§ 42. Mr. Keelingasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that a member of the British Forces, after conviction by a Maltese court which the Privy Council have since advised His Majesty to quash, spent two months in a Maltese prison in which the food and clothing are, unless supplemented, inadequate, bugs prevent sleep, a single watercloset is provided for 93 men in one section and the sanitary conditions generally are bad; and whether he will exercise his power under the Colonial Prisoners Removal Act, 1884, to transfer to a prison in the United Kingdom all officers and men of the British Forces sentenced to civil imprisonment in Malta.
§ The Secretary of State for the Colonies (Colonies Oliver Stanley)The person in question was sentenced on 31st July and released on 27th September, 1943. On his release he complained of the conditions in the prison, and an investigation was made by the Malta Government. Some of the complaints, in regard for example to food and clothing, related to deficiencies which were the result of the prolonged siege and were in process of being remedied. Apart from these matters, the investigation, without substantiating all the complaints, indicated a number of directions in which improvements were desirable and these were put in hand. One of His Majesty's 1378 Prison Commissioners is now in Malta at the invitation of the Malta Government to review the prison administration generally. The suggestion made in the last part of the Question will be considered in the light of his report.
§ Mr. KeelingAs it is utterly wrong that a member of the British Fighting Forces should be subjected to such abominable conditions in a British Colony, I beg to give notice that I shall repeat the last part of the Question after the Recess.