§ Mr. BYRNEasked the Prime Minister if he will take steps to safeguard the students in the Irish College, Rome, against Conscription; if he is aware that in Italy a Bill is being introduced in Parliament which will oblige all British subjects living abroad to return home for Conscription or join the Army of the Allied country where they are; whether any arrangement on this matter is being made by an international convention of the Allied nations; if, since Irishmen are not subject to Conscription at Home, he will see that they are not included, wherever they are, in the proposed Bill nor in the arrangements of the proposed international convention; if he will see that the students of the Irish College and those of the Franciscan, Dominican, and Augustinian convents in Rome will be excluded from the proposed Bill; and if he will see that there shall be no interference with the Irish students in the American propaganda, English, and Scottish colleges in Italy and elsewhere?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONIn the event of legislation of the nature referred to in the hon. Member's question being passed in Italy, it would be necessary for an agreement to be concluded between His Majesty's Government and the Italian Government before British subjects resident in Italy could be called up for compulsory service in the Italian Army. Should such an agreement be concluded, it would be made under the provisions of the Military Service (Conventions with Allied States) Bill, Section. 1 (a) of which provides that the agreement shall ensure that the British Ambassador to the contracting country shall grant exemption in any case where a British subject resident in the contracting country proves that he is not domiciled in the contracting country and that before proceeding to the contracting country he was ordinarily resident in some part of His Majesty's Dominions other than Great Britain.