§ Sir J. D. REESasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he will consider the desirability of appointing courts of inquiry in Switzerland, composed of officers unfit for active service, without delay, to acquit our prisoners of unjustifiable surrender; and whether he is aware that Hindu soldiers dying, while interned, often of wounds received on service, are grieved that their surrender, inevitable, unconscious, or unwilling, as the case may be, has not been officially found to be justifiable?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONI am afraid that this proposal is not practicable. The prescribed inquiries would necessitate the presence of military witnesses, who cannot be spared, and who could not be taken into a neutral country. It has also to be remembered that if this course were adopted it would give preferential treatment to prisoners who are interned in a neutral country over their comrades still in enemy countries.