Czechoslovakia (Money and Property Agreement)

HC Deb 02 May 1975 vol 891 cc287-8W

Mr. Hastings

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether any further progress has been made with the negotiations over the implementation of the Anglo-Czechoslovakian Money and Property Agreement.

Mr. Hattersley

An Agreement between the United States and the Czechoslovak Governments which would have facilitated progress on this and related questions was initialled in Prague on 5th July 1974. But in December 1974 the United States Congress instructed the United States Government to renegotiate it, and that meanwhile the United States Government should not release any gold belonging to Czechoslovakia until such a renegotiated agreement had been approved by the Congress.