§ 87 and 88. Mr. R. McNEILLasked the Home Secretary (1) whether he is aware that on the evening of Sunday, the 20th of October, some of the enemy aliens at Grassington were drinking in a public-house in the village in which was displayed an extract from a speech by the Food Controller urging economy in the consumption of alcohol as a patriotic duty; and whether, in view of the exasperation caused by the sight of enemies consuming without restraint an article of diet from which British working men are exhorted to abstain, he will give instructions that enemy aliens in internment camps or working settlements shall be prohibited from obtaining or consuming alcoholic liquors; (2) if he is aware of the continued dissatisfaction that prevails in the neighbourhood of Grassington on account of the lack of control over the enemy aliens interned there; if he is aware that there is no one, except a single caretaker, to enforce the rule confining the aliens to their quarters after 9 p.m., and that this rule is systematically broken, the aliens being frequently found at a distance from the huts at late hours of the night; if he is aware that the wife of a Grassington resident was recently accosted, insulted, and frightened by one of the aliens, and that the women and girls of the neighbourhood are afraid to go about unprotected; and whether he will take steps to provide adequate supervision over the aliens at Grassington and, in particular, to have them confined to their huts after sunset under sufficient guard to enforce observance of the regulation?
§ Mr. BRACEI will answer these questions together. I have made inquiry of the police, and they do not confirm the statements in my hon. Friend's questions. They report that the men referred to are generally well-behaved, that no complaints have been received this year, and that they have no reason to think that there is dissatisfaction or alarm in the neighbourhood. The men are engaged in work of importance for the country.
§ Mr. McNEILLWhen the evidence of the police conflicts with the evidence of residents in the neighbourhood, is the policeman to have the last word in every case?
§ Mr. McNEILLCan I send my right hon. Friend evidence taken from other sources?