In the House of Commons on Thursday week Sir George
Cave made a brief and guarded statement upon the Hague Agreement for the exchange and better treatment of prisoners of war. It provides for the repatriation of all combatant prisoners eighteen months in captivity, and for the return of civilians, combatants to to exchanged man for man and rank for rank, additional British soldiers to be returned against the ovorplus of German civilians here, "in proportions specified." The exchange covers combatants and civilians in Switzerland and Holland. As to treatment, the agreement " follows the lines of the Franco-Ger man Agreement," with special provisions regarding employment in mines and fighting areas, notification of capture, and neutral medical examination. Sir George Cave spoke of a " special reservation " by the German delegates. Probably the reference was to the plain suggestion, in German official journals, that any exchange of prisoners is to ho conditional upon a British undertaking not to deport Germans from China. People whose friends are prisoners in Germany must patiently face a protracted delay, and in the meantime do their utmost to make the lot of the captives tolerable.
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