39. Lieutenant-Colonel GUINNESSasked the Secretary of State for War whether any order has been issued to the whole or any part of the Army of Occupation to forbid or to limit the billeting of British troops on the Catholic clergy in Germany; whether he is aware that such order deprives British troops of what is generally the best accommodation in the villages; and whether, in view of the willingness with which the French Catholic clergy during the War received British troops in their houses, he will say why this special advantage should have been given to the Catholic clergy in enemy territory?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLOn representation made by the Archbishop of Cologne to Marshal Foch, 2nd Army issued instructions that messes should not be accommodated in vicarages if other accommodation was available. The order does not preclude the use of vicarages for billeting troops, and some vicarages are being used for these purposes. No discrimination between different creeds was made.
Lieutenant-Colonel GUINNESSIs it not a fact that the vicarage is by far the best messing accommodation in the village?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI am quite content to base myself on the arrangements which have been entered into by Marshal Foch for the general conduct of the Allied Army on the Rhine Front, and the British Army will conform to what is thought to be the regular view.