PRISONERS FOR EXCHANGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16282, 15 July 1916, Page 7

PRISONERS FOR EXCHANGE.

| j ! GERMAN PROPOSITION". I i i j BALANCE ON WRONG SIDE. j A:i»t. and X.Z. Tabic LONDON. J-.;:- 13. ! Lord Robert ( ceil, in the House ,of Commons, read a lengthy Ger- ! man statement, categorically repud- ! iating the charge that Germany had , not recognised her obligations re- ' garding the supply of food to British prisoners. The German Govj eminent, it stated, sanctioned the despatch of collective consignments : to prisoners on condition that they did not contain a predominance of those commodities which were only obtainable to a limited extent by j Germans, in consequence of the i British blockade. If. as a reprisal, ! the rations of German prisoners I were reduced, the German GovernI ment proposed not only to withdraw I the permission to send collective consignments of parcels, but also the reception of individual parcels. Lord Cecil added that the last part of the German reply, rcgardI '.np the exchange of civilian pri- ' c oners. appeared to mean that BriI tain should release ail German civi- ! lians in exchange, for all British civibans. r»'gardle<s of the respective . number:-. It \\a- proposed to reply ■ that tiiis offer could not be accepted, ; it rue. sending l'O.uhO Germans for I lonn British. He would propose to i repatriate civilians over the age of I 50 an 1 all over 45 who were unfit ■for service. Of the remainder, ha ! would suggest that equal numbers jof each nationality should be ini terned in a neutral country. ( Replying to a query whether this 1 meant the abandonment of the policy I of reprisals. Lord Cecil stated that the Government would hold a fred j hand to retaliate if that was th<3 i only way of securing justice. j only way of securing justice.