§ 1. Mr. J. M. HENDERSONasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will include in the forthcoming 293 White Paper on British Prisoner Camps in Germany the reports made by officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps who have returned from these camps?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Lord Robert Cecil)The White Papers hitherto laid before Parliament have included correspondence with the United States Ambassador and reports received through His Excellency only. The reports made by officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps, referred to by the hon. Member, have no relation to the period covered by the reports which will be included in the forthcoming White Paper, but relate to a condition of things at a previous date, nor could they now be included without very much delaying the issue of this Paper. A considerable portion of Major Priestley's report was embodied in the recently published Report of the Government Committee on the treatment by the enemy of prisoners of war on the conditions obtaining at Wittenberg during the typhus epidemic. The question, however, of the separate publication of the reports made by officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps who have returned from Germany will be considered.
§ Mr. HENDERSONSurely the reports from those men who have actually lived in the camps must be much more reliable and important than that of a report of a casual visitor.
§ Lord R. CECILI quite agree, and the Government Committee was set up on purpose to consider all such reports and to get a true account of the condition of the prisoners drawn from those reports.