§ MR. HOPWOODasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office, Whether the sum of £600, taken under Sub-head G, Vote 15, of the Army Estimates, and stated in the Vote to be a grant in Aid of certain Institutions, is the sum which Her Majesty's Government had it in contemplation to contribute to the funds of the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society?
§ SIR ARTHUR HAYTERThe sum of £600 is the amount which the War Office estimates will be contributed to the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society during the present financial year. Our intention is to assist those charitable societies which undertake to aid discharged soldiers in obtaining employment by grants not exceeding £2 in each case; provided that the military prisoner be well reported upon by the Governor 612 of the prison in which he has been confined, and is likely to benefit by the privilege. I may add that this arrangement will be an amplification of the system now in operation in military prisons of allowing prisoners of good conduct to make their own clothing and bedding out of materials supplied by the Clothing Department in place of shot drill, as a reward for good conduct.