HC Deb 21 July 1924 vol 176 cc848-9
12. Sir C. YATE

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the feeling that has been aroused in India against the readmission of German missionaries consequent on their conduct in the late War; and will he take steps to prevent the removal of the present ban on their return to India?

Mr. RICHARDS

No change is at present contemplated in the Government of India's policy of general exclusion of Germans, including missionaries, from India for five years from the official date of the termination of the War. The prohibition may be relaxed in the case of individual missionaries under very stringent safeguards, including a condition that the head of the mission in India in which such missionary would work must he a British subject.

Sir C. YATE

Considering what was done by these German missionaries during the War and the present state of India, does not the hon. Gentleman think it would be most unsatisfactory and unjustifiable to re-admit them?

Mr. RICHARDS

I think that point is safeguarded in the terms of the reply.

Major Sir BERTRAM FALLE

Does the hon. Gentleman remember that the German missionary who was found in the Cameroons working for his country said he was a German first and a missionary afterwards?