REPATRIATION OF P.o.W.s.
SIR,—Under the heading Prisoners of War-in your Notes of Septem- ber loth you write: "There is in fact no justification for keeping any of them . . here at all sixteen months after the end of the war." Is this rather sweeping statement justified, and does the Note appreciate fully the position of the British farmer? As a result of the evil that the Germans wrought, our Government is calling upon British farmers to continue, if not increase, their war-time effort. The amount of British labour is inadequate, and many of our men are overseas (again because of the Germans' actions). Surely we have every right to demand that the Germans do all that is possible to ameliorate the distressing circum- stances which they have brought about, though our demand may be tempered by humanity and expediency. Also do not let us too readily forget what our lot would have been had the Germans won.—Yours [Germans are, of course, most useful in agriculture ; they would no doubt be equally useful in the building and various other industries. But that does not form a justification for keeping them here sixteen months after the war ended. The fact that the Allies have chosen to defer a definite peace with Germany certainly does not justify this continued detention.—En., The Spectator.]
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