§ Sir B. REESasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that goods, the property of British firms, lying in Germany in the area occupied by the French, cannot be exported to England except under the licence of the French authorities, for which a payment of 10 per cent. of the value of the goods is required by them, and that if goods are exported under such licence, the German Government refuses to refund the 26 per cent. reparations duty which has, in the first instance, to be paid by the British firm to the British Government; that as a consequence British firms are penalised by being compelled to pay the 26 per cent. Reparations Duty themselves, instead of the German Government, or to leave their goods lying in Germany, and that great and irreparable loss has been, and is being, sustained; whether he will take steps to remove this abuse, and to allow such firms in the meantime to bring their goods to England, with liberty to defer payment of the 26 per cent. Reparations Duty until such time as the German Government again agree to refund the same; and whether he will request the French authorities to allow English goods to be exported by their owners without any interference, or the imposition of a tax of 10 per cent., or any tax?
§ Lieut.-Colonel BUCKLEYGoods subject to export licence requirement cannot be exported from any area of the occupied territory except on payment of export 1215W duty to the Franco-Belgian authorities. From the 1st May the uniform export duty of 10 per cent. is superseded by the rates of the German export tariff as it stood in October, 1921. No specific cases have been brought to my notice of the German Government having refused to refund the 26 per cent. reparation levy in respect of goods exported from the occupied territory to the United Kingdom, and the question of allowing British firms to defer payment of the reparation levy on goods imported from the occupied territory does not at present arise. I am not prepared to adopt the suggestion contained in the last part of the question, and the hon. Member will realise that the position is now different from that indicated by him.