§ 2.42 p.m.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ ask Her Majesty's Government whether the statement issued in the Press of June 8, to the effect that the War Office had requested the Oxford 1044 University Press to receive Dr. Gruessner of the Geographical Department of the West German Foreign Office to discuss the frontiers as delineated in a recently published Atlas of Central Europe, is correct: and, if so, whether this action by the War Office is consistent with the reply reported to have been made to the German Ambassador on this matter by the Foreign Office, and what is the standing of the War Office therein.]
LORD FAIRFAX OF CAMERONMy Lords, the War Office did not request the Oxford University Press to discuss the delineation of frontiers with Dr. Gruessner and the inconsistency mentioned in the second half of the noble Lord's Question does not therefore arise. They were, however, in touch with the Oxford University Press to ensure that the time of Dr. Gruessner's visit to Oxford about this did not clash with a visit to the War Office to discuss quite different matters.
LORD FARINGDONMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his reply. I need hardly say that I am much relieved by his Answer, which. I assume I am right in concluding, clearly indicates that there is no implication that the German inquiry has received any support from Her Majesty's Government. I should be grateful if the Government could assure me that, like myself, they consider such interventions by the German Government profoundly disquieting to the other countries in Europe. I should hope that Her Majesty's Government would find it possible to express to the German Government our anxieties on this kind of point and our hopes that the German Government will see fit to accept things as they are, especially in view of the fact that there are now an appreciable number of Germans east of the Oder-Neisse line.
LORD FAIRFAX OF CAMERONMy Lords, the noble Lord's supplementary question is a little outside the terms of the original Question. Perhaps I can best reply to it by saying that an approach was made to the Foreign Office by the German Embassy about the manner in which the Oder-Neisse line is shown in certain British atlases. While the Government's view is that this line remains provisional, pending the conclusion of a peace treaty, the German Embassy was 1045 told that the Foreign Office could not intervene in a matter which was entirely one for the publishers of the atlas.