CZECHOSLOVAK REFUGEE FUND (Hansard, 17 December 1968)

§ BARONESS ELLIOT OF HARWOOD
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ LORD STONHAM
My Lords, I understand that the sum at present remaining in the Czechoslovak Refugee Fund amounts to about £27,000. Under the provisions of the Czechoslovak (Financial Claims and Refugees) Act 1940, issues are made from the Fund to the trustees of the Czechoslovak Refugee Trust, to be expended by them in assisting the emigration and settlement of refugees. I understand that the balance at present in the hands of the trustees amounts to about £120,000.
I do not think it would in present circumstances be appropriate to use the resources of the Fund for the benefit of Czechoslovaks who are in this country following the events of last August. It would be wrong to regard them as refugees. They came here with valid Czechoslovak travel papers. Many have already returned to Czechoslovakia and many more may well decide to do so. It would be wrong to do anything which might restrict their freedom to choose whether to return to their own country.
I should like to pay tribute to the many voluntary organisations and private 704 individuals who have so generously helped Czechoslovak nationals in this country. A contribution of £15,000 has been made from public funds towards the Czechoslovak Student Scholarship Fund under the chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Murray of Newhaven.

§ BARONESS ELLIOT OF HARWOOD
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord very much for that interesting reply. Could he find out, or does he know, whether the £27,000 in the hands of the trustees is being currently spent on refugees of, presumably, the 1940 era, which is a very long time ago, and whether in fact there are sufficient claims on that sum, ignoring the 1968 refugees? If there are not, would it not be a good idea to give the British Council for Refugees grants from that fund for refugees with whom it is dealing to-day? The British Council for Refugees is the organisation that deals with all the main refugee organisations. I am anxious that this fund of £27,000 should not just remain with nobody claiming it, since it dates back twenty or thirty years.

§ LORD STONHAM
My Lords, I do not know whether the noble Baroness is speaking of refugees other than Czechoslovaks. In other words, I am assuming we are in agreement that the Czechoslovaks who came here in August are not refugees. I can confirm that the money being spent by the trustees is being spent mainly on immigration and other matters for the Czechoslovak refugees of 1940, and, indeed, earlier in the pre-war Hitler years. What the noble Baroness is now proposing is that the trust should be wound up and that any funds remaining should be devoted to other refugee purposes. I can only tell her that there is no present intention of winding up the Trust. At present, the Czechoslovaks in this country are not refugees in the normal sense, and in our view, the point has not yet arrived when the proposition that she now puts can be considered.

§ BARONESS ELLIOT OF HARWOOD
My Lords, while I thank the noble Lord very much for that reply, I am anxious that when, as sometimes happens, money is collected for a particular purpose and it is not all spent, it does not hang on for a very long time. I am anxious that 705 the Home Office, if that situation arises, will take some action.

§ LORD STONHAM
My Lords, in order to clear up any misunderstanding, I would assure the noble Baroness that the financial resources of the Trust, which of course are not very large—it is a sizeable sum of money, but not very large—are fully committed by its existing obligations. It still owns a number of properties which it is disposing of, or seeking to dispose of, to local housing authorities, but at the moment the position is far too uncertain, too fluid, to consider anything of the kind that she has in mind. Perhaps the noble Baroness might return to the subject at a future date.