§ 3. Mr. Liptonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why the instalment of £500,000 due from the Jordan Government last month for British stores and installations has been deferred till 1964.
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreThe Government of Jordan is one with which Her Majesty's Government have close and friendly relations, and when the Jordan Government decided to ask for deferment of the instalment due on the 1st May, 1958, Her Majesty's Government felt it reasonable to agree.
§ Mr. LiptonIs not the Minister aware that at this rate the total amount of £3 million still due to the British Government will never be repaid? Instead of expecting the British taxpayer to submit to one miserable fiasco after another in the Middle East, why not ask the Jordan Government to put the money they are not repaying to useful purposes, such as resettling Arab refugees or doing something else useful with it?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreWe believe that the Jordan Government are doing something useful with it. They are developing their country—and I do not accept the suggestion that this money will never be repaid.