HC Deb 11 December 1956 vol 562 c34W
Colonel Crosthwaite-Eyre

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1) what consultations have taken place between Her Majesty's Government and countries within the British Empire and Commonwealth, in regard to the acceptance of Hungarian refugees; what replies have been received; and what is the total number of such refugees that can now be accepted by the countries concerned;

(2) what joint arrangements have been made to move, either by sea or by air, those Hungarian refugees who wish to emigrate and are acceptable to the Empire and Commonwealth Governments concerned; and whether he will arrange to provide transport, free of cost, to the emigrants concerned.

Lord John Hope

The desire of many Hungarian refugees to emigrate overseas has evoked a most generous response from the Commonwealth countries concerned. The Governments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have announced their intentions as follows. Canada will accept refugees without any limit on their number, Australia will take up to 5,000, New Zealand up to 1,000 and South Africa up to 500. For those wishing to go to Canada free transport is being arranged by the Canadian Government; in other cases transport from Austria is being provided by the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration in conjunction with the authorities of the Commonwealth country concerned. There is thus no reason to believe that financial problems will prevent any Hungarian refugee acceptable to a Commonwealth Government from reaching the country of his choice.