§ MR. RENDALL (Gloucestershire, Thornbury)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether having regard 225 to the fact that railway companies invariably refuse cheapened tickets to private soldiers and non-commissioned officers when out of uniform, and thereby make largely useless the lately granted privileges of wearing plain clothes when on leave, he will consider the desirability of bringing pressure to bear upon them to accept a written form or metal disc as proof of being in His Majesty's service; and whether, in default of securing such a reform by arrangement, he will support amendments to future railway Bills making the acceptance of some such evidence by railway companies compulsory.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) It must be remembered that the fact that non-commissioned officers and soldiers travel at reduced rates when proceeding on furlough and leave is due to a concession on the part of the railway companies, and this concession has been of great value to the bulk of the Army. Renewed efforts will, however, be made to induce the railway companies to permit J the use of cheapened tickets to non-commissioned officers and private soldiers when out of uniform. I am not prepared to endeavour to secure the concession by the means suggested in the last part of the Question.