§ 29. Mr. Sorensenasked the Home Secretary how long friendly aliens, who have been temporarily interned or whose 404 application has been rejected, have to wait before their appeal can be heard; how many of such friendly aliens have been interned; and whether the five-mile restriction on the movement of certain friendly aliens will be varied or suspended after a period of three months?
§ Sir J. AndersonAs regards persons who have been interned, if the hon. Member will send me particulars of any cases in which he thinks the tribunals have ordered the internment on security grounds of Germans or Austrians whose friendly disposition to this country is so clear that their internment was unjustified, I will look into such cases at once. The tribunals have ordered internment in a very small proportion of the cases which they have reviewed and my impression is that they have exercised their discretion with great care. As regards those cases in which the tribunals have decided that Germans or Austrians ought on security grounds to be required to get a police permit if they wish to travel, I know of no reason for varying or suspending this requirement after a fixed period of three months.
§ Mr. SorensenWhile appreciating the reply, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he does not think it an unnecessary hardship to impose on certain alien women in this country the condition that they cannot travel more than five miles from where they are supposed to live, and therefore very often cannot see their own children, who may be in some other part of the country?
§ Sir J. AndersonThe condition can be imposed only on security grounds, and it is imposed only after the tribunal have gone into the merits of the case.
§ Mr. SorensenIf a woman is adjudged sufficiently innocent of any subversive acts against this country to be free to wander within a radius of five miles, could she not do damage within that five miles just as much as she could outside it?
§ Sir J. AndersonThe alternative is internment.
Miss RathboneCan the right hon. Gentleman say whether those cases have been revised where aliens were put in category B subsequent to the period when the right hon. Gentleman issued a circular disparaging the use of category B, and can he say whether those cases of restriction have been revised since the use of category B was advised against by his Department?
§ Sir J. AndersonI think I had better send the hon. Lady a written reply to that question.