Mr. MALONEasked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to the case of Isodore Kon v. Leech, in which it has 1910W been shown that several hundreds of thousands of pounds have been paid out by the British Government in the past few years for purposes of political propaganda, subsidising banks in Russia, and by other means obtaining control of the Russian workers' labour power; and what is the total sum of money so expended?
Mr. HARMSWORTHMy attention has been called to the case referred to, but the purpose of the payments as described by the hon. Member is wholly misleading. I explained in the discussion on the Supplementary Estimates on August 2nd the reasons for which His Majesty's Government endeavoured to afford financial assistance to those Russian forces which were still opposing the Central Powers in the winter of 1917–1918. The total expenditure in this connection and for the purpose of forestalling the schemes of the Germans to obtain control of the Russian banks amounted to approximately £2,000,000.