HC Deb 09 July 1917 vol 95 cc1593-4
94. Mr. CROOKS

asked the Undersecretary of State for War whether, before transferring to combatant corps men who voluntarily enlisted in non-combatant corps and who, although objectors to taking life, were prepared to render service in face of danger, he will give instructions that these men shall have the right of appeal to a tribunal?

96. Mr. TREVELYAN

asked the Undersecretary of State for War whether a wholesale transfer of men who have hitherto been serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps is now taking place into the Infantry; whether he is aware that many of these men enlisted early in the War voluntarily in the Royal Army Medical Corps and have served up to the present date, but that some of them have from the first had objection to combatant service; and whether any men who so object are to be forced to take service as combatants in the Infantry with no chance even of claiming exemption as objectors such as they would have had if they had not voluntarily enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps?

Mr. MACPHERSON

If these men are not in possession of a tribunal exemption from combatant service, their cases will be investigated at the War Office and dealt with on their merits. The War Office has no desire to force those with genuine conscientious objections against taking life into combatant corps. Men who hold tribunal exemptions from combatant service, if found in the Royal Army Medical Corps, will be transferred to the Non-Combatant corps.

The following question stood upon the Paper in the name of Mr. TREVELYAN:

95. To ask the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, in the transfer of men serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps to the Infantry, he will explain under what authority a man who was granted exemption from combatant service by his tribunal in 1916 is transferred to a combatant regiment; and whether he will give instructions that care shall be taken to retain such men in the Royal Army Medical Corps or other non-combatant service?

Mr. TREVELYAN

The case on which this question was founded has been settled.

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