§ 3.14 p.m.
§ LORD SNELLMy Lords, I beg to ask His Majesty's Government a question of which I have given them Private Notice—namely, whether they have any statement to make about the reported 371 negotiations with Herr Wohltat in London on behalf of the German Government.
§ VISCOUNT HALIFAXMy Lords, I assume that the noble Lord is referring to reports that have been in circulation during the last few days arising out of a conversation between the Secretary to the Department of Overseas Trade and Herr Wohltat, Economic Adviser to Field Marshal Goering, the Minister in charge of the German Four-Year Plan. Herr Wohltat was, I understand, on a visit to this country as the German representative on the Whaling Conference: it is also part of his responsibilities to discuss matters arising out of the refugees question. So far as I am aware, Herr Wohltat's mission did not extend beyond these matters. In the course of other visits in recent years to this country, Herr Wohltat has met a number of officials and others who are concerned with trade and economic questions affecting the two countries, consideration of these matters forming part of Herr Wohltat's normal duties. It was accordingly in no sense unusual that my right honourable friend the Secretary to the Department of Overseas Trade and Herr Wohltat should meet and should discuss subjects in which they are mutually interested and for which in their official capacities they are respectively responsible.
My right honourable friend has reported to me that the conversation turned to the steps that might be taken to produce an improvement in the foreign trade of the principal manufacturing countries. In this connection, my right honourable friend, pointing out that a solution of the political question was a necessary preliminary (by which, of course, he meant a restoration of international confidence) discussed what might be done to remove existing barriers to the development of international trade, including barter agreements, exchange restrictions, import quotas and so forth. Discussion of economic questions of this character led on to discussion of the financial steps that might have to be taken to overcome the initial difficulties and my right honourable friend (who throughout emphasized that he was only expressing a personal view, and having in mind the stipulation that restoration of international confidence is a necessary preliminary) 372 said he thought that assuming that international confidence had been restored there should be scope for co-operation on this matter on the part of the principal countries concerned. It will be seen from this account that there is no justification whatever for stating or for assuming that these remarks, arising in the course of a purely unofficial conversation, constitute a proposal for a loan by this country to Germany.
§ 3.18 p.m.
§ LORD SNELLMy Lords, I should like to ask further, if I may, a supplementary question—namely, how this presumably confidential conversation between a member of His Majesty's Government and the representative of another Power got into the Press, and I should like, secondly, to ask whether any civil servant was in any way connected with the inquiries or the discussions that have taken place.
§ VISCOUNT HALIFAXMy Lords, with regard to the noble Lord's first question as to how a report of this conversation got into the Press, I should be extremely grateful if he could tell me. With regard to his second question, as to whether any civil servant was connected with this conversation, the answer, as far as I am aware, is in the negative.
LORD STRABOLGIMy Lords, may I add this to what my noble friend has asked the noble Viscount in this matter? In his reply the noble Viscount was good enough to say that on previous occasions Herr Wohltat, who is I presume a civil servant himself, had had conversations with civil servants in this country. It has been mentioned in the Press, as my noble friend has indicated, that he has had conversations with a very highly placed civil servant. The question to which I should be glad to have an answer—if I may be allowed to put it—is this: Would it be possible for negotiations of this sort to take place—supposing they had taken place, as has been stated in certain newspapers, I have no doubt inaccurately—would it be possible for this to happen without the knowledge of the noble Viscount himself and his Department?
§ VISCOUNT HALIFAXMy Lords, the noble Lord has asked me a hypothetical question, and perhaps I can best answer 373 it by reference to the practical case. In this particular case it was conveyed to me immediately by my right honourable friend long before it became public that he had had a general conversation arising out of his own sphere of responsibility with Herr Wohltat, and that the conversation, which he had pursued on a purely personal and unofficial basis, had ranged over a wider field; and therefore, in so far as the immediate and practical may be a guide to the hypothetical, I hope that the noble Lord will derive a measure of reassurance from what I have told him.