Britain to Ask U.S. to Make Impounded Nazi Records Available to Public

Britain will consult with the United States in an effort to improve public availability of the records of former members of the Nazi Party, now impounded by orders of the U.S. Government in the Nazi Archives Center in West Berlin.

R.A. Allan, Joint Parliamentary Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, today gave that assurance to the House of Commons, after being pressed on the point by members of the Labor Party opposition. On behalf of Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lioyd, who is in Paris now attending the Summit conference, Mr. Allan pledged the Government to try to get the American authorities to ease the ban on disclosures from the Nazi archives.

Labor members in Commons have been demanding that the Nazi files be opened, especially in view of the fact that the West German statute of limitations for prosecution of former Nazis accused of major crimes went into effect May 8 in the former American zone, and will become effective in the former British zone of occupation at the end of next month. The Government of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, in Bonn, has refused demands by German Social Democrats and other opposition parties to extend the statute of limitations for four years more.

The Laborites also called on the British Government to urge the authorities at Bonn to speed inquiries into charges that many Judges in West Germany committed crimes while serving in Judicial capacity during the Nazi regime. Pending completion of probes into the alleged Nazi records of accused Judges. Labor demanded, the suspected German Judges should be suspended from office.

In another intervention in Commons today, the Labor Party urged the Foreign Secretary to negotiate an international agreement providing for a ban on nuclear weapons in the Middle East, John Profumo, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told the House that no such negotiations have been undertaken.