The Struggle For Peace

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Bank of England. As originally devised between ourselves
and the French Government and the former Czechoslovakia
Government it included the issue by the last-named Govern-
ment of a loan on the London market by means of which the
assistance given to that Government., so far as it took the form
of loan, would be repaid. In the new circumstances, when it
appears that the Government of Czechoslovakia has ceased to
exist and the territory for which that Government was
formerly responsible has been divided, it would seem impos-
sible at present to say how the scheme can be carried through,
and steps have been taken to request the Bank of England to
make no further payments out of the balance until the situation
has been cleared up and a definite conclusion reached/9
MR. WEDGWOOD BENN : " What about the refugee fund ? "
THE PRIME MINISTER : " I may say that I have no reason
to suppose that the £3,250,000 already drawn has been applied
other than in accordance with the arrangements made by us
and that a substantial proportion of the sum has been directly
devoted to the assistance of refugees. In the third place, the
House will be aware that the President of the Board of Trade
and the Secretary to the Department of Overseas Trade were
about to pay a visit to Berlin in connection with certain dis-
cussions which are now proceeding between the representa-
tives of German and British industries. These discussions
are still proceeding, and I believe are proceeding in a satis-
factory manner. But, in the meantime, having regard to the
effect on general conditions in Europe which the events I
have described are bound to exert, His Majesty's Government
feel that the present moment would be inappropriate for the
proposed visit, which has been accordingly postponed, and
the German Government have been so informed.
" In considering these events and their relation to the events
which preceded them, we must remember that at Munich,
and at the discussions which went on before it, we were not
dealing with a situation which had just been created. We
were dealing with events and with? a set of circumstances which
had resulted from forces set in motion twenty years earlier.
I may remind the House that in July of last year, when it was
apparent that a deadlock had taken place in the negotiations
between the Czechoslovakian Government and the Sudeten