§ 29. Mr AGG-GARDNERasked the Home Secretary whether applications by women for licences to drive motor cabs plying for hire have been refused by the Metropolitan Police; and, if so, on what grounds the refusal has been based?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir John Simon)I am informed by the Commissioners that a few such applications have been received, but there is no shortage of licensed drivers. Some months ago the secretaries of the National and Provincial Union of Vehicle Workers who were requested by the War Office to secure the enlistment of as many public carriage drivers as possible for transport work at the front, informed the Commissioner of Police that they could not carry out their task satisfactorily unless they were authorised by him to inform the drivers that there Would, 1000 as far as possible, be no alteration in licensing conditions during the absence of the men at the front, so that on return they might not find themselves displaced. The Commissioner informed the secretaries that so far as he was concerned they could give the men this assurance.