INTERNEES.

HC Deb 25 July 1940 vol 363 cc960-4

26. Mr. Lewis

asked the home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the case of the internment of Mr. Emilio de Filippis, who has been employed for some eight years in a key position in a business in Colchester, and whose employers are prepared to enter into any undertaking the authorities may require as to Mr. de Filippis' movements in the event of his being allowed to return to his work; and whether, having regard to the fact that his continued internment will necessitate the discharge of some 90 workpeople at present employed by the firm, he will allow Mr. de Filippis to return to his work in Colchester?

Sir J. Anderson

Yes, Sir. I was satisfied after inquiry that the release of this man would be in the national interest, and I gave instructions that he should be released as soon as the necessary arrangements could be made.

29. Mr. Sorensen

asked the Home Secretary whether for the fuller information of public opinion and the allaying of needless distress, he will assure friendly aliens and refugees from Nazi oppression now interned or to be interned, that internment need not be interpreted as a reflection on the sincerity of their sympathy with and support for the British cause?

Sir J. Anderson

I have already taken steps to give an assurance in the sense suggested by my hon. Friend, and the terms of that assurance were published in the Press yesterday.

Mr. Sorensen

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that that assurance will give great satisfaction to the numerous refugees in this country and will do something to assure certain sections of the public that these people are, in fact, not aliens hostile to this country?

Sir J. Anderson

I am very glad that that is so.

Mr. Silverman

Could the right hon. Gentleman add to what he has said an assurance that in dealing with this class of aliens they will not be referred to as enemy aliens merely on the ground that they come from Germany?

Sir J. Anderson

I am afraid that I cannot ignore facts.

Mr. R. J. Taylor

Would the right hon. Gentleman say that friendly aliens who have been interned and who have two or three sons in the British Army will receive special consideration?

Sir J. Anderson

I would certainly regard that as a consideration to which due weight should be given.

32. Mr. Wedgwood

asked the Home Secretary how many non-Aryan aliens are now interned under categories A, B and C; how many have been deported of each variety to Canada or Australia; how many have been released since the sinking of the "Arandora Star;" and what further steps he proposes to take?

Sir J. Anderson

It has never been the policy of His Majesty's Government to discriminate between aliens on the basis of creed or race; and statistics distinguishing between so-called Aryans and non-Aryans are not, therefore, available. As regards the last part of the Question, I would refer my right hon. Friend to the statement which I made in answer to Questions on Tuesday.

Mr. Wedgwood

Is not the principal charge against the Government that they have always failed to distinguish between enemy aliens who are Aryan and those who are non-Aryans? Is it not possible even now for the Department to turn over a new leaf and distinguish between those two types of internees? As regards the "Arandora Star," is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the list of those who sailed on the "Arandora Star" and who perished on the "Arandora Star," murdered by the Nazis—

Mr. Speaker

The right hon. Member must not make a speech.

Mr. Wedgwood

I want to ask my second Question, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker

The right hon. Member was making a speech.

Mr. Wedgwood

May I ask a question then? When will the list of those on the "Arandora Star," which was promised to be put in the Library, be there?

Sir J. Anderson

In reply to the first part of the question, the right hon. Gentleman has surely been mistaking two separate matters. The Department has always endeavoured to distinguish between enemy aliens who are refugees from Nazi oppression and others, but the Department has never distinguished, and I should be very sorry if it should try to distinguish, between those who were called Aryan and those who were called non-Aryan.

Mr. Wedgwood

What about the "Arandora Star"?

Sir J. Anderson

I will send the right hon. Gentleman a reply to that Question. I cannot give it to him now.

40. Sir Herbert Williams

asked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been drawn to the growing apprehension as to the effect on our war effort of the internment of refugees from Nazi oppression; and will he take immediate steps to adopt a policy more in accord with the British sense of decency and dignity?

Sir J. Anderson

I would refer my hon. Friend to the full statement which I made in answer to Questions on Tuesday.

69. Miss Rathbone

asked the Home Secretary how many interned aliens have appealed personally or through others for release from internment; how many of these appeals have been granted or rejected; and whether, in view of the long delays that have occurred in dealing with these appeals, he will strengthen and expedite the machinery for deciding on them, and will make public the grounds on which he is prepared to consider release?

Sir J. Anderson

No statistics are available, but appeals for release have been made by or on behalf of a very large proportion of the aliens who have been interned, and in many cases a number of communications are received about the same individual. The staff of my Department has been strengthened to deal with the great increase in the correspondence. I have already undertaken to publish as soon as possible a statement of the categories of persons eligible for release and of the procedure to be followed in making application for their release.

Miss Rathbone

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that the sooner he publishes that statement the better, because that would prevent his getting applications which have no grounds for success?

Sir J. Anderson

That argument certainly appeals to me.

Rear-Admiral Beamish

Will the right hon. Gentleman convey to these aliens that they can perform no higher service to this country than to compare their lot with that of our own dead, our wounded, our missing and prisoners, and of the men of our own Forces, who have fought, and are fighting, their battles?

Captain Vyvyan Adams

Does the right hon. Gentleman know of the suicides which have taken plase in these internment camps?

70. Miss Rathbone

asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that the fact that aliens' internment camps had been hitherto administered by the War Prisoners' Department of the War Office has led to much anxiety as to their status among interned refugees and other friendly interned aliens, and especially to a few lest their names might be communicated, as those of war prisoners are, through some medium to the German Government; and will he, therefore, make a statement defining the status and relieving the fears of these internees in these respects?

Sir J. Anderson

The fact that it has been decided to transfer to the Home Office the responsibility for administering the camps for civilian internees should reassure those who are interned in them that they are regarded as civilians and not as combatant prisoners of war.

Miss Rathbone

Might we be assured that their names will not be sent to the German Government either through the Swiss Legation or any other intermediary?

Sir J. Anderson

The arrangement by which the names of prisoners of war are communicated to the German Government is not applicable to civilian internees.

Mr. Wedgwood

I want to ask—[Interruption.] Why should I not be allowed to ask a Supplementary Question?

Mr. Speaker

There are 122 Questions on the Order Paper.

71. Mr. Silverman

asked the Home Secretary whether he will undertake that, until adequate opportunity has been afforded to each internee affected to apply for release from internment on the grounds and by the methods outlined in his recent announcement, and until such application has been determined, no internee will be deported overseas?

79. Mr. G. Strauss

asked the Home Secretary whether he will give orders that no further interned Category C aliens, particularly men who have lived in England the greater part of their lives, will be sent to the Dominions until their case has been carefully examined by the new committee he is setting up?

Sir J. Anderson

I should hesitate to give the specific undertakings for which my hon. Friends ask, but I can say that, as at present advised, I do not propose that any civilian internees should be sent overseas unless either they have volunteered to go or arrangements have been made for them to be accompanied, or followed, by their wives and children.

Mr. Silverman

Would the right hon. Gentleman remember, especially in the case of those who have already volunteered, that that agreement was based on the conditions which then obtained and without knowledge of the statement which he made two days ago? In the light of that statement those who formerly agreed might now prefer to remain where they are.

Sir J. Anderson

That consideration will be taken into account.

Mr. G. Strauss

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that in some camps, at least, considerable pressure is being brought to bear on C class internees?

Sir J. Anderson

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will give me the source of his information.

Mr. Isaacs

Does the condition permitting wives to accompany aliens sent abroad apply to those already sent whose wives have not been informed?

Sir J. Anderson

Yes, Sir, it does.