§ 2.49 p.m.
§ LORD CHERWELLMy 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 for details of the £900,000,000 which the Chancellor of the Exchequer said the United Kingdom had provided since the war to stimulate world trade and help forward world recovery, more especially the amounts given or loaned to each individual country, and 192 if possible, the dates on which these gifts or loans were made; and also whether they will state the amount of the sterling balances standing to the credit of the different countries at the end of the war; the extent to which each country has drawn on these balances; the amounts which they are still entitled to draw under existing agreements; and the amounts still standing to their credit.]
THE MINISTER OF CIVIL AVIATION (LORD PAKENHAM)My Lords, the figure of approximately £900,000,000 quoted by my right honourable and learned friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer relates to gifts, loans and drawing rights made available by the United Kingdom to other countries since the war. With permission, I will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT a list giving details of these transactions. Since most of them took place over a period of time, it is not possible to give dates. With regard to the last part of the Question, I regret that I cannot disclose our sterling liabilities to individual countries or changes in them.
§
Following is the list referred to:
Since the end of the war the United Kingdom has made available the following sums in gifts, loans, and drawing rights.
| Gifts | £ million |
| U.N.R.R.A | 155 |
| I.R.O | 11.2 |
| Civil Affairs (not recoverable) | 49 |
| Greece, Armed Forces initial equipment, maintenance, etc | 31 |
| Greece, Surplus stores and relief supplies | 2 |
| Poland, Welfare and Social Services, June, 1946—March, 1947 | 5 |
| Poland, Surplus stores | 6 |
| Austria: Before 1st April, 1946 | 10 |
| Post U.N.R.R.A | 7.5 |
| Surplus machine tools | 0.125 |
| Hungary: Surplus machine tools | 0.2 |
| Italy: estimated value of surplus stores in excess of payments under financial agreement | 55 |
| Netherlands: Military equipment and surpluses, estimated portion in excess of payment under Debt settlement | 16 |
| Rumania: Medical supplies and surplus army foodstuffs | 0.02 |
| U.N. fund for Arab refugees in Palestine | 1 |
| Ex-Italian Colonies: Cost of administration | 12 |
| Burma: Cancellation of debt | 15 |
| B.M.A. expenditure (cancelled claim) | 23 |
| Total (say) | 400 |
| Loans and Recoverable Aid | |
| £ million | |
| Civil Affairs (recoverable) | 50 |
| France: | |
| Financial Agreement | 100 |
| Private credit | 15 |
| Denmark: Financial Agreement | 35 |
| Germany: Cost of supplying German civil economy | 194 |
| Netherlands: Military equipment and surpluses—estimated relative portion of total payment agreed under Debt Settlement | 25 |
| Greece: Stabilisation Loan | 10 |
| Burma: | |
| Loan and credits since 1945 (less amounts forgiven) | 27 |
| Stores supplied against later repayment | 9 |
| Miscellaneous (say) | 20 |
| Total | 485 |
| Drawing Rights exercised to June 30, 1949 | |||||
| £ million | |||||
| Austria | … | … | … | … | 6.2 |
| France | … | … | … | … | 46.4 |
| Greece | … | … | … | … | 6.0 |
| Bizone | … | … | … | … | 0.9 |
| Turkey | … | … | … | … | 2.0 |
| 61.5 |
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, arising out of the answer on the first item of £900,000,000 which has been given to other countries, may I ask the noble Lord on what ground of public policy or security we are precluded from knowing what drawings have taken place?
LORD PAKENHAMMy Lords, I was asked in the second part of the Question to inform the noble Lord the amount of the sterling balances standing to the credit of the different countries at the end of the war. I should have thought that the noble Viscount, Lord Swinton, who has had great experience of administration and government, would realise that it would be most unwise to publish information of that character.
§ LORD CHERWELLMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for promising the figures giving the distribution of the £900,000,000. I have no doubt it will be ascertainable from those figures how much of it is due to conditional aid. Is the noble Lord able to tell me in what part of the Economic Survey these figures appear? Presumably, as they are important and large figures, they must appear somewhere in the Economic Survey, which purports to give a balance sheet. As to the second part of the Question, I must 194 say that I agree with lay noble friend Lord Swinton that it is an extraordinary thing that the Government refuse to tell the country what their debts are to the various countries, and to what extent those debts have been paid off. We were told at the end of the war that they amounted to £3,000,000,000, or something over that amount. I think we were even given figures at that time showing how much was owing to the various countries. Anything that is paid off represents unrequited exports from this country. Surely, when we are asked to make a united effort to increase exports and balance our trade, the country is entitled to know how much is going in unrequited exports, to which countries these are going and which debts they go to discharge.
LORD PAKENHAMMy Lords, the noble Lord has thinly disguised a little speech in the form of a question. There will be a full economic debate next week, in which I lave been invited to take part, and I imagine the nobly Lord will also participate in that debate. I should have thought that was the time to raise this question, rather than now.
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, if we are to have an informed debate in this House, is it not the duty of the Government—as, indeed, was the course pursued by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in another place—to give all relevant information in regard to the matter?