§ 12. Mr. KINGasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that numbers of the British prisoners who have been interned at Ruhleben have been released from the Ruhleben internment camp to take up remunerative employment under recognised and liberal conditions in Berlin and elsewhere, that such prisoners are allowed to live and lodge outside the camp, re porting daily to the police, and that this has been beneficial to the health and happiness of our fellow subjects still detained in Germany; and whether, in order to save national expenditure, to provide accommodation for the German prisoners constantly arriving from the seat of war, and to obtain the labour thus set free, he will consider the release of German interned civilians of approved conduct and 653 antecedents, allowing them to do work of national importance under proper safeguards and restrictions?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir George Cave)I believe that certain interned British subjects have been allowed to go out of Ruhleben Camp for employment, but I do not know under what conditions. In this country interned civilians of approved conduct and antecedents have been licensed from the camps, under proper conditions, for employment in agriculture and other useful industries. The great majoriy of the persons so licensed are subjects of Austria-Hungary, but a few Germans have been employed where it appeared, after careful inquiry, that this could be done with safety and with advantage to the country.