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International Situation HOUSE OF COMMONS
[The Prime Minister.] measured by hours, could not be expected to deal in itself with every detail of the operation which was contemplated. All that we could do at Munich was to lay down certain general outlines, leaving to an International Commission the task of filling in details. The right hon. Gentle- man criticises the International Commis- sion in the carrying out of that task. I say again that though we may not like the solution I would ask the right hon. Gentleman not to forget what the alternative was, and if he was not pre- pared to accept the alternative use of force-[An HON. MEMBER: Why not? "]-We must recognise that we had to accept the alternative, disagreeable though may be in many respects.
"
The right hon. Gentleman spoke among other things about the boundaries which are to be laid down between the new State of Czechoslovakia and Germany. By the fourth Article of the Munich Agreement there was imposed on the International Commission the duty of de- termining the extent of the territories out- side the four zones which were to be occupied by German troops by 7th Octo- ber-territories outside those which, being preponderantly German in 1918, should be occupied by Germany by 10th October. The time was short, and the International Commission decided that in order to as- certain the limits of that territory they must get as near as they could to the position in 1918. That was in accord- ance with the methods under the plebis- cite in the Saar district. The right hon. Gentleman says that they went back much further than 1918, that they went back to 1910, and that no justification has ever been given for going back to a period so long ago as that. I do not know that there has been any opportunity on any previous occasion of giving that justification, but, of course, the answer is very simple. There was no census in 1918, and as there were no reliable figures for that date the International Commis- sion were obliged to go back to the last date for which there were reliable figures, and that was 1910. That was the reason why the census of 1910 was taken as a basis.
Sir Archibald Sinclair: Why were they obliged to go back to that time and not to take later figures?
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Mr. Herbert Morrison: Has there been no census since 1910?
Mr. Chamberlain: The reason was be- cause the position in 1918 was to be taken as the basis, the argument being I am not saying this is my view, I am only explaining the position-that the position had been deliberately changed since 1918 by the introduction of Czechs into areas which in 1918 were predominantly Ger- man, and therefore if a census had been taken later than 1918 it would not have met that particular objection. Once the Czechoslovakian
Government had accepted that decision of the International Commission, which they did on 13th October, it became apparent that there was no longer any need for plebiscites. The Czechs agreed that the lines which had been determined in accordance with that basis should be the provisional fron- tier, but that it should be subject to examination and modification not only in accordance with strictly ethnographical lines but also taking into account the economic considerations, and it will be observed that in consequence of that agreement the line may be modified not only in those areas in which, under the original Agreement, there would have been a plebiscite, but the whole line from one end to the other may be reconsidered. As it had been decided not to have any plebiscite there was, of course, no occa- sion for any international force to occupy the plebiscite areas, and therefore His Majesty's Government were not able to spirited offer which had been made by the avail themselves of the very public-
British Legion for this purpose. I should like, on behalf of the Government, to ex-
press our very warm appreciation of the
offer and our confidence that had the need materialised members of the
British
Legion would have distinguished them- selves as much in peace as they formerly did in war.
Another point to which the right hon. Gentleman addressed himself referred to the rights of optants. He said the clause referring to optants was entirely illusory. I do not know by what right he said that. I do not know whether he is aware of the present position. Under Article 7 of the Munich Agreement it is provided that a German-Czech Commission was to settle the details of this right of option. They were to determine ways of facilitating the transfer of those individuals who wished
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to exercise the right, and also any ques- placed at the disposal of the Czecho-
slovakian Government tion of principle which arose out of the
a sum of
transfer.
£10,000,000 for their urgent needs. We told them, when we announced this deci- sion to them, that we had particularly in mind the demands which they would have to meet in respect of the maintenance and settlement of refugees from the trans- ferred areas, and we expressed the view that if it were thought necessary for some of those refugees to emigrate their transfer elsewhere should be assisted by the Czechoslovakian Government by funds derived from this £10,000,000.
This is a subject of consider- able magnitude, because we are informed that there are something like 580,000 Czechs now in German territory and something like 250,000 Germans in Czech territory. That is a matter which is left to this German-Czech Commission, and they have not yet, I understand, formu- lated any conclusions, but when they do they will bring them to the notice of the International Commission.
Then I come to the question of the refugees. Here, at any rate, I do not think I need quarrel with the right hon. Gentleman. All of us, I think, are at one in approaching this problem of the refugees with a very sincere sympathy, not only on account of the ordinary humanitarian principles which are com- mon to everybody but because it has always been a tradition of British policy to offer asylum, as far as possible, to persons who, on account of racial or political or religious reasons were not able any longer to live in their own country. At the beginning of October it was repre- sented to the Government that there were in Czechoslovakia a certain number of individuals who were in danger if they remained where they were, and accord- ingly we authorised the temporary admis- sion to this country of those individuals up to the number of 350, on the under- taking, given to us, that means would be found to maintain these individuals, if necessary, during their stay here.
Miss Rathbone: Why only 350?
The Prime Minister: Permission to enter was given only to the actual indi- vidual in danger and not to his family, but the Government are willing to admit the families of those individuals also if similar undertakings about their mainten- ance are provided. I agree with the right hon. Gentleman in the welcome which he paid to the initiative of the Lord Mayor of London in issuing an appeal for the relief of refugees. As he said, a considerable sum of money has been raised, and the Government are giving all the assistance they can to the Lord Mayor and to his representatives in Prague; and we have given similar assistance to other British subjects who have interested themselves in the evacuation or the relief of refugees. The House will remember that we have
With regard to the guaranteed loan out of which this £10,000,000 will be repaid, that is a matter which we shall have to lay before Parliament in due course. We have not yet got sufficient information as to the necessary details, nor have we yet been able to ascertain what is likely to be the attitude of the French Government in joining with us in a loan of this kind. Therefore, we are not in a position to carry the matter any further at this moment, but in due course we shall have to lay before the House the proposals we shall have to make. In the meantime, we had been informed by the Czecho- slovak Government that they would wel- come any arrangement by which we could be informed of the methods and the pro- gress of expenditure out of those funds. We at once appointed as our liaison officer in Prague Mr. R. J. Stopford, who was a member of the Runciman Commis- sion, to obtain such information as may be available from time to time as to the number and types of refugees in Czecho- slovakia and the conditions in which those who might have to emigrate might be enabled to do so.
I think that the right hon. Gentleman rightly pointed out that we are here in the presence of a comparatively new problem which goes much beyond that of the Czechoslovak refugees. We are face to
face with the difficulty that more and more persons are to-day finding them- selves Stateless. They are being driven out of the countries in which they had settled, and other countries have not shown any great willingness to take them
in.
The inter-governmental committee, over which my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster presides, has the duty of dealing with this question and has made it clear that involuntary emigrants of German origin, whose emigration has arisen out of the