§ 17. Mr. WATTasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether his Department has considered the advisability of utilising the Island of Lundy, in the Bristol Channel, for the internment of German prisoners; whether he is aware that the present buildings thereon could accommodate as many as 1,600 prisoners, and that the old buildings formerly used as houses for quarrymen could in a few weeks be made suitable for several thousand prisoners; and whether he car say if the price at which this island could be acquired is less than is being paid for chartered vessels accommodating similar numbers?
§ Mr. TENNANTThe advisability of using Lundy as a place of detention for prisoners of War has been considered and it was decided to be unsuitable. The question of cost was consequently not gone into and no comparison is possible between the relative cost of interning prisoners on the island and on ships. Such a comparison would in any case be unnecessary as the ships are being given up.