Oral Answers to Questions — Government Departments. – in the House of Commons at on 19 November 1941.
Mr Reginald Purbrick
, Liverpool, Walton
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why the seven French citizens were interned in Syria for which action the Vichy Government have interned 14 Englishmen; and what action does he propose to take against the Vichy Government for their unwarranted reprisal?
Mr Anthony Eden
, Warwick and Leamington
The French citizens in question were interned in Syria by the Free French authorities as hostages for an equal number of French officers who had been sent by the Vichy authorities from Syria to France before the Syrian Armistice because they wished to join the Free French Movement. While negotiations on this subject were still in progress the Vichy Government arrested and interned 14 British subjects. It has been made clear that whatever the outcome of the negotiations, which are continuing, the release of the Vichy citizens in Syria is contingent upon the simultaneous release of the British subjects at present interned in France.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
