§ Major Procterasked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware of the numbers of men in the Middle East force who have been overseas for six years and over and are still waiting to come home; why the condition is imposed that, to secure home leave, six years continuous service, dating from any 1st January is necessary, since a soldier going overseas say on l0th January has to wait until nearly a year after his six years' service has been completed; and whether he will take steps to investigate and remedy cases of hardship of the kind?
§ Sir J. GriggIn order to make the arrangements for shipping and for replacements it is necessary to know well in advance how many men are being brought home. A date must be chosen arbitrarily for this purpose and some men will inevitably find that they are just excluded from the arrangements now being made. The scheme is, however, to continue and I hope in addition that it will in time be possible to reduce the qualifying period of overseas service to five years.