§ Mr. Teelingasked the President of the Board of Trade when the Custodian of Enemy Property will have handed over the sums due to British holders of Polish, German, Hungarian, Roumanian and Bulgarian assets.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftI assume that my hon. Friend is referring to the distribution to be made to British creditors by the Administrators of German, Hungarian, Roumanian and Bulgarian Property out of the assets of those countries. As regards German assets the Administrator has already paid an interim dividend of 1s. in the £ on claims so far established, but I cannot yet say when that distribution will be completed. The distribution of Hungarian, Roumanian and Bulgarian assets will be the subject of a Direction by the Treasury to the Administrators in the near future.
This procedure of distributing the proceeds of property does not apply in the case of Polish-owned property which is governed by the Anglo-Polish Money and Property Agreement of the 14th January, 1949 (Cmd. 7627), and the Trade and Finance Agreement of the same date (Cmd. 7628). Under these Agreements, as assets of a particular value are released, the Polish Government pay a corresponding amount of sterling into a special fund for British claimants.