§ Mr. Ammonasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Warfare whether he is aware of the grave shortage of food and fuel in the Channel Islands; and will he explore the possibility of the inhabitants being treated as prisoners of war and supplied with parcels of food and clothing through the agency of the Red Cross?
524W
§ Mr. FootInformation which we have recently received confirms the statement which I made on 30th September to my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby (Mr. W. Brown). I then said that the evidence available suggests that although there is a marked shortage of food in the islands by comparison with this country, and an almost total lack of certain particular products, the effect of the deficiencies has not been such as to impair the general health of the inhabitants. There is also a shortage of fuel, and gas has been severely rationed. As regards the second part of the Question, prisoners of war are a distinct category with well-defined status under international conventions, and an established machinery exists for ensuring the transmission and control of gifts sent to them. They are maintained in conditions which minimise the possible benefit to the enemy of allowing such gifts to pass through the blockade. These conditions do not prevail in the case of the civilian population of occupied territories, nor would it be practicable to extend to the whole of enemy-occupied Europe the machinery applicable to a relatively small number of prisoners of war. For reasons which have frequently been stated, His Majesty's Government cannot in this matter draw a distinction between the Channel Islands and other enemy-occupied territories.