§ 22. Major NEWMANasked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that there are 230 Army schoolmasters of military age, many of whom have volunteered for active service; will he say to how many young soldiers these men are teaching military map reading, accounts, correspondence, calculations, sanitation, and laws of health either in the trenches or at Home; whether their duties are at present mainly confined to teaching children; and whether this work could be well performed by female teachers?
§ 43. Captain DOUGLAS HALLasked the Secretary of State for War if the War Office can, with due regard to efficiency, arrange with the Commander-in-Chief that any officers and men of the original Expeditionary Force, not now under medical treatment, who have been through the whole campaign without getting Home except for short leave, and who may apply in the usual routine through their commanding officers for a short period of Home service this winter, may have their application favourably considered?
§ 45 and 47. Mr. R. McNEILLasked the Secretary of State for War (1) whether some twenty Army schoolmasters were recently employed in giving Artillery instruction to commissioned officers and in training picked Artillery men in the use of scientific instruments; and whether, although their instruction was highly 1196 efficient and greatly appreciated by the officers and men, these schoolmasters have been withdrawn from this work and have returned to the duty of giving ordinary school teaching to enlisted boys and infants of both sexes; (2) if he is aware that the only young soldiers now being taught by Army schoolmasters are enlisted boys between 14 and 17 years of age, whose syllabus of subjects is in no sense of a specially military character but is the ordinary pre-war syllabus of general education, and whose instruction is limited to two hours a day and, in the case of boys who have passed for the second certificate, to five hours a week; whether the War Office order that certificates of education for promotion shall be in abeyance during the War has eliminated from the duties of Army schoolmasters the only element of immediate military value; whether he is aware that the Army schoolmasters spend four and a-half hours a day giving elementary teaching to infants of both sexes who could be as efficiently taught in local elementary schools; whether 50 per cent. of the 400 enlisted boys who entered at the last examination for the first certificate failed; whether, seeing that the first certificate is mainly intended in time of peace for non-commissioned officers with a view to promotion, he will suspend it during the War; and whether, with a view to making the best use of the available man-power of the nation, he will discontinue the employment of 330 Army schoolmasters and twenty inspectors, many of whom are well qualified for commissions, in giving elementary education to children of tender age?
§ Mr. FORSTERI regret that I am not in a position to answer these questions to-day.
§ 76. Mr. ASHLEYasked the Prime Minister, whether, in view of the fact that the Financial Secretary to the War Office has had to reply to a daily average of forty-five War Office questions during the last four weeks, he will arrange, for the convenience of hon. Members and to enable the Financial Secretary to carry out his financial duties, that some other Minister with less responsibility shall reply to War Office questions other than financial?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI am well aware of the great burden cast upon my hon. Friend by the number of questions which he has to answer and I am deeply 1197 grateful to him for the courtesy and ability with which he discharges the duty of answering them. But I doubt if the arrangement proposed in the question is really practicable as I do not think it would meet the convenience of the House if the answering of questions were separated from executive authority.
§ Mr. ASHLEYCan the Secretary of State for War come here sometimes to answer some of these questions?
Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTTIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the hon. Gentleman has been answering a great many questions that are not of his Department; that to-day he was answering questions addressed to the Secretary for War while the Secretary of State for War was sitting beside him?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI was not aware of that, because I was not here.
Mr. SCOTTCan the right hon. Gentleman arrange for the Secretary for War to be present to-night when I raise the question on the Adjournment?
§ Mr. S. ROBERTSDoes not the right hon. Gentleman think the proper solution is for hon. Members not to ask so many questions of the War Office?
§ The PRIME MINISTERYes, Sir. I am emphatically of that opinion.