§ 2.38 p.m.
§ LORD RUSSELL OF LIVERPOOLMy 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 whether they are prepared to give an undertaking that they will not agree to the German archives which were captured by the Allies in 1945, and in particular the German Foreign Office Documents, being handed over to the Federal German Government without their being first micro-filmed.]
THE MARQUESS OF READINGMy Lords, the German archives captured in 1945 are held jointly by Her Majesty's Government and the United States Government. All the principal archives of the German Foreign Office for the years after 1918 have been, or will be, microfilmed. A large number have already 706 appeared in the officially sponsored volumes of Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, and further volumes are due to appear in this series. It will also be possible, owing to the generosity of private sponsors, to microfilm all the more important documents of the German Foreign Office for the years before 1918, before they are returned to the Federal Government. The return of the Foreign Ministry archives to the Federal Government will be completed, under an arrangement recently concluded with the Federal Government, by the end of 1958. As regards the captured German documents which do not emanate from the German Foreign Office, microfilms of the great majority of them have already been made. No negotiations have yet taken place with the Federal Government about their return.
§ LORD RUSSELL OF LIVERPOOLMy Lords, may I thank the noble Marquess for his reply.