§ Mr. MILLSasked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that a British subject, ex-Lance-Corporal A. F. Rothstein, who served in the British Army from July, 1917, to January, 1919, made an application for a new passport in lieu of an expired one, which had no more space left for visas, to enable him to accompany his invalid mother and sister to Moscow, and that the application has met with a refusal; whether he can explain this action on the part of his Department; and if he will issue instructions for the renewal of the passport?
Mr. HARMSWORTHThe answer to the first part of the hon. Member's question is in the affirmative. Mr. A. F. Rothstein is the son of the Soviet Representative in Teheran, and he is understood to enjoy a double nationality, British and Russian. It is also understood that he has been working at the offices of the Soviet Delegation in London. In these circumstances it was decided that it was undesirable that Mr. Rothstein should travel to Russia with a British passport, more especially as there could not conceivably be any difficulty in his obtaining a Soviet passport.