Neither Enemies Nor Allies: Italian Prisoners in the United Kingdom After the Armistice

The Armistice with Italy had been greeted in the corridors of Whitehall, and in Britain as a whole, as the first practical indication that the war in Europe was being won. In its aftermath, as we have seen, the Churchill administration went to great lengths to protect the status of its Italian prisoners in order that they could continue to be used as a labour supply, both in the United Kingdom, and in its Empire and the dominions. Yet even as the diplomats were pulling out all the stops to protect this supposed asset, the first doubts were being cast on the utility of the Italian labour force, as a telling internal memorandum from the Ministry of Agriculture made clear:

When these prisoners started work the general experience was that they were first class workers. I am sorry to report that they have steadily deteriorated ever since, particularly where the prisoners have been working in small gangs without a proper ganger…The prisoners have discovered that nothing happens if they don’t work very hard.¹

Nevertheless, their numbers in the United Kingdom continued to increase as more were brought from camps in various parts of Africa, and their geographical and occupational distribution across the country continued to widen. Moreover, in spite of these disparaging comments from central government, the demand for labour showed no signs of abating.