Though Lord Robert Cecil's speech shows a slight inclination towards
the policy which we have advocated in the Spectator in regard to interned prisoners, we cannot say that it in any way satisfies us. We are glad to note, however, in the correspondence in the Timer that there is a fairly widespread opinion in favour of agreeing to the German proposal to exchange, without counting heads, the civilian interned prisoners of German nationality whom we hold here for the interned British civilians now in German camps. As Lord Robert said, we hold something like twenty thousand German civilians, against some four thousand British civilians held by them. In the ease of prisoners of war such an unequal eichangecould not be made, but wo altogether fail to see that we gain any advantage by holding the odd sixteen thousand Germans whom we should have to keep here if the Germans agreed on an exchange of man for man. It cannot be seriously argued that the German civilians who have been interned here for nearly two years would be of any fighting value to Germany. They are no longer the stuff of which soldiers are made.
