HC Deb 17 July 1940 vol 363 cc222-3W
Sir R. Clarry

asked the Home Secretary what steps can be taken by British firms who are either Government contractors or producing for the export trade, to safeguard from internment certain specialists or essential key men in their employ, who are enemy aliens, by birth, but by every known standard emphatically antagonistic to Nazidom and desirous of maintaining their work and loyalty for the British cause?

Sir J. Anderson

I have already given instruction to the police which I hope will prevent the internment of specialists or key workers engaged in connection with Government contracts or essential export trade. If in any individual case such a person should nevertheless be interned, it is open to his firm to make representations to the appropriate Government Department and I am always ready to consider the question of releasing any internee who is certified to me by a Government Department as willing and able to render services of importance to the community.