HC Deb 31 July 1940 vol 363 cc1230-3
36. Mr. Sorensen

asked the Home Secretary how many internees have now been released on the ground of ill-health; how many have applied for release on that ground and how many are receiving medical treatment in internment camps; how many have committed suicide or have died from other causes in internment camps since the beginning of June; how many young people under 18 years of age have been interned; and whether he will modify the stipulation that young students need not be interned provided they are living with British families and therefore not with their parents?

Mr. Peake

I regret that the statistics asked for in the first six parts of the Question are not available. The time and labour which would be required to obtain this information can, my right hon. Friend thinks, be better devoted to the more urgent task of examining the cases of persons falling within the categories of eligibility for release from internment. The suggestion in the last part of the Question will be referred to the new Advisory Committee which my right hon. Friend has set up.

Mr. Sorensen

Cannot the hon. Gentleman give information regarding the number of suicides and attempted suicides? Does he not realise that this other information would go a little way towards re-establishing confidence in his Department with regard to this particular matter?

Mr. Peake

The staff of the Home Office are devoting all their attention at the present time to going through the categories of the persons who have been interned by mistake, and I do not want to divert them from that job in order to procure statistical information of an elaborate character. With regard to the question of suicides, the number which has come to my notice so far is two. I will look into the matter further and communicate with the hon. Member.

Sir Percy Harris

Could the hon. Gentleman give special consideration to old people over 60 who are sick? If they had a medical certificate to that effect, could they not be released?

Mr. Peake

We have already authorised the release of very considerable numbers of elderly people who are invalids and who, in our view, ought not to have been interned.

Mr. de Rothschild

Will the hon. Member look into the matter of the internees who are not of enemy nationality? Is he aware that there is a number of internees who are of Polish nationality?

Mr. Peake

I certainly will, but that matter does not arise out of the Question on the Paper.

Mr. Hammersley

Could the hon. Gentleman explain why there has been such delay in releasing these people?

Mr. Peake

I certainly can. There has been, as my hon. Friend is aware, some confusion in the internment camps, largely due to the large number of people interned and partly due to the fact that accurate records at the moment are not available, because there was considerable confusion owing to the amount of impersonation in regard to those sent to the Dominions. We are endeavouring at the present moment to secure an accurate list of the internees in each of the camps.

37. Mr. Parker

asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that Mr. Irming Geisler, a German internee, No. 44059, was rescued from the "Arandora Star" and is now in hospital; and whether, as his wife and children, who were interned at Douglas, are now en route to Australia, he may be sent to join his family when in a fit state of health?

Mr. Peake

I understand from the War Office that Mr. Geisler is in hospital and is doing well. His wife and children are not en route for Australia, and there is, at present, no intention of sending them there.

Commander Locker-Lampson

Will anybody be sent to Australia without his or her leave?

38. Mr. Silverman

asked the Home Secretary, seeing how many persons he has detained under Regulation 18B who came to this country in response to urgent newspaper advertisements in their own countries inviting them to set up new industries in distressed areas and who accepted that invitation and set up such industries accordingly, whether he will take steps to satisfy himself in each such case that there was good cause to justify each individual detention?

Mr. Peake

I think m3 hon. Friend probably has in mind aliens of enemy nationality who have been detained not under Regulation 18B but under the Prerogative power. His Majesty's Government had, of course, no responsibility for any advertisements which may have appeared in foreign newspapers, but applications from any persons who fall within the categories eligible for release will receive consideration in accordance with the policy already announced.

Mr. Silverman

Is the hon. Gentleman not aware that over a long period advertisements were published on behalf of the Special Areas for persons such as these, and a great many people came here and established factories, partly with their own capital and partly with capital allotted out of public funds?

Mr. Peake

I cannot see any reason for according to those who have established industries here, with or without the assistance of public finance, different treatment from the remainder a the internees.

Mr. Silverman

But you have done so.

Viscountess Astor

The next time an order is made like this for the internment of all aliens, will they say whose fault it was? Was it the Government's?

39. Mr. Graham White

asked the Home Secretary what changes in the status of citizens in Czecho-Slovakia interned in this country follow from the recognition of the Czech National Committee by His Majesty's Government?

Mr. Peake

No change is involved in the status of citizens of Czecho-Slovakia who, from the outbreak of war, have been treated as nationals of an Allied State.

Mr. White

Will the case of Czechs be included in that revision, which was promised in reply to an earlier Question?

Mr. Peake

The position of Czechs who have been interned is, of course, that they have been interned for individual causes and not as the result of any measure of general internment.

Mr. Wedgwood

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that in many cases these Czechs have been interned because they had associations which were deemed to be Socialist, and therefore dangerous?

Captain Alan Graham

Is any decision as to the future of Slovaks involved in the recognition of Czech nationality?

Mr. Peake

I cannot answer that on this Question.