§ 57. Mr. LOUGHasked the Prime Minister whether, seeing that under the system adopted for appointing an informal Joint Committee of Inquiry into the sending of parcels to prisoners in Germany no expense for secretarial or other assistance incurred by the Committee can be discharged from public funds, he will consider the desirability of giving the House an opportunity of moving the appointment of additional members of the Committee or considering the suitability of those members selected to form it and its constitution?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWI do not think it would be advisable to interfere with the working of the Committee referred to. It 902 is essential in the interest of the prisoners that it should get to work and report as soon as possible. In connection with this subject, I would refer my right hon. Friend to my answer to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Southampton on Thursday last.
§ Mr LOUGH. Can the right hon. Gentlemen say, in reference to expense, how the Committee can get to work without any provision being made?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWAs I have already stated, if we find there is any difficulty in its doing the work, we shall reconsider it, but I do not anticipate any such thing.
§ 77. Mr. JOYNSON-HICKSasked the hon. Member for Sheffield (Central Division) whether some 2,000 British soldiers are interned in reprisal camps in Poland and Courland; whether the American authorities or anyone else have been allowed permission to inspect these camps; whether the men are allowed to write home or to receive parcels; and whether the Government is taking any steps, by way of reprisal or otherwise, as the French have done, to insist on an evacuation of these camps?
§ Mr. JAMES HOPE (Lord of the Treasury)Some 2,000 British prisoners of war are interned in various camps in Courland; none, it is believed, in Poland. One of the Courland camps was inspected by a representative of the American Embassy in Berlin, who reported favourably upon it. There is no special restriction on the correspondence of prisoners in these camps, and parcels are received by them. The Dutch Legation at Berlin have been asked to send a representative to visit all these camps if possible. I am informed that the French authorities, so far as is known, have taken no reprisals in consequence of French prisoners of War being sent to the Courland camps, and it is thougfit that for our Government to embark on such a policy would be against the interest of our own prisoners.
§ Mr. JOYNSON-HICKSAs a matter of fact, are not these camps much worse than the camps in Germany?
§ 78. Mr. JOYNSON-HICKSasked the hon. Member for Sheffield (Central Division) whether the Government has now completed its information in regard to the statements by the International Red Cross 903 Society that large numbers of prisoners have been transferred by the Germans to the Army zones; and whether he can now make a statement as to the action the Government intend to take?
§ Mr. HOPEThere seems little doubt that British prisoners of war are now employed in occupied territories behind the Western front by the Germans, but no sufficient evidence has as yet been received as to their being set to work in proximity to the firing line. The whole question is being closely watched.
§ Mr. JOYNSON-HICKSWill the hon. Gentleman be able to make a statement on this very important question before the House adjourns on Wednesday?
§ Mr. JOYNSON-HICKSWill the hon. Gentleman undertake during the Adjournment of the House to get all possible information, so as to be able to make a statement when the House meets?
§ Mr. HOPEIt is hardly for me to make a statement on a matter which, obviously, is a Cabinet question.
§ Mr. JOYNSON-HICKSWill the hon. Gentleman communicate with the Red Cross at Geneva, who are responsible for the statement, and get the evidence upon which they make this statement?