and in view of what is commonly believed to be a certain amount of evidence of a greater willingness on the part of Communist countries to do little acts of grace towards the West, will Her Majesty's Government press again these claims of Mr. Bressey's against the Hungarian Government? I urge that Mr. Bressey's claims, and for all I know those of many others who have suffered in a like manner, should be made with as little delay as possible.

I recognise the great difficulty of pressing claims of this kind. I recognise that particularly with regard to any claim that might be made against the Soviet Government. I only regret that this matter did not come to my attention long ago, but, of course, during those years Mr. Bressey was still in Hungary, and it was only quite recently that he brought the matter to my attention. That, I know, adds to the difficulty, at any rate of any claim that might lie against the Soviet Government.

In view of that difficulty and the fact that Mr. Bressey may simply have to say, "Unhappily, like so many others, I am the victim of the barbarity that has been let loose in the world in recent years," will not Her Majesty's Government find some way of making an ex gratia payment to Mr. Bressey? So far as I have been told in correspondence, there exists no fund out of which such a payment can be made. I am sure that the noble Lord will not mind if I ask him to ask his right hon. Friend to look again. It often happens that the first instinct of Government Departments is to say, "We cannot make an ex gratia payment. We have no power to do so." But if they raise their will to do so to a certain point and search sufficiently diligently they find ways in which it can be done.

701 If the Hungarian Government and the Soviet Government do not meet these claims made against them, we have here a British subject, crippled and partially blind, in reduced circumstances. I will not weary the House with details of his income. It is sufficient to say that he receives and needs to be in receipt of help from the National Assistance Board. That is the picture of the situation to which he is reduced after a long life, doing work most valuable to this country which, in happier circumstances, could also have been valuable to European civilisation as a whole. If all else fails, can Her Majesty's Government find some way of helping this unfortunate man?

§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Lord John Hope)

The hon. Member for Fulham, East (Mr. M. Stewart) has told this very sad story most helpfully, shortly and clearly. It certainly is a sad tale and all of it is absolutely true.

I should like to start by answering the last three questions the hon. Member asked before I go in a little more detail into these claims. He asked what prospect is there of Mr. Bressey's claims being met? He asked, will Her Majesty's Government press again for speed in the settlement of these claims, and possibly others? I am paraphrasing what the hon. Member said. Thirdly, he asked if all else fails, is there not some way in which we could make an ex gratia payment to Mr. Bressey?

The answer to the first question is that in our opinion there is a distinct prospect of Mr. Bressey's claims being met by the Hungarian Government; I put it no higher than that, I put it no lower. In the second place, we will certainly press as and when we can for speed in settlement. The last reminder in one or two of these cases was sent very recently, and we shall certainly not let this lapse; I can promise that.

Thirdly, if all else fails, is there any chance of an ex gratia payment? Here it would not be right for me to say anything except that I am afraid that that really is out of the question. The Government and this country have no liability at all. We have looked at this matter in great detail to see whether there was some way but there is no way in which an ex gratia 702 payment can be made. The comfort I would offer to the hon. Member and also to his unfortunate constituent, is that—as the hon. Member will hear in a minute—all else has not failed, even now.

So much for the background questions the hon. Member asked; now for a little detail. The first specific claim Mr. Bressey makes concerns this alleged assault by Russian soldiers, the result, said the hon. Member, of undisciplined brutality. The Foreign Office knew of that complaint at the end of 1953 and not before. We told Mr. Bressey, as we were bound to do, that this was not a matter for the Hungarian Government—that is the first point to be made—and we doubted whether a claim could be established against the Soviet Government at so late a date. The hon. Member asked if there was any record of this; there is not.

There is no record of this incident either at the Foreign Office or at Her Majesty's Legation at Budapest. We have, however, just managed—only just managed—to trace Major Mackenzie. Our discovery of him is so recent that I am unable yet to say anything, further than that we shall try to see whether this officer can remember anything about this incident. As the hon. Member told the House, he was a member of the British Military Mission from early 1946 to the middle of 1947. He has now left the Army but we have found him after considerable search and I hope we may be able to find out a little more from him as a result. It think that I had better leave that aspect alone now. The hon. Member will realise that it would be pointless for me to talk of further approaches to the Soviet Government and so on—though there have been none yet—until we have cleared this up a little further, if that be possible.

Then there is the question of the claim for his house and contents which were damaged by the bombing during the war. This claim is made under the Treaty of Peace with Hungary and, as the hon. Member said, an arrangement has been arrived at through Notes exchanged between Her Majesty's Government and the Hungarian Government in August of this year in which the Hungarian Government affirmed an intention to settle claims arising from the Peace Treaty and also claims arising from the nationalisa- 703 tion and expropriation of British property. The Hungarians told us that, because of the low level of the Hungarian sterling earnings, they cannot make any payment of outstanding claims at present. But they have agreed to begin negotiations on or before 1st September, 1955, for settlement in respect of their debts and of the claims of British subjects.

The next claim to which I should like to refer—I may not have these claims in the same order as they were mentioned by the hon. Member, but he will not mind that—concerns the two mature life insurance policies for 3,000 dollars. They are with a Hungarian insurance company. In this case the Foreign Office advised Mr. Bressey on 15th March to apply to the Foreign Compensation Commission, which is the body dealing with these claims, and to register a claim for compensation from the Hungarian Government for the expropriation of these policies.

This advice was based on a report from Her Majesty's Legation at Budapest that the insurance companies were nationalised in 1948. In fact, the Commission are holding this application is suspense because the various Hungarian measures of expropriation listed in the Schedule of Foreign Compensation (Hungarian Registration) Order, 1954, do not include any decree nationalising the insurance companies. When the Hungarian delegation were here in the summer, they were asked to clear up the position. We have 704 reminded them again and are watching the matter carefully. If it be necessary, another reminder will be sent.

I come now to the matter of the pension. The hon. Member told us that it was granted by the Budapest City Council to Mr. Bressey from 1948, and ceased when he left Hungary. The subsequent history is that our delegation addressed a Note to the Hungarian Government in February requesting that, on humanitarian grounds, the pension should be reinstated with arrears and payment made in sterling. The Hungarian Government replied on 20th May that the matter had been referred to the competent authorities, and I have just been informed that the Hungarian Government have told Her Majesty's Minister in Budapest that they are disposed to regard Mr. Bressey's pension appeal favourably on humanitarian grounds, even though under their law pensions are not paid to people outside the country. It will take some time to work out the details, but a definitive reply in writing will be sent to us as soon as possible. I hope that, with this last piece of news, the hon. Member will be able to feel that he can tell Mr. Bressey that all is not lost.