§ Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Homo Secretary whether he is aware that Douglas J, J. Owen, conscientious objector, Walton Prison Hospital, has been almost continuously ill and in hospital for ten months, and has been twenty-seven months in prison, and that his health is now completely broken; and will he now have a medical inquiry to see if this man may be set at liberty?
§ Mr. SHORTTI will obtain a further medical report in this case, and when I have received it will consider whether the prisoner should be released on medical grounds.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Home Secretary if he will state how many letters, telegrams, or resolutions of protest against the continued imprisonment of conscientious objectors have been received by the Government since the signing of the Armistice?
§ Mr. SHORTTI am afraid I cannot give this figure. The number of such communications received at the Home Office is very large, and as most of them come from the friends of individual prisoners, to find them would involve searching through many hundreds of files. I do not think they represent the views of more than a small minority of the population.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that N. Sogon, a conscientious objector who has been in prison for the last seventeen months, is in Wands worth Prison in a very serious physical and mental condition; and will he call for a report?
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§ Mr. SHORTTI find that the allegations on which the hon. Member's question is founded have no basis in fact. Repeated medical examination has failed to discover any sign of illness, mental or physical. The prisoner has increased in weight since reception in prison, and appears to be in excellent health. He assures the medical officer that he sleeps and eats well and that he has not made any complaint of ill-health to his friends.