§ Lord BYERSasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether under the new procedure for dealing with. Negative Certificates of Origin required for Arab boycott purposes they propose to satisfy themselves that the documents themselves do not in any way contravene British legislation or relate to goods which might be harmful to British interests.
§ Lord TREFGARNEThe procedure remains unchanged apart from the introduction of the explanatory note which we announced on 5th November. Fraud or illegality, if noticed, remain grounds for refusing authentication. It is, however, impractical for officials handling some hundreds of authentications daily, to322WA scrutinise each document for evidence of this. Control of exports which might harm British interests, for example, arms supplies, is achieved by other means.