§ 22. Mr. ALBION RICHARDSONasked the Secretary for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to the agreement recently concluded between France and Germany for the internment in a neutral country of non-commissioned officers and privates of the French Army who have been prisoners of war in Germany for more than eighteen months; whether any similar agreement has been concluded between this country and Germany, or whether any and what steps have been taken to negotiate one; and whether, if the German Government have refused to release British private soldiers on the same terms as those of our Allies, the Government is prepared, by way of reprisals, to reduce the rations of German prisoners in our hands to the German standard, and to employ them in the same proximity to the firing line as they employ ours?
§ Mr. JAMES HOPE (Lord of the Treasury)I understand that an agreement has been concluded between French and German delegates in Switzerland, but, as we have not got the text, I can make no statement for the moment.