§ 75. Mr. SNOWDENasked the Secretary to the Local Government Board by what authority the statutory provision of the second Military Service Act giving to men who have been engaged in an occupation certified by a Government Department to be work of national importance and who were engaged in such work before the 15th day of August, 1915, and men whose conditions of employment have been subject to the provisions of Section 7 of the Munitions of War Act, 1915, two months in which to seek fresh employment, has been rescinded by the Regulations dated the 23rd February, 1917; and will he, in view of the ultra vires of this new Regulation, have it immediately withdrawn?
§ Mr. JAMES HOPE (Lord of the Treasury)The Regulation to which the hon. Member refers does not contravene the provisions of the Military Service Acts. The Acts provide that a man in one of the special classes mentioned shall be deemed to have been enlisted as from the expiration of two months after the date on which his exemption ceases to be in force unless in the meantime he has obtained a renewal of his certificate. The new Regulation merely requires that an application for a renewal of a certificate shall be made within two weeks after the expiration of the exemption.