The fact that the majority of the youngest radio pulsars are surrounded by
expanding supernova remnants is strong evidence that neutron stars are produced
in the supernovae of massive stars. In many cases, the pulsar appears
significantly offset from the geometric centre of the supernova remnant,
indicating that the neutron star has moved away from the site of the explosion
with a substantial space velocity since birth. Here we show that the these
offsets show an overwhelming preference for one sign in terms of Galactic
longitude, a result that has important implications for the number of genuine
associations. The origin of this statistically significant effect may lie in a
differential Galactic rotational velocity between stars and gas in the
interstellar medium.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of the IAU 177
meeting - Pulsar Astronomy 2000 and beyon
