12 Mr. HAZLETONasked the Chief Secretary (l) if he will state why no person. in Ireland have been reckoned as indispensable in the Command Paper on men of military age who are engaged in giain-milling, bacon-curing, the butter industry, and similar food-producing industries there; whether he is aware that in the latest list of certified occupations in Great Britain wide exemptions are given to men in such industries; on whose responsibility no such men are regarded as indispensable in Ireland, though numbering many thousands; (2) why no persons in Ireland have been reckoned as indispensable in the Command Paper on men of military age who are engaged in the manufacture in that country of clothing, boots or shoes, fertilisers, or in printing and bookbinding, printing and publishing of newspapers, tanning, saddlery and harness-making, or in the timber trade or manufacture of furniture and carriages, or in building and contracting or in any industry except agriculture and a few minor occupations and the professions; (3) why no persons in Ireland have been reckoned as indispensable in the Command 459 Paper on men of military age who are engaged in coal mines or other mines, or in quarries of any kind; whether he is aware that in Great Britain the great bulk of men of military age in these occupations are considered indispensable; and why a different policy is adopted in Ireland; and (4) why no persons in Ireland have been reckoned as indispensable in the Command Paper on men of military age who are engaged in woollen and worsted manufactures, in linen and hemp spinning, weaving or making-up industries, in bleaching, dyeing, printing, and finishing trades, or in flax scutching; whether he is aware that over 30,000 men alone are engaged in these industries in Ireland; whether he is aware that in Great Britain extensive exceptions on the ground of indispensability are granted to men in these industries there; and why it is proposed to discriminate against such Irish industries if compulsion were to be enforced on that country?
§ Mr. DUKEIn compiling the Return referred to it was considered that the industries other than those expressly mentioned in the prefatory part of the Return could be adequately carried on by the men of military age included in the estimate of physically unfit with the assistance of men outside the limits of military age and women.
Mr. HAZLETONWill the right hon. Gentleman say why the same estimate has not been made in this country and why Ireland is treated differently in this matter, and why it is proposed that men of military age in all these various industries are to be taken if Conscription were to be applied to Ireland?
§ Mr. DUKEThe hon. Member's statement is founded on a misunderstanding. I am told the principles which have been applied were the same in both countries.