§ LORD PORTSEAasked His Majesty's Government whether the British subjects deported from Guernsey and sent to concentration camps are and will be treated as prisoners of war, and whether parcels of food, etc., can be sent to them through the agency of the Red Cross.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE FOR INDIA AND BURMA (THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE)I should point out to the noble Lord that his use of the term concentration camp is liable to misunderstanding. His Majesty's Government has no information to show that the German Government is treating the deported Channel Islanders other than as civilian internees. It has been agreed generally between the British and German Governments that the provisions of the Prisoners of War Convention, 1929, shall be applied to civilian internees so far as applicable. The provisions applicable include those relating to correspondence and food parcels. Directly information was received in this country that these Channel Islanders had been deported from the Islands and placed in civilian internment camps in Germany, the International Red Cross Committee was requested by the British Red Cross to despatch food parcels to these camps, according to the arrangements in force in other British civilian internment camps and British prisoner of war camps in Germany.
House adjourned.