§ Sir A. MONDasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, seeing that the Treaty of Versailles prescribed that not 1834W less than two-thirds of the reparation coal deliveries to Italy should be land-borne, he will say whether this stipulation has ever been enforced; whether it is now being enforced; and, if not, will he take steps to see that it is enforced in the future?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLThe original Treaty provision was strictly complied with in 1920, when approximately 76 per cent. of the total Italian coal deliveries on reparation account were land-borne. It has not been complied with in subsequent years. During the years 1921, 1922 and 1923, the deficiency of land-borne deliveries was not very considerable, about 57 per cent. of the total deliveries being land-borne; but during the later stages of the Ruhr occupation, the occupying authorities reserved to themselves the right to vary the methods of delivery, and in 1924 the percentage of coal sent by land to Italy fell to 28 per cent. The Treaty limitation has been equally inoperative in 1925, as since March, 1925, the bulk of the reparation coal taken by Italy has been delivered under a commercial contract drawn up under the Regulations for Deliveries in Kind made in pursuance of the London Agreement of August, 1924. These Regulations provide that such commercial contracts may include any provisions agreed between the Allied Governments concerned and the German Government as to,inter a/ia, method and place of delivery and transport to the place of delivery. The question whether the limitation laid down in the Treaty, as to the proportion of land-borne deliveries, can be construed as overriding these Regulations has never been formally considered by the Reparation Commission; but His Majesty's Government were advised that the Treaty limitation could not be regarded as applicable to deliveries made under commercial contract. Accordingly, the British delegation on the Reparation Commission raised no objection to the contract, but formally reserved the right of His Majesty's Government, in the event of a return to the Treaty procedure, to insist on the proportion of land-borne and sea-borne deliveries laid down in the Treaty.