§ 2.35 p.m.
§ 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 Her Majesty's Government—
- (1) whether any further representations have been made to the Soviet Government in protest against its practice of kidnapping;
- (2) by how far the number of those kidnapped from the British sector in Berlin exceeds one hundred; and
- (3) whether the British Government has made it plain to the Soviet Government that few will believe in its repudiation of Stalin unless his methods are repudiated by the immediate release of these people.]
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE MARQUESS OF READING)My Lords, the answer to the first part of the noble Lord's question is that protests or enquiries have been made in respect of individual cases of kidnapping and Her Majesty's Government have frequently urged the Soviet Government to take steps to put an end to these activities. No new cases are known to have arisen in the British Sector in the last four months. The answer to the second part of the Question is that, as far as I have been able to ascertain from the British records available, the number of cases since the end of the war in which individuals in the British Sector of Berlin have either been arrested illegally and removed to the Soviet Sector, or have disappeared in suspicious circumstances, is 103.
As regards the third part of the question, Her Majesty's Government have made it clear, on all appropriate occasions, that they greatly deplore these activities, which are inconsistent with the 414 desire expressed by the Soviet Government for a relaxation of tension.
§ LORD VANSITTARTMy Lords, I thank the noble Marquess for his extremely full and satisfactory reply. May I hope that the representations will be earnestly pressed so that the subject is not allowed to go to sleep in any way?