§ 2. Mr. MALCOLMasked why the transfer of civilian invalid prisoners to Switzerland from Germany and Great Britain, respectively, was not included in the agreement recently arrived at between the two countries; and whether any negotiations are now pending to secure for such invalids the same advantages as were originally obtained by agreement between France, Germany, and Belgium?
§ Lord R. CECILThe scheme for transferring partially incapacitated combatant prisoners of war to Switzerland was in its inception largely experimental. For that reason, and for the reason that the result of the negotiations respecting the transfer of combatant prisoners of war to Switzerland might have been prejudiced had the issue been enlarged, it was not thought advisable to include invalid civilians in the original proposal we made to the German Government. As the hon. Member is aware, negotiations are now in progress for the repatriation or internment in a neutral country of all British civilian prisoners of war now in Germany, whether invalids or not.
§ Mr. MALCOLMIndependent of the negotiations now pending, will the right hon. Gentleman do whatever he can to secure the transfer of the invalid civilians who are now occupying a sanatorium at Ruhleben to Switzerland or home, as half of them are rotting and half of them are mentally deficient owing to long internment in that particular sanatorium?
§ Lord R. CECILI would be very glad to do anything I can, but I am sure that my hon. Friend would not wish to imperil the fate of the larger negotiations by any fresh proposals at this moment.