TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 15 July 1916, Page 5

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

GERMAN REPLY TO BRITISH CHARGE. LONDON, July 13. Lord Robert Cecil, in the House of Commons, read a lengthy German reply categorically repudiating the charges that they have not recognised their obligations regarding food for British prisoners. The Government sanctioned the despatch of collective consignments to prisoners, on condition that they did not. contain a predominance of the commodities which arc only obtainable to a limited .extent by Germans, in consequence of the British blockade. If, as reprisals, the rations issued to German prisoners are reduced, the German Government proposed not only to withdraw the collective consignments of parcels, but also the reception of individual parcels. -Lord Robt. Cecil added that the last oart of the German reply, regarding the exchange of civilian prisoners, appeared to mean that we should release all German civilians in exchange for all British civilians regardless of their respective numbers. It was proposed to reply that this proposal could not 1)«? accepted. It meant .sending 20,000 Germans for four thousand British. He would propose to repatriate civilians over 50 and all over 45 unfit for service. Of the remainder, equal numbers of each nationally should bo interned in a neutral country. Replying to a query as to whether this meant the abandonment of the policy of reprisals, Lord Cecil said the Government would hold a free hand to retaliate if it was the only way of securing justice.