§ Dr. Kingasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will investigate the evidence submitted to him by the hon. Member for Southampton. Test, in regard to the murder of Mr. Arthur Yencken, acting British Minister to Spain in May, 1944.
§ Mr. EdenI have fully investigated the evidence submitted by the hon. Member. This consisted of a report published in a Communist propaganda sheet in English originating in the Soviet Zone of Germany and called "Democratic German Report." This sheet is apparently sent by post to recipients in this country. The report claims that the air crash in which Mr. Yencken lost his life in Spain on 18th May, 1944, was engineered by Dr. Panhorst, now an official of the German Federal Government. and a certain Commandante Moreno, about whom I have no information. The report reproduces an alleged facsimile of a letter said to have been written by General Faupel, then head of the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin. to Dr. Hans-Joachim von Merkatz, then employed in the Institute and now a leading member of the German Party in the German Federal Republic. In fact, this tragic occurrence was fully investigated at the time and the Spanish authorities showed themselves most helpful and courteous. All the evidence points to the fact that the crash was an accident.
Mr. Yencken's aeroplane crashed a few feet below the crest of a mountain ridge in an area notorious for its sudden clouding and mists. The weather conditions were bad and the pilot had been advised by the Spanish authorities to delay his departure. The only eye witness of the crash stated that the aircraft was flying through mist, visibility being about 60 feet. The ridge itself was completely obscured by mist. He made no reference to any second aircraft. The Air Attaché to Her Majesty's Embassy, a senior R.A.F officer who personally took part in the exhaustive investigation. expressed himself completely satisfied that any question of sabotage could definitely be ruled out.
Dr. Merkatz has declared that the letter reproduced in the Communist sheet is a forgery. I have been informed that General Faupel was at the time of the 161W accident and of the despatch of this alleged letter from Madrid, very ill in Potsdam. I have further been informed that Dr. Panhorst, who had severed all connection with the Ibero-American Institute some years previously, denies that he has ever know or heard of the Cornmandante Moreno, with whom he is alleged to have organised Mr. Yencken's death.