§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War how many Boer prisoners of war are at present detained in Ceylon, and under what circumstances 'are they now detained, and when are they to be sent back to South Africa.
§ The POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,) Worcestershire, E.Perhaps the hon. Member will allow me to answer the Question.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLMr. Speaker, I must ask for a ruling from you. This is a Question which comes under the purview of the Secretary of State for War. But it is to be answered, not by that right hon. Gentleman, nor by the Colonial Secretary, but by a Gentleman who is simply repeating the information which he has obtained at the Colonial Office. As this is a matter affecting personal liberty, I am perfectly justified in deferring the Question until the Colonial Secretary returns.
*MR. SPEAKERIf the right hon. Gentleman is reading the information which he has obtained at the Colonial Office it seems to me that he is the proper Minister to answer the Question.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN (for MR. J. CHAMBERLAIN)There are at present about thirty Boer prisoners in Ceylon who have refused to take the oath or make the declaration of allegiance. They will not be sent back to South Africa unless they take the oath or make the declaration; but as soon as they do so they will be sent back at the first opportunity.
§ MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, E.)Will these prisoners be allowed to go to some other country?
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINAny application of that kind will be considered. I think there would be no difficulty in acceding to it.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLSuch an application has already been made and refused.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that twenty Boer prisoners of war in Ceylon who, on refusing to take the oath of allegiance, were to have been allowed to proceed to Java and settle there as colonists have been placed in prison because they refused unanimously to leave Ceylon, while a Mr. Tremlett, a former British subject, who had before the war become a naturalised subject of the South African Republic, and had fought on the side of the Boers in the recent war and had been taken prisoner and was in confinement with other Boer prisoners of war in Ceylon, had been refused his liberty and was about to be put on his trial for high treason; and will he say whether accounts have reached the War Office authorities of the treatment to which the Boer prisoners of war in Ceylon have been subjected; and whether he intends to take any, and, if so, what steps for their liberation and return to South Africa.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINTwenty prisoners of war were to have left Ceylon, by their own wish, for Java. At the last moment they refused to leave Ceylon, while Tremlett, who was then understood to be an English rebel, was detained. It has since been ascertained that Tremlett was naturalised as a burgher of the late South African Republic before the war and it is not proposed to prosecute him. Tremlett and the others escaped from the prisoner of war camp and were lodged in Colombo gaol for safe custody. It is not known to what treatment the hon. Member refers.