71. Mr. NEWDEGATEasked the Prime Minister whether he is prepared to make a public announcement that, in order to 766 release for military service Government employés who are of military age and otherwise fit, the Government will be glad to avail themselves for the period of the War of the services of men of business of experience who are ineligible to serve in the Army; whether, to expedite matters, he will request the county councils and municipalities to receive the names of persons anxious to undertake these duties whether he will arrange that names thus, tendered shall be sent to headquarters in London by county councils and municipalities, according to their discretion, so that eligible Government employés may be released for military service on the earliest possible occasion; if he will state what person or persons have hitherto been authorised to refuse such service already tendered; and whether he is aware that competent citizens who have had their services hitherto refused are unable to understand the policy of the Government who, while asking for more men for military service and thereby placing many business men in positions of inconvenience, decline in many cases to utilise such a source of adding to the number of the forces?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWI would refer my hon. Friend to the written answer given by the Prime Minister on Wednesday last on this subject, of which I am sending him a copy. With regard to the second part of the question, the power to accept or reject a man's services for any particular post necessarily rests with the head of the Department concerned.