The British and West German Governments will open discussions soon on payment by West. Germany of compensation to victims of Nazism who are not covered by the present German compensation law, the Earl of Dundee, Minister without portfolio, announced today in the House of Lords.
The Government spokesman said that in these talks, the claims of stateless persons and refugees would be “very much in the minds of the Government and will figure very prominently in the discussions which the German Government has offered to begin.”
The issue was raised by Lord Russell of Liverpool, British war crimes prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. He asked the Government whether it would make it clear to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer that satisfactory amendment of the law to provide compensation for victims not at present entitled to it “would do much to improve relations between the British and German peoples and help to ‘bury the memory of the war years.'”
In reply, the Earl of Dundee stressed that the British Government would make it clear that it did not regard the present German law as “going far enough to meet the requirements of the situation.”
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