§ Sir R. GOWERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, seeing that, under the Treaty signed on 10th September, 1919, at Saint Germain-en-Laye between the British Empire, the United States of America, France, Italy, Japan, and Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovakia undertook to constitute the Ukrainian territory known generally as Podkarpatska Rus as an autonomous unit within the Czechoslovak State, to 710W create a special Diet, and that officials in that territory should be chosen as far as possible from the inhabitants, he will state what steps have been taken to carry out these provisions; and, if none have been taken, whether any action is being taken or has been proposed?
§ Sir J. SIMONArticles 10 to 13 of the treaty to which my hon. Friend refers, relating to the autonomy of sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, are incorporated in paragraph 3 of the Constitutional Charter of the Czechoslovak Republic. Administrative effect has in fact already been given to Articles 12 and 13, which provide respectively for the choice of officials as far as possible from among the inhabitants of the territory and for the representation of Ruthenia in the Czechoslovak Legislative Assembly. The Czechoslovak Government, while freely admitting that they have not yet found it possible to give effect to Articles 10 and 11, have more than once announced their intention to do so as soon as the territory in question is economically Capable of supporting an autonomous administration. This question has been considered by Minorities Committees of the Council of the League of Nations on several occasions, the most recent of which was in December, 1933. The report the Committee then issued made it clear that in their opinion the Czechoslovak Government could be relied on to execute in full the provisions of the Treaty as soon as practical difficulties had been overcome which consist in or arise out of the very poor and backward state of the country.