§ 20. Mr. P. MEEHANasked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he will state how many prisoners of war are at present interned in Ireland and the approximate cost annually of their maintenance and support; whether these prisoners have been employed at any work of public utility; and whether, having regard to the treatment of English prisoners of war in Germany and their compulsory employment in reclaiming slob lands and making new roads, he will consider the advisability of forthwith employing prisoners of war in Ireland in cleaning the River Barrow and other Irish rivers, the flooding of which has this winter devastated whole districts, destroyed tracts of arable land, and rendered the proper tillage of a vast area impossible?
§ Mr. TENNANTThe answer to the first part of the question is 575. As regards the second part, I fear I cannot give the annual cost of maintenance without considerable research, which I am reluctant to impose upon the Department, already much overstrained. No such employment as in indicated in the third part of the question has been found for these prisoners. The men in question, being all civilians, cannot be forced to work otherwise than in the maintenance of their camp. I understand that the German Government enforces no labour on interned civilians.