§ 16. Colonel AUBREY HERBERTasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether the men who have served for two and a half years or longer, consecutively, in the East will now be granted leave; and whether, in urgent cases, they will be further granted agricultural leave?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONI understand my hon. and gallant Friend to be referring to Mesopotamia. Leave in that theatre of war is dependent, as elsewhere, on transport facilities, and the difficulties in this connection have been frequently explained. I understand that leave to India is granted to as many men as it is possible to arrange transport for and having regard to the military situation, 1812 but I am afraid that leave to this country can only be arranged in the most exceptional circumstances, and the suggestion, therefore, of special agricultural leave is hardly practicable.