§ LORD VANSITTARTMy 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 why retaliation has been enfeebled by allowing the British Czechoslovak Friendship League to continue to function.]
§ LORD HENDERSONMy Lords, the British Czechoslovak Friendship League is not an official Czechoslovak organisation but a British institution with British executive officers. It is therefore in a different position from organs of the Czechoslovak Embassy. His Majesty's Government consider that the Czechoslovak Government's action in suppressing British cultural and information activities in Prague, despite the terms of the Anglo-Czechoslovak Cultural Convention, has abundantly revealed their true attitude towards Anglo-Czechoslovak cultural collaboration. They trust that all British subjects associated with the League will draw appropriate conclusions from this fact. A close watch is being kept on the activities of the League.
§ LORD VANSITTARTMy Lords, was not this the organisation from which Sir William Lawther resigned on the ground that, as he put it, it was a "stooge of the 384 Cominform"?—in which I think he was right. And was not the secretary fairly recently expelled for illicit activities? Is it not also subsidised by the Czechoslovak Government? And finally, does it not distribute an organ called Czechoslovak Life, when we have no such facilities in Czechoslovakia at all? In all the circumstances, does this really amount to retaliation at all?
§ LORD HENDERSONMy Lords, I have said that the British-Czechoslovak Friendship League is a British institution and I should doubt very much whether action could be taken against it unless it committed a breach of British law.
§ LORD VANSITTARTBut, my Lords, this is still not retaliation, because they have something here which we have not there.