[Extracted from HO 45/24677]

Role of Advisory Committe 1915-1919

Introduction

When following the sinking of the Lusitania in early May 1915 the Uk Government decided to intern all male enemy subjects of military age a committee was established to resolve appeals against both such internment and against compulsory repatriations. This committee would appear to have had two periods of operation - the few months following the decision and again in 1918 when decisions as to deportation or release of internees arose. The Committee was established on the 24th May 1915 under Mr Justice Sankey

Notes

There would appear to be no memos etc., issuing from this committee held in the records - a cover note to the file states that "the rest of this file ... was apparently destroyed during the 1939-45 War - quite wrongly" thus there would appear to be no accounts as to what evidence was used nor even which cases came before them.

The 1920 Home Office report on the PoW Branch states "The Committee began its work in June 1915. It divided itself into two Committees, each presided over by one of the Judges; one to deal with internment and one to deal with Repatriation." . It must have worked quickly, and as each sub-committee dealt with over 12,000 cases, probably had a somewhat rigid set of guidelines. By the end of September, just 3 months later, they were stood down

to Mr. Justice Sankey.

29th September, 1915.

My dear Judge,

I learn that the work of the Internment Committee so far as ordinary cases of internment are concerned is, in effect, finished, though every now and then & case or two which has, escaped attention or which needs to be re-considered is bound to present itself. It seems to me that it would be unreasonable to keep your Committee in being for the purpose of dealing with these few casual instances, and I think the Home Office might take the responsibility now of deciding any further cases of ordinary internment without troubling your Committees. So far as Regulation 14B cases are concerned, it is necessary to keep the Committee in being in order that the Defence of the Realm Regulations may be satisfied, and, moreover, we should feel ourselves deprived of assistance which has been absolutely invaluable if we could not continue to count on the help of you and your Committee in investigating those cases. There will, I am afraid, be a few more of them, but not many, and I hope it will not be inconvenient for our Committtee from time to time to have this addition to their work.

May I take this opportunity of repeating to you how grateful I am for the devoted service which every Member of your Committee has given in the public interest to this difficult, and in some ways unpleasant, work.

Believe me,

Yours very truly Sgd John Simon

The next record on file dates from early October 1918, possibly looking forward to the successful conclusion of the work and the need to empty the internment camps and meet the clamour to expell all enemy aliens post war. The Committee was joined by a new member Lord Cheylesmore thus requiring a new warrant.

7th October, 1918.

Home Office, Whitehall, S.W.

I HEREBY APPOINT:-

The Honourable Mr. Justice Sankey, G.B.E.,
The Honourable Mr. Justice Younger, G.B.E.,
Major-General Lord Cheylesmore, K.C.V.O.,
The Lord Lambourne, C.V.O.,
The Right Honourable Sir Donald Maclean, K.B.E., M.P. and
Mr. John J. Mooney, M.P., to be an Advisory Committee for the purposes of Regulation 14B. of the Defence of the Realm Regulations:

AND I APPOINT Mr. Justice Sankey to preside over such Committee.

The handwritten note adds "there should be no publication. It is quite enough to let the Secretary have a copy of the new appointment"

Yet again the Committee worked quickly to clear the decks judging by the only other document on file

Memo dated 21st November 1918

I saw the Advisory Committee presided over by Mr. Justice Sankey this afternoon.

They propose to wind up the business now before them as follows:-

(1) There are a number of cases where they have recommended internment but where the internment is suspended pending evidence as to the men's state of a health. They asked if the Home Office would undertake to deal with these cases in accordance with the medical certificates. I agreed,

(2) There are a number of men who were provisionally interned in July and August last, and whose representations have not yet been considered by the Committee. A number of these are persons who would, under general rules followed by the Committee, be exempted from internment on the ground of their having sons serving in the British Army, The Committee asked if the Home office would be prepared to deal with cases in accordance with the Committee's general rule. I said I thought we could undertake this. The Committee themselves would deal with the rest of these cases - about 130 in number.

(3) There are three or four difficult cases which have been specially referred to the Committee by the Secretary of State, and they will deal with these at once.

(4) There are about 70 cases of interned men qualified for repatriation who do not wish to return to Germany and have appealed to the Committee. These the Committee will deal with.

Subject to this the Committee would propose not to take up any other cases until after the General Election, when it is possible the Government may wish to lay down some modified line of policy. There appears to them to be no immediate need for further internments, and on the other hand they thought it necessary to wait before dealing with repatriation cases, in case the Government should think it necessary to deal with them on more stringent lines than heretofore.

As the S. of S. has indicated in his minutes that he does not think any further internments necessary at present, except in special cases, and as he stated in his speech in the House of Lords last night that when the time came for the repatriation of interned persons, very few exceptions would be made, I agreed to these proposals.

Pending the Committee's resuming their work after the new Parliament meets, they suggested that the Home Office might deal with any cases in which men, exempted from internment in order to do work of national importance, should desert their work or be dismissed or otherwise cease to be employed, interning them, unless on other grounds, such as their eage or their having sons serving in the Army, they would have been exempted from internment under the rules ordinarily followed by the Committee. I said we were already doing this and would continue to do it.

Re-internments and new internments continue to be found in the records sent to the ICRC even well past the Armistice.

Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2025