§ Mr. G. Porterasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the number of Irish citizens detained in this country for political offences and what are the possibilities of their release.
§ Mr. EdeI presume that my hon. Friend refers to the persons who are undergoing sentences of penal servitude imposed on conviction under the criminal law for the part they took in the I.R.A. outrages which occurred in 1939. Forty-seven of these persons are still in prison in this country but I am unable to say, without special inquiry into each case, how many of them are citizens of Eire.
All cases of persons serving long sentences are subject to regular review but I regret that I am unable to find any grounds upon which I should be justified in advising anything in the nature of a general reduction of the sentences which the courts thought it necessary to impose in these cases. As I have already announced it has been decided that the old 1508W custom of granting a general amnesty for civilian prisoners ought not to be revived, and. there would be no justification for singling out a special class of civil prisoner for exceptional treatment.