64. Sir C. Mott-Radelyffeasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what progress has been made in arrangements to provide for the payment of the claims of British subjects whose property in Egypt has been Egyptianised or sequestrated.
§ Mr. ProfumoSince the Order in Council of 6th April, 1959, which provided for the Foreign Compensation Commission to receive and assess the claims in question, some 590 claims have been presented and the Commission is in a position to make preliminary assessments in some cases. Her Majesty's Government are anxious to begin to make payments as soon as possible and an Order in Council on this subject has been laid before Parliament today. It provides for interim payments in respect of assessed claims to be made according to a sliding scale. These payments can be made, as soon as their claims have been established before the Foreign Compensation Commission, to all claimants who have not received loans from Her Majesty's Government.
Where, however, claimants have already received loans from Her Majesty's Government, there remains the question of the extent to which these loans should be deducted or taken into account in making the interim payments. Such loans, like any others, are of course prima facie repayable, but Her Majesty's Government are aware that there may be cases where strict insistence on this general right of recovery would create serious hardship and inequity 82W between various classes of claimant. They will, therefore, be prepared, in cases where my right hon. and learned Friend is so advised by an Advisory Board to be set up for the purpose, to remit the whole or a part of the obligation to repay the loan; and the Order in Council has been so drafted as to give Her Majesty's Government the necessary latitude. Sir George Rendel, whose experience in regard to such matters will be known to the House, has consented to act as Chairman of this Advisory Board. It is also proposed to invite members of the Anglo-Egyptian Resettlement Board to join this body so that we may benefit from their experience.
The sliding scale is as follows:
Where the amount of the loss assessed by the Commission under the Determination Order The sum calculated shall be (1) does not exceed £5,000 70 per cent. of the amount assessed (2) exceeds £5,000 but does not exceed £10,000 £3,500, and 50 per cent. of the balance of the amount assessed over £5,000 (3) exceeds £10,000 but does not exceed £25,000 £6,000, and 25 per cent. of the balance of the amount assessed over £10,000 (4) exceeds £25,000 £9,750, and 5 per cent. of the balance of the amount assessed over £25,000.