§ 2.35 p.m.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their attention has been called to the case of Baron Mocsonyi-Styrcea who rendered valuable assistance to the Allies during the war, and is now undergoing a sentence in Roumania of 15 years hard labour for alleged political offences; and whether they will bring this case to the notice of the Soviet leaders who have recently indicated their desire to improve relations and to rectify injustices where they have occurred.]
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE MARQUESS OF READING)My Lords, in April, 1954, Baron Mocsonyi-Styrcea was, along with ten others, sentenced at a mass trial to imprisonment for high treason. As the noble Lord may recall, an account was published in the British Press at the time. Baron Styrcea's opposition to dictatorship, Nazi or Communist, is indeed on record both when he was King Michael's Marshal of the Palace and later under the Communist régime. With regard to the second part of the noble Lord's Question, I cannot give any indication as to the matters that may or may not be raised in the current talks with the Soviet leaders. But I am afraid that this is not an isolated case. The release in the last few days of a number of other political prisoners in Roumania gives perhaps some grounds for hoping that Baron Styrcea may be granted a similar amnesty.
LORD PAKENHAMMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Marquess for his 1156 courteous reply. Would he agree, however, that British public opinion will tend to judge the professions of the Soviet leaders by the extent to which they show justice and mercy in cases of this kind? Would he agree that perhaps the general attitude of the people of this country who desire friendship with the Soviet Union is:
By their fruits ye shall know them"?
THE MARQUESS OF READINGI would not dispute the general principle conveyed in the noble Lord's supplementary observation.
§ LORD SHERWOODMy Lords, may I ask the noble Marquess if he realises that this is not a Party issue; it is a national issue? I hope he will not forget that the releasing of these people is not a Party matter.
THE MARQUESS OF READINGFrankly, I cannot conceive what elicited that interjection. There is no thought, I am sure, in the mind of the noble Lord. Lord Pakenham, or in my mind, that there is any Party aspect of this; nor did any Party aspect appear either in the terms of the Question or in the terms of my reply.