HL Deb 30 November 1972 vol 336 cc1509-10WA
LORD NAPIER AND ETTRICK

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether in recent years they have made the undermentioned payments:

  1. (a) £759,000 to the World Bank in respect of interest and capital payments due on loans to or guaranteed by Rhodesia;
  2. (b) £174,000 in respect of a loan made in 1960 to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland for the development of African agriculture in Rhodesia; and
  3. (c) £585,000 being half the payments due on a loan made in 1965 for the Kariba Dam. (The borrower in this case being the Central African Power Corporation);
and if so, whether these sums were drawn from the frozen assets of Rhodesia in London; or if not, from what source they came.

EARL JELLICOE

In accordance with obligations assumed by Her Majesty's Government before the illegal declaration of independence by Southern Rhodesia, payments have been made for the purposes indicated by the noble Lord. For the period since the illegal declaration of independence to March 31, 1972, these payments amounted to £2,025,000. As provided by the Colonial Loans Acts, the source has been the Consolidated Fund.

House adjourned at fourteen minutes past eight o'clock.