The work described in Part I (Garbassi, F. and Petrini, G., J. Catal. 90, 106 (1984)) on binary CuZn catalysts for the low-temperature shift of CO before activation and reduction has been supplemented in the present study by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of the effect of the addition of alumina and of reaction conditions. It has been found that the surface composition strongly depends on the preparation method. Also, during the shift reaction itself the copper concentration of most of the catalysts increases and the chemical state changes, as evidenced by a decrease of the satellite-main peak ratio. XPS has proved to be a good diagnostic method for commercial ternary samples.