HC Deb 27 July 1951 vol 491 cc114-5W
Mr. Deer

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can give any information about the payment of pensions by the Argentine Government to the British railway pensioners.

Mr. Ernest Davies

The following is the text of a letter addressed on 23rd April to my hon. Friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury on the part of the Argentine Government. His Majesty's Ambassador at Buenos Aires has since maintained close contact with the competent Argentine authorities in order to bring about an early solution of such administrative difficulties as are still preventing the former British railway employees from receiving their pensions.

Your Excellency,

We have the honour to address Your Excellency in order to inform you that, in accordance with the wishes expressed by the British Delegation in the course of the recent negotiations, the Argentine Government has resolved

  1. (a) to consider favourably the periodic renewal of permits to continue residing in the United Kingdom of railway pensioners and the widows of pensioners (who are British subjects) of the former British rail way companies who are at present resident in the United Kingdom, as well as those applications which are at present under consideration by the competent authorities;
  2. (b) to consider favourably applications made as from the present date by railway pensioners and the widows of pensioners (British subjects) of the former British railway companies who are at present resident in the Argentine Republic and express the intention of settling in the United Kingdom;
  3. (c) to issue authorizations of an exceptional character for the remittance of rail way pensions up to the equivalent of 1,000 Argentine pesos per month. These authorizations will also include remittances due to pensioners which, owing to the expiry of the latter's permits to reside in the United Kingdom, it has not been possible to make;
  4. (d) to consider as from the present date specially and individually, remittances in those cases where the amount of pension is in excess of 1,000 Argentine pesos a month. The British Embassy in Buenos Aires will submit to the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic with 60 days of the present date a list of the persons referred to above so far as known to them. They will thereafter inform the Central Bank of other such cases as they arise and become known to them;
  5. (e) The remittances to which reference is made under headings (c) and (d) will in all cases be made at the rate of exchange prevailing on the free market at the moment when the relevant operations take place.

We avail ourselves etc.

Alfredo Gomez Morales

R.A. Ares.