§ 7. Mr. TIMOTHY DAVIESasked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he will give the number of German, Austrian, and Turkish prisoners of war held by us; and whether he will state how many of them are employed in the country on agriculture and the number doing other work of national importance and the character of that work?
§ Mr. HOPE (Lord of the Treasury)I am informed by the military authorities that there are in this country 97,060 German, I Turkish, and 1,387 Austrian combatant prisoners. It is impossible to give the exact figures of the prisoners held by us at this moment abroad; but as I said yesterday the total number taken, according to the latest returns, is 327,416. Of these 264,242 are Germans, and the great majority of the remainder are Turks.
All the combatant prisoners in this country whom it is possible to put to work are employed on work of national importance, 1262 such as agriculture, road-making, quarrying, timber cutting, and the like.