asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury what is the reason for the long delay on the part of the Administrator of Austrian Property in respect of the claims of Polish citizens for the release of their sequestrated shares; and when he expects that the administrator will complete his investigations and place such Polish citizens in a position to recover their property?

I have been asked to reply to this question. In the Majority of the cases of the kind referred to in the question the securities have been released. In a number of cases, however, the applicants have been unable to identify their securities, and it appears that they form part of general depots held in this country on behalf of Austrian banks, and no specific allocation was ever made to the applicants. In no case had the depot holders any knowledge of the claimants and, in the majority of cases, the total claims exceed the amounts of the depots. An agreement has been come to with the Austrian banks which, it is hoped, will expedite the allocation of these securities, but the necessary information to enable such allocation to be made has not yet been supplied by those banks.