asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will arrange for the withdrawal of passports issued by his Department containing words such as espouse unknown in the French language pending agreement with the French Government that their immigration officers will accept these passports without embarrassing the holders as to their marital status.

No. It would be a costly task, beyond the resources of the Passport Office, to withdraw the 700,000 passports which have been issued containing an error which we very much regret. We are aware of no case of embarrassment which might make an approach to the French Government desirable.