5 SEPTEMBER 1947, Page 5

If we are going to go on keeping German prisoners

here when they have done their part in getting in the harvest (which we mani- festly ought not to), we ought at any rate to do what is possible to make the rest of their enforced stay in this country as pleasant as the circumstances permit, and profitable as well. To some extent that is being done by the educational courses at camps like Wilton Park, and I have been particularly impressed by what I have been told of an experiment now in progress at the Essex town of Brain- tree, where an attempt is made to give some thirty prisoners, selected for their receptivity, a picture of the daily life of an English country 'town. On one occasion the Germans, well mixed up for social purposes with an equal number of townspeople, heard a kcture on English local government, followed by questions ; on another they went over the court-house and heard a lecture on the English judicial and magisterial system ; on another they were taken over a particu- larly efficient and up-to-date local factory ; and no doubt there is more to come. This is an example that could well be copied else- where, and I hope it will be.