§ Mr. StottTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will support the claim of the Japanese Labour Camp Survivors Association for compensation from the Japanese Government.
§ Mr. GoodladHer Majesty's Government sympathise deeply with those who suffered so dreadfully as prisoners of war of the Japanese during the second world war. We owe a great debt of gratitude to them. However, the question of compensation was settled in the 1951 peace treaty with Japan.
Although the Government could not directly associate itself with the private attempts of groups to obtain further compensation, we would not, of course, impede or obstruct these attempts, with whose aims we sympathise.