§ Sir T. Beamishasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government will relax the conditions attached to their contribution to the Major Aid Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
§ Mr. P. ThomasYes. Her Majesty's Government have been favourably impressed by the response to the appeal of the United Nations High Commissioner for contributions to his 1963 Major Aid Programme. For this reason, although these contributions have not been sufficient to attract the whole of that proportion of the United Kingdom's contribution which was subject to matching terms, the Government have nevertheless decided, subject to Parliamentary approval to contribute the whole sum of £200,000 to the 1963 Programme. The Government's aim in making this relaxation of terms is to enable the High Commissioner to carry out in full his Programme to liquidate the refugee problem in Europe.
Parliament will be asked to vote the amount of £42,000, which is expected to be made available to the High Commissioner under the original matching arrangements as announced to the House on 24th April last year by my right hon. Friend the then Lord Privy Seal, in the Supplementary Estimates for the Foreign Grants and Loan Vote 2W for 1963–64, and the balance of about £38,000 by means of a supplementary estimate in 1964–65.