§ Captain BRASSasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the fact that the Government, in considering claims for damage during the late War, took into account the facilities which existed for insurance, recognise that, as no distinction was made in the treatment accorded to claimants for damage incurred outside this country, great hardship was thereby inflicted upon British claimants in Northern France and Belgium who had no opportunity of insuring, His Majesty's Government will, in the settlement of outstanding questions between the Allies, use every endeavour to come to an arrangement with France and Belgium for the award of compensation to these British subjects, as was done in the case of Belgian and French subjects by arrangement between those two Governments?
§ Mr. PONSONBYWhile His Majesty's Government sympathise with the position of British claimants in Northern France and Belgium, they fear it would be useless to reopen the question with the French and Belgian Governments. At the same 3125W time they do not feel justified in asking the British taxpayer to meet such claims in anticipation of reparation payments by the German Government.