HC Deb 06 July 1931 vol 254 cc1741-2W
Marquess of CLYDESDALE

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, (1) if His Majesty's Government have any information as to whether any distinction has been made, under the Yugoslavian agrarian reform, between subjects of old Serbia and subjects of the territories annexed from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire under the Peace Treaties; and if the matter has been referred to the Minorities Commission of the League of Nations;

(2) if His Majesty's Government have any information as to whether any compensation has yet been paid to dispossessed landowners, some of whom are British subjects, under the Yugoslavian agrarian reform decree of February, 1919; and, if not, whether any information is obtainable as to when it is proposed to regulate this matter and upon what basis?

Mr. A. HENDERSON

The Yugoslav Government have undertaken to enact

Year. Average Number of Persons employed in and about mines situated in the Urban District area of
Aspull. Blackrod. Hindley. Westhoughton.
1920 … … … 411 379 4,093 4,992
1925 … … … 180 418 2,833 4,146
1930 … … … 37 363 2,005 2,521

legislation indemnifying landowners in Yugoslavia whose properties have been expropriated. Rents have provisionally been paid to these dispossessed landowners, and I am informed that a law will shortly be promulgated regulating the amount of indemnity which they are to receive. I understand that it is not proposed to distinguish between subjects of old Serbia and subjects of the territories annexed from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire under the Peace Treaties. So far as I am aware, the matter has not been referred to the League of Nations, nor do the claimants include any persons who, at the time of the expropriation, were British subjects.