§ 23. Mr. ANDERSONasked the President of the Local Government Board whether, in his circular to local authorities on the tribunals to be set up under the recruiting scheme, he stipulated that the men elected to these tribunals should be of impartial and balanced judgment; whether he is aware that the Loughborough Town Council has quoted this Regulation in order to justify the exclusion from the tribunal of any direct representative of the working classes; whether any letter of complaint has been received from the Trades and Labour Council; whether any official of the Local Government Board has been to Loughborough, and, if so, with what result; and 595 whether he will take steps to impress upon the Loughborough Town Council that, in suggesting that representatives of the working classes are men of partial and unbalanced judgment, they have placed an invidious and unwarrantable interpretation upon the circular issued by his Department?
§ Mr. HAYES FISHERThe answer to the first paragraph of the question is in the affirmative, and the words used do not warrant any such interpretation as is conveyed in the last paragraph of the question. Representations have been received from the Loughborough Trades Council as to the composition of the local tribunal for Loughborough, and my right hon. Friend has caused inquiries to be made through one of his inspectors. He understands that there is a working man on the tribunal, and the Trades Council have been informed that the circumstances are not such as would justify the interference of his Department with the choice made by the Town Council, which consists of the elected representatives of the town.