HL Deb 31 July 1958 vol 211 cc573-5

3.15 p.m.

LORD SILKIN

My 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 will state what help they are prepared to give to former British residents in Egypt evicted therefrom in 1951]

THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (VISCOUNT HAILSHAM)

My Lords, although the noble Lord's Question is somewhat more generally framed, I take it that he refers to the former British officials of the Egyptian Government who were dismissed from their posts in 1951 and subsequently left Egypt. As the noble Lord is aware, Her Majesty's Government have been urging a settlement of those officials' claims in the Anglo-Egyptian financial talks, and will continue to seek it in that framework.

LORD SILKIN

My Lords, are Her Majesty's Government not prepared to give some help to those individuals who, through no fault of their own, have been dismissed and are in great financial difficulties? Are they leaving it entirely to what can be extracted from the Egyptians?

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

My Lords, nobody is left entirely in that way in this country, as the noble Lord knows. In this case, maintenance allowances on the grounds of hardship have been granted by the Anglo-Egyptian Resettlement Board, and where reckonable assets are in the ownership of the persons concerned they have been considered for loans under the loans scheme.

VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGH

My Lords, is the noble Viscount aware that we are receiving specific cases and instances of very great hardship? I should have thought, in view of all the relations we have had in the Egyptian questions over the last six or seven years the Government would have been prepared to give special consideration to these cases.

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

My Lords, I cannot see that they are entitled to more consideration than the others who have to go to the Anglo-Egyptian Resettlement Board. Maybe they are not entitled to less.

VISCOUNT ALEXAN DER OF HILLSBOROUGH

My Lords, may we be told whether they are receiving any grants at all from the Anglo-Egyptian Resettlement Board?

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

As I have already told the noble Viscount, maintenance allowances on the grounds of hardship have been given.

LORD KILLEARN

My Lords, is the noble and learned Viscount aware that according to a Press report published in the Financial Times last Monday the Egyptian Government have broken off negotiations in Rome indefinitely?

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

I cannot take responsibility for the accuracy of a Press report.

LORD KILLEARN

My Lords, the noble and learned Viscount told me, in answer to a Question on Monday, that the whole matter depended on negotiations with the Egyptians. Does he not know whether these negotiations are proceeding or not? It seems very peculiar.

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

My Lords, I told the noble Lord the Answer to that Question the last time he asked it, which was less than a week ago.

LORD KILLEARN

My Lords, I am sorry to pursue this, but I do not think the noble and learned Viscount did. I have not the Record here, but I do not think he said, one way or the other, that the negotiations in Rome were going on now or had been suspended. I ask simply: Have they been suspended?

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

My Lords, I gave the noble Lord the exact position, so far as I knew it, less than a week ago, and I should like to refer him to my Answer then.

LORD SILKIN

My Lords, I should like to ask the noble Viscount whether he does not appreciate that the answers he has given are entirely unsatisfactory and to say that we shall return to the attack at the earliest possible moment?

VISCOUNT HAILSHAM

My Lords, I do not consider my answers unsatisfactory, and the noble Lord is perfectly free to return to the attack as often as he likes.

VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGH

My Lords, I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Killearn, will as well. We thought it very unwise of him to leave it without going to a Division on the previous occasion, when, in spite of assurances, we received an entirely unsatisfactory answer.

LORD REA

My Lords, if the noble Viscount, Lord Alexander of Hillsborough, proposes to lead his Party in this attack, may I assure him of support from the Liberal Benches?