§ Mr. NEEDHAMasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that letters of relatives written to intermediary societies abroad about missing soldiers are returned to writers if they contain details of battalions of the missing soldiers; and whether he can arrange with the chief postal censor to delete information which is objected to, and then send such letters forward instead of returning them to the senders and thus causing loss of time when the senders are suffering anxiety?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONLetters of the kind referred to in the first part of the question if they contained one indiscretion only—that is, the battalion number of a casualty—have usually been sent on after the excision or deletion of the objectionable item. Instructions have been given that in future only those letters shall be returned to sender which are excessively mutilated by the necessary deletions. The hon. Member does not realise, perhaps, that lists of all missing soldiers are circulated officially through prisoners of war camps and hospitals in enemy countries, and that in this way, though it is not claimed that every source of information is exhausted, a much wider field is covered than by any individual inquiry.