§ Mr. GOULDasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in respect of the working of the Reparations Committee, he will state the number of applications he has received from widows who have lost their husbands through enemy action whilst engaged in the mercantile marine; whether any sum has yet been secured from Germany for this purpose; and whether, in the allocation of such reparations, those widows in pressing need should get precedence?
§ Viscount WOLMERThe number of claims registered in the Reparation Claims Department by widows of merchant seamen, including fishermen, who lost their lives through enemy action during the War, is 3,545. The answer to the second part of the question is in the negative. The answer to the last part of the question is in the affirmative, and I would refer the hon. Member to the 2023W answer given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the hon. and gallant Member for Leith (Captain W. Benn) on the 27th November.