§ Mr. F. Noel-Bakerasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that evidence has been given in a Yugoslav court accusing one of His Majesty's Consuls of complicity in a plot against the Government of Yugoslavia; and what inquiry he has made or is making.
§ Mr. MayhewI am aware that the name of His Majesty's Consul at Skoplje was frequently mentioned in the course of a trial in Skoplje of a number of Yugoslavs accusedinter alia of treason. The facts are as follow.
In December His Majesty's Consul received a visit from an individual who had been employed as a servant in the Consulate before the war. This person
116W
§ Mr. LindgrenStatistics of total traffic by air between the United Kingdom and North America prior to April, 1946, are not readily available. The figures for the months, April, 1946, to January, 1947, are as follow:
handed him an unsigned letter requesting assistance on behalf of a body describing itself as an Albanian Democratic Committee. His Majesty's Consul refused to receive the letter, stating that he was in no case prepared to accept anonymous letters and that any business with him must be conducted personally. This is the story to which so much publicity has been given during the trial and which my hon. Friend doubtless had in mind when he asked the Question. During the trial the accused also made a number of other statements concerning His Majesty's Consul and other British authorities. These statements were merely hearsay at second, third and occasionally fourth hand. A fair sample was the statement that one of the accused had been informed by an unspecified individual that His Majesty's Consul could provide 35,000 rifles to the organisation to which the 117W accused belonged. His Majesty's Government cannot be expected to take serious account of statements so patently absurd.