64,800 WAR PRISONERS STILL MISSING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 169, 11 April 1919, Page 6

64,800 WAR PRISONERS STILL MISSING

GERMANY TO ACCOUNT FOE EVERY

ONE. In a reply to a question in the House of Commons, Mr. Joynson-Hicks, M.P., who asked tho Secretary for War how. many British soldiers hud been returned as missing during the war, how many of that number had been proved killed, how many had been recovered, and how many were still missinff without any trace, Mr. Churchill said on February U:

The present net total number of officers and men reported "missing," including prisoners of war, for all treatres and all services (Imperial and colonial) is approximately 359,800. Of this total it is estimated that approximately 198,000 have been prisoners. Death has been prsumed in the case of 97,000 men, owing to the abseuco of any indication for a long period that they were a'live. There are, therefore, still about G4.800 whose fate remains to bo determined. As a preliminary step to recover from Germany all who might still be detained there, medical units, fully staffed and equipped, were sent into each army corps district. Other Allied Powers undertook tfho same service, and each collected all of any Allied nationality. The German authorities called for a completo roll of all Allied prisoners still in the country on January 25, and issued a proclamation threatening heavy penalties against any who. did not bring those whom they knew to notice.

A list of those who are known to have been prisoners of war and who havo not yet been repatriated, or whose death has not been reported officially, is in preparation. It will be presented to tlio German Government with the demand that they account for every one of them. A central inquiry office under British supervision will shortly be established at Frankfort, from which inquiries regarding any who may still bo in Germany will be prosecuted. It is possible that a certain number of men may elect to stay in the country, 'end these may not make their presence known. It does not appear praelicablc to make a search of every village in Germany unless .tho co-operation of the German people can be enlisted. The question of offering a roward for the discovery pi British missins in Germany was discussed bv the Inter-Departmental Committee a 'short time ago. It was considered to bo most inadvisable at present, and to be adopted, it at all, only in the Inst resort. Replying to Mr. Macmaster, Mr. Churchill said that official reports aro received from enemy countries of the prisoners taken by them, and these are supplemented by tho evidence of the private correspondence of tlie prisoners themselves. ■ Reports are also received of the dead Jound by the enemy on the battlefield. Tliero is no oxact information os to the lorm of enemy prisoner records, but it is believed that thoy are kept, in considerable detail and arc practically complete, except in Hie case of Turkey. Tho defects of description in the official records are made gcml by the unofficial information as to Ihe prisoners. The suggestion that many of tho missing are in Germany in secret camps, asylums, elc„ has not so far been substantiated in any case, although every case has been investigated as far as possible.