asked the Secretary of State for War if, now that German prisoners are allowed to use public transport, he will relax the rule that they must not go more than five miles from their camp, bearing in mind that some camps are more than five miles from the nearest towns.

asked the Secretary of State for War if he will reconsider the limited radius of five miles from camp that has been, and is still to be, allowed to prisoners of war during recreation hours; and whether commandants will be instructed to increase the radius where camps are more than five miles from a town.

The suggestion made by my hon. Friends has already been widely applied, as Commands "have authority at their discretion to extend the five-mile limit specially to include a town or other area the prisoners of war may want to visit.

While realising that it has in fact been widely applied, may I ask whether my hon. Friend would not give a general ruling, since individual commandants vary considerably in severity?

No, Sir, we must take account of local conditions. If the hon. Member has a specific case in mind, we will look into it, but we ought to have this safeguard behind us.