HC Deb 10 February 1948 vol 447 cc29-30W
29 and 30. Mr. Bramall

asked the Secretary of State for War (1) why the 27 German officers and 187 other ranks interned by the Japanese at Singapore were changed from prisoners of war to surrendered personnel on 19th February, 1946, and changed back to prisoners of war in July, 1946, with consequent loss of hopes of repatriation;

(2) why the German military personnel interned by the Japanese at Singapore were not repatriated as surrendered personnel on arrival in this country as they had been promised by the military authorities in Singapore but converted into prisoners of war and therefore retained in this country.

Mr. Shinwell

These men were treated as surrendered enemy personnel from the date on which they came into the custody of Allied Forces, and were given prisoner of war status on arrival in the United Kingdom for administrative reasons. Surrendered enemy personnel have no prior right, as such, to repatriation before prisoners of war, and they therefore lost nothing by the change of status. My information is that no official promise of repatriation was made to them.