german officials tried several diplomatic routes to get the germans in persia released, trading them for british trapped in sweden and threatening to intern british civilians, including those in the channel islands. hitler decided to hold them in the pripet marshes, with a ratio of 10 british for each german interned. britain's response was to inform the germans that any action against civilians in the channel islands would be against the hague convention. the german military (the wehrmacht) was unhappy with the use of the pripet marshes, an operational area where they did not want allied officials to visit. the foreign ministry worried that a proposal to confiscate property of internees could be repeated against german internees in britain.