§ 47. Mr. BOTTOMLEYasked the Prime Minister whether, before this country is committed to supplying Germany with food, he will take steps to stop the large 1059 consignments regularly arriving at German prisoner-of-war camps in this country of bacon, butter, flour, sugar, cakes, apples, and cheese, or, in the alternative, to commandeer such parcels and treat them as part of the rations for the prisoners?
Captain GUESTThe parcels received in this country from Germany for German prisoners of war are sent in accordance with agreements made during the War. The amount of foodstuffs they contain is not sufficiently large to make an appreciable difference.
Sir J. D. REESIs it not obvious that if one consignment was commandeered no more would come, and that the small amount that does come blunts the appetite of these prisoners for British provisions, and therefore there is a saving to the State?