§ 4.48 p.m.
VISCOUNT EUBANKMy Lords, my*Resolution is the last Notice on the Order Paper. I do not propose to proceed with it, but I should like to congratulate the noble Viscount on his most interesting and charming speech and his description of the Ruhr and, at the same time, to thank him for the reply which he made to my Motion. I was satisfied in nearly all respects if we are to assume that the Potsdam Resolutions are, and will be, carried out, but I was not so happy about his reply with regard to the transfer of machinery. Obviously from what the
See Column 329.356 noble Viscount told us, the Ruhr has been thoroughly bombed from the air, but there are other parts of Germany where there is still a great deal of machinery. We also know that a large number of factories were put underground, so that there must be a great deal of machinery in those factories. I ask the Government to pursue that particular point and to see if it is possible to transfer, kind for kind, if not the actual machinery, the enormous quantity of industrial machinery which was stolen, in particular from France, Belgium and Holland. With those few words, I beg leave to withdraw my Motion.
§ VISCOUNT STANSGATEMy Lords, I think that the points the noble Viscount raised were answered, as far as I was able to answer them, in what I said earlier in the evening. On the question of machinery it is a matter of identifiable restitution. The points he raised were certainly attended to with the care which was due to them.
§ Motion, by leave, withdrawn.