asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement as to the results of, and developments following the sentence passed in Dusseldorf on James Robertson White, a principal control officer in the Control Commission.

Following the conviction of this officer in Dusseldorf he was summarily dismissed from the Control Service.

Does not the hon. Gentleman realise that incidents of this kind lower the prestige of Britain abroad? Will he make it quite clear that such incidents will be dealt with very severely in the future?

I agree that any criminal case of this kind creates a very bad effect. I think it has been suitably dealt with by a court of law.

What is the offence?

There were very large numbers of charges, including fraudulent conversion and false pretences running into many scores of counts.