HL Deb 21 May 1935 vol 96 cc987-8
LORD BENNELL

My Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:—To ask His Majesty's Government whether their attention has been drawn to the allegation made in the Italian Press that Britain is "equally guilty with France, Belgium and Czechoslovakia" in sending war materials to Abyssina or allowing them to pass through their territories, and whether His Majesty's Government have reason to believe there is any justification for such an allegation.]

THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (EARL STANHOPE)

My Lords, I am glad that the noble Lord has raised a matter in regard to which the Italian Press is evidently imperfectly informed. As is well known, the export of arms and munitions of war from the United Kingdom is very strictly controlled in the sense that every consignment so exported, even though it may but amount to one individual revolver, must be covered by an export licence issued by the Board of Trade. When applications for licences are made, each is most carefully considered on its merits, consideration being given, amongst other things, to (1) the nature of the consignment, (2) the consignor, (3) the conditions obtaining in the country to which the arms are intended to be exported, and other factors which may bear upon the situation. In these circumstances, His Majesty's Government are always in a position to know when war material is being exported from the United Kingdom and to what particular destination it is being shipped.

In the specific case of Ethiopia, no applications for export licences in respect of war material ordered by the Abyssinian Government have been made for a considerable period of months; none in fact since before the present tension between Italy and Ethiopia unhappily became acute as a result of the Walwal incident of December 5 last. Nor, so far as His Majesty's Government are aware, has any such material from foreign countries passed across British territory adjacent to Ethiopia on its way to Abyssinia. I am, therefore, at a loss to understand on what basis the allegations which have lately been published in the Italian Press have been made.