§ 25. Mr. George Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he is yet ready to announce his decisions on those matters raised by the Stevenson Report on the Crown Agents which he wished to consider further.
§ The Minister for Overseas Development (Mr. Richard Wood)I expect to make a statement within the next few weeks.
§ Mr. CunninghamWill the Minister confirm that, in addition to putting £1 million into Vehicle and General, massive moneys into English and continental properties and huge investments in property in Australia, it has now come to light that Crown Agents' money has gone, through the First National Finance Corporation, into the now notorious property empire of John Chalk and Timothy Gwyn-Jones? As the Minister is responsible for appointing the Crown Agents, and as those agents are using money which they have raised in their own right on the market as well as money deposited with them by overseas Governments, what will the Minister do to allay the justifiable concern about the disreputable purposes to which this money is being applied?
§ Mr. William HamiltonOh! The evidence is there.
§ Mr. WoodI have seen the report to which the hon. Gentleman has drawn my attention, and I suggest that he awaits my statement, which I am sure he will find interesting.