§ LORD KILLEARNMy 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, in the light of developments in the Middle East, they still maintain that they cannot utilise the Egyptian blocked sterling balances amounting to some ninety million pounds for the satisfaction of the claims of British subjects dispossessed of their assets and means of livelihood through British policy towards Egypt in 1956; or whether they still place such confidence in Colonel Nasser in connection with the hitherto abortive negotiations in Rome as to justify the non-settlement of these claims.]
§ THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (VISCOUNT HAILSHAM)My Lords, in answer to the first part of the Question of the noble Lord, Lord Killearn, there has been no change in the policy of Her Majesty's Government in this regard. In answer to the second part of the Question, I hope that it may be possible before long to make progress with these negotiations, to which, in my judgment, it is inappropriate to apply the word "abortive".
§ LORD KILLEARNMy Lords, I thank the noble and] earned Viscount for that Answer, and I should like to raise three points thereon. First, am I right in thinking that these credits are drawn from the British taxpayers' pocket? 239 Secondly, are not these credits due to our having saved the national existence of Egypt with this money? Thirdly, is it not incongruous to be too punctilious in regard to the application of these credits to Egypt, and at the same time to be definitely "sticky" towards the claims of our own innocent victims of our policy in Suez in 1956?
§ VISCOUNT HAILSHAMMy Lords, the answer to the first two parts of the question is that these balances are balances, as it were, for the credit of the account of the Egyptian Government with us as bankers. In answer to the last part of the question, I could not accept the implications of the noble Lord's rather tendentious remarks.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I notice that this Question refers to the people who were expelled in 1956. Are the Government still considering what they will do for those people expelled from 1951 onwards?
§ VISCOUNT HAILSHAMMy Lords, I answered that question in reply to the noble Lord, Lord Silkin, to whom I said a few days ago that if a special Question directed towards that separate class of claimant were addressed to me, I should be happy to see it on the Paper.