HC Deb 06 December 1939 vol 355 cc618-9
4. Mr. Noel-Baker

asked the Prime Minister whether he has any information concerning recent events in CzechoSlovakia?

Mr. Butler

My Noble Friend's direct sources of information on this subject are restricted, but he has no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of reports which appeared recently in the Press regarding the brutal measures of repression undertaken by the German authorities at Prague. It will be remembered that these reports stated that the ringleaders among the students were shot and the University at Prague and Czech high schools have been shut down. Some of these measures were, in fact, confirmed by the German wireless.

Mr. Noel-Baker

Have the Foreign Office been able to form any provisional estimate of the number of Czechs who have been shot in recent weeks and the number now in concentration camps?

Mr. Butler

We have no exacť figures on which we can frame a reliable estimate.