§ 51. Mr. GINNELLasked the Prime Minister whether he has received from the Supreme Council of the Irish Nation League a resolution demanding that the treatment of Mr. John MacNeill and the other Irish prisoners of war in England shall be such as should be given to prisoners of war by a civilised people; and what action he has taken or intends to take towards complying with that demand?
§ Mr. BRACEMy right hon. Friend has asked me to reply to this question. I understand that he has received the resolution mentioned. As I explained on the 4th instant in answer to a question by the hon. Member for Salford, there is no power to treat the prisoners referred to as prisoners of war; but, within the discretion allowed to the Prison Commissioners by the statutory rules, important special privileges have been given them.
§ 52. Mr. GINNELLasked the Prime Minister, seeing that the English Government in Ireland has found itself unable to take up the challenge of the twenty-eight Irishmen deported from Ireland last February, without charge or trial, to put them on trial before even a packed jury in one of the counties proposed to be excluded from the Government of Ireland Act, whether they are now at liberty to return home; if not, when they will be permitted that liberty; and, in view of the official declaration, made for the benefit of other nations, that Ireland is peaceful, whether the Government will follow the example of the Republic of Russia in recompensing these Irish political exiles for the loss of time, position, and salary caused them by the edicts of deportation now shown to have been issued without cause or justification?
§ Mr. DUKEThe Prime Minister has asked me to reply to this question. The Government has not come to any such decisions as are suggested in the question.