HC Deb 07 August 1918 vol 109 cc1403-4W
Lord HENRY CAVENDISH-BENTINCK

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, during 1916 and 1917, the Ottoman Government agreed to allow a hospital ship to embark at Messina a number of British and Indian invalid prisoners and to land there clothing and food for the prisoners remaining in Turkey; whether the British Government subsequently decided not to avail itself of this arrangement; and whether, in view of the mortality among prisoners in Turkey, before and since that event, the Government will state the reasons for its action?

Mr. HOPE

In anote verbale, addressed to the United States Ambassador at Constantinople on the 11th January, 1917, the Ottoman Government stated that a British hospital might proceed to Messina to repatriate twenty-five Turkish officials from Amara and the families of certain Turkish officials from the Hedjaz, and to bring back twenty-five British women and children from Baghdad. There was no question of the repatriation of invalid combatants by such a vessel, and the number of British invalid combatants which the Turkish Government were at that time prepared to repatriate by any route was insignificant. As a hospital ship could not properly be used for the repatriation of others than invalids, the arrangement proposed was unacceptable. The Turkish Government, at the same time, stated that the same hospital ship might bring stores for British prisoners of war, but on the express condition that they should be consigned directly to the Turkish authorities. This condition was also obviously unacceptable. It was only as the result of negotiations which culminated in the Berne agreement that the Turkish Government agreed to repatriate any considerable number of British prisoners of war, and to allow stores sent by the repatriation ship to be distributed by a neutral agency.