§ Major ADAMasked the Secretary of State for War if he would say how and when the lads, who were now being discharged from the Royal Arsenal, were informed that they were liable to discharge at the age of twenty-one?
§ Mr. HALDANEThe Ordnance Factory rules fix the age of twenty-one as the minimum age for an adult. Boys are engaged as such, and on reaching the age of twenty-one are no longer eligible for employment as boys. If there are vacancies for men they can be re-engaged as men, but if there are no vacancies, as has recently been the case, they cannot be re-engaged. The lads are well aware that their engagement as boys terminates at the age of twenty-one, and no formal intimation to this effect has been considered necessary.