26 and 27. Mr. CHANCELLORasked the Minister of Munitions (1) whether any orders have been or will be issued to officers in charge of factories or of work under the Ministry, or to controlled establishments, or to contractors engaged in Government work, to use threats of dismissal or other forms of pressure upon employés which would deprive them of their legal rights as citizens, including the right to refuse vaccination or any other form of medical treatment not required by law; (2) whether Mrs. A. Fullum, 52, Hammond Road East, Southall Green, has been employed for nearly two years at the No. 7 National Filling Factory, Hayes, Middlesex; that on 26th April she received a notice calling on her to be vaccinated, and that on refusal she was interviewed by Miss Whitmarsh, the lady superintendent, and, on persisting in her refusal, was summarily dismissed with a week's pay; whether revaccination, which is not legally compulsory on anybody, is being enforced on employés in the national filling-factories; if not, whether this penalising of an employé for exercising her legal right to resist an attempt to compel by order what cannot be compelled by law will be stopped, and employés under Government no longer deprived of the liberty they possess if employed by other individuals; and whether Mrs. Fullum will be re-employed without an illegal enforcement upon her of revaccination?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of MUNITIONS (Mr. Kellaway)No general orders have been given by the Minister as suggested in question 26, nor does he contemplate giving any such orders. As regards the case at the filling factory at Hayes, the facts are substantially as stated in the question. The matter has been submitted to the Medical Department of the Ministry for consideration, and I am advised that the situation in regard to small-pox in London does not warrant the measure taken by the filling factory in question, which has been advised accordingly, and steps will be taken to offer re-employment to the worker concerned.