Prisoners of War
The decision of the Cabinet to repatriate German prisoners of war at the initial rate of 15,000 a month is a step to be welcomed as far as it goes. But it is very far from adequate. The decision is in itself an admission that we have no justification for keeping these men here indefinitely. There is in fact no justification for keeping any of them, except notorious Nazis whose return to the country would be a public danger, here at all sixteen months after the end of the war. The rate of their repatriation must be determined by the amount of transport available, but it ought to be limited by that alone. To send home all prisoners in this country at the rate of 15,000 a month would take 26 months—and it must be re- membered that, apart from the exception mentioned above, the last 15,000 are just as fully entitled to repatriation as the first. Farmers here will, of course, miss the valuable contribution the Germans have made, but that does not justify a continuance of this forced labour; there is good reason to believe that a large number of Germans- some of them here now, some at present in Germany—would readily volunteer for farm-work in this country if guaranteed condi- tions not substantially inferior to an English agricultural labourers. Even if that is not so we have no right to retain the prisoners as a matter of convenience, or even in order to meet an urgent need.
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