§ 29. Sir A. Knoxasked the Secretary of State for War how many weeks' supply of prisoners of war parcels are at present in reserve at camps in Germany and how many weeks' supply are stored at Geneva, Marseilles and Lisbon. respectively.
§ 77. Sir Leonard Lyleasked the Secretary of State for War how far there is any immediate prospect of the resumption of the sending of parcels from this country to prisoners of war in Germany; and whether he can make a statement on the subject to allay the anxiety of the friends and relatives of the internees.
§ Sir J. GriggI regret that I have no up-to-date information regarding the actual reserves in the camps in Germany. The scale of these reserves will vary from camp to camp. At Geneva there are sufficient food parcels to provide all prisoners from the British Commonwealth with one parcel every fortnight up to the latter part of November; and there are nearly 1,500,000 food parcels at Lisbon. There are no supplies at Marseilles at the moment, but sailings from Lisbon are about to be resumed. It may not be possible, owing to transport difficulties in France, to arrange on-carriage from Marseilles to Geneva at once on the full scale operative before this route was interrupted, but everything possible is being done to restore the flow of supplies to its former extent.
§ Sir A. KnoxIs not the normal supply one parcel a week? Is there any prospect of that being resumed soon?
§ Sir J. GriggI would rather not give an assurance until I see that it is possible to resume the full service.