§ 116. Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the names of 637 conscientious objectors who had served two years' imprisonment and have been recently released from prison on this ground have been collected, and whether he can account for the discrepancy between these figures and the 404 given by Viscount Peel on 3rd April as the official Home Office figures of the conscientious objectors who have been in prison two years or over?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Shortt)The apparent discrepancy is mainly due to the aggregate period qualifying for discharge having been reduced from twenty-four to twenty months. The number of those who 1354 complete twenty months' imprisonment, of course, increases from day to day. Further, the figure of 637 given by the hon. and gallant Member probably includes some prisoners who at the beginning of April were temporarily at large under the Act of 1913 and consequently were not included in Viscount Peel's figure of 464, which appeared in the Official Report as 404.