REFUGEES IN TANGIER.

HL Deb 16 December 1925 vol 62 cc1557-61

LORD LAMINGTON had given Notice to ask His Majesty's Government for information as to the number and condition of refugees in Tangier, and if the report is correct that the French Government would not be indisposed to help; whether His Majesty's Government will not approach the French and Spanish Governments to take joint action with ourselves to supply relief to the sufferers; and to move for Papers.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, this Question refers to a subject which I raised last July in your Lordships' House. At that time the noble Earl, Lord Balfour, said the Government could not entertain any system of general relief for refugees throughout the world. Since that date the British Red Crescent Society, with which I am connected, have been doing their utmost to give relief to these refugees in Tangier. Our funds were practically exhausted. The Society of Friends took up this philanthropic work, and have been administering relief to these unfortunate people. In this connection I may mention that Sir Charles Hobhouse, at the request of the League of Nations Union, went out to Tangier, accompanied by Miss Fry, of the Society of Friends, to see the actual conditions prevailing there.

I presume that his statement adequately represents the present position. In the journal Headway, published by the League of Nations Union, there is an article written by him in the course of which he says that he and Miss Fry, who had been examining the conditions there, agreed that though just previous to our visit hunger-typhus had been prevalent and fatal, the refugees were suffering from privation, and ill-feeding rather than from actual famine. But we were also agreed that only the relief food stood between these miserables and famine, and that if funds failed, as they threatened to do, the end could not be very far distant. I said in July last, and I repeat now, that we are partly responsible for these refugees in Tangier being in their present distressful condition. In 1904 the three great Powers, France, Spain and Great Britain, came to some agreement concerning what was practically a partition of Morocco. It was an old-fashioned plan of taking other people's territory to satisfy the rivalries of those who made the agreement. I hope that such a thing would not be possible in these days, when we have the League of Nations to prevent the adoption of any such policy at the expense of small nationalities.

Meanwhile, that policy was adopted and the result has been a condition of practically continuous warfare ever since. Old men, women and children, having been subjected to bombardment by aeroplanes, in constant peril of their lives and in a condition more or less of starvation, betook themselves to Tangier, where it was better for them, even if they starved, than to be living in immediate danger of losing their lives. This is not merely my opinion, but it is the opinion of Sir Charles Hobhouse, whom I know to be a very reasonable man. In the article from which I have already quoted he states: Let me sum up the position as it presents itself to me. Until England, France and Spain partitioned Morocco, and subsequently obtained European approval of the division, hunger and want was neither general nor permanent amongst the Moorish tribes. To-day over some 20,000 square miles of Morocco fighting and privation and destruction is practically permanent and general. The refugees are the visible material result. Surely, therefore, it cannot be contended that these refugees are not in Tangier owing to the policy adopted in 1904.

I remember that the noble Earl, Lord Balfour, asked me whether I would rather see Morocco as it then was than as it is to-day. The condition of Morocco itself has nothing to do with the question. The point is that there are these 6,000 people in Tangier who are on the verge of starvation, and I think I am justified in raising this matter again, not only on the ground of philanthropy but because Sir Charles Hobhouse sheds a ray of hope upon it when he says that the French Government are not indisposed to help if England and Spain will co-operate. I hope that my noble friend who replies may be able to tell your Lordships that some step has been taken by which these three great Powers will give some miserable sum—a few hundred pounds would almost save the situation—to assist these destitute people who are in Tangier consequent upon the policy adopted by those Powers themselves. Rightly or wrongly, the British Government in the past has joined with those who have produced these unfortunate results. In making my Motion in your Lordships' House, I hope that some satisfactory assurance will come from the noble Earl that clemency will be shown to these people, because, as I have already stated, the funds of those societies which have been administering relief up to now are practically exhausted, as I understand it.

THE EARL OF CLARENDON

My Lords, here again I do not think I need detain your Lordships for very long in replying on behalf of my noble friend Lord Balfour, to the Question put to me by my noble friend Lord Lamington. As my noble friend points out, this Question was raised in July last. To a certain extent my noble friend has used more or less the same arguments as he used at that time, and I think all I need do in reply to that portion of his speech is to quote what was said by my noble friend Lord Balfour then. As I understand it the position has in no way altered since July. This is what the noble Earl, Lord Balfour, said on that occasion:— We cannot be responsible for misfortunes of which we are not the authors in districts which we do not govern, and I am sure, if my noble friend would consider the matter, he would see that we should be carrying out in a very unfortunate fashion our own responsibilities to our own people if we were to ask the British taxpayer to come to the assistance of these refugees. Applying myself to the answer which I have been authorised to give to my noble friend, I would inform him that the number of refugees at present in Tangier is something over 6,000.

They are housed in villages round Tangier, and relief is being distributed to them, as he has correctly stated, by British charitable associations. I am given to understand that there is no widespread epidemic prevailing at the present moment amongst these refugees and that their condition is as good as could possibly be expected in the circumstances. That, I might inform my noble friend, is borne out by a telegram received from our consul at Tangier, under date, I think, of December 11, in which he says that he actually was present at the distribution or relief to the refugees that very morning, that it was carried out under highly satisfactory conditions and in a most practicable manner, and that the condition of the refugees was as good as could be expected.

In reference to the question of any further assistance being given at the present moment, so far as I am aware the French Government have given no indication that they are prepared to take any action in that direction, and so far as His Majesty's Government are concerned they are of opinion that if there is to be any question of relief for these unfortunate people it is a matter for the International Administration of Tangier. In the concluding sentences of his speech my noble friend referred to certain statements made by Sir Charles Hobhouse. I am sorry that I have no information upon this subject, but I need hardly say that I will make representations to my noble friend Lord Balfour with a view to my noble friend Lord Lamington being given some reply at an early date on the point be made at the conclusion of his speech.

LORD LAMINGTON

My Lords I cannot say that I am satisfied with the answer of the noble Earl. He quoted one remark from the speech of the noble Earl, Lord Balfour, in July to the effect [...] we did not govern Tangier. That is so, but we are part administrators of Tangier and the people there are under this international tribunal to which my noble friend alluded at the close of his remarks. I do not presume that this international tribunal or International Administration has any funds of its own to give to the relief of these refugees and such relief must ever come from the Governments themselves. If the view of Sir Charles Hobhouse is not inaccurate, that the French Government is disposed to help and Spain also would co-operate, I ask that His Majesty's Government would themselves at least approach France and Spain and see whether they would not contribute something. A few hundreds of pounds is all that is wanted to relieve these people in these distressing circumstances.

Surely it is almost a scandal that three great Powers should disown responsibility for these people who have simply gone to the international zone to avoid the great dangers and perils that would have beset them if they had remained in their own homes. I think it is a scandal that three great Powers cannot do something, presuming, as I do, that the funds already alluded to are on the verge of exhaustion and that these 6,000 or more people are on the verge of starvation. I do ask the noble Earl that he will at least represent to the Foreign Office that they might ask the Governments of France and Spain to co-operate in this merciful work. If not, perhaps my noble friend Viscount Cecil of Chelwood might do something through the League of Nations. It seems to me a proper matter for them to take up if the Governments are so hardhearted and selfish as not to do philanthropic work of the very first moment.

Motion, by leave, withdrawn.