§ 20. Lieutenant-Colonel DALRYMPLE-WHITEasked the Secretary of State for War if any preferential treatment as regards demobilisation in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Army Service Corps, and other departmental units is given to men who enlisted in 1914–15 in combatant units, but who, as a result of wounds or sickness caused by active service, were compulsorily transferred to non-combatant branches; and, if not, whether he will issue instructions that such men have priority over men who originally enlisted in non-combatant branches?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI regret I cannot entertain my hon. and gallant Friend's suggestion. Men who were transferred from fighting arms of the Service to departmental corps must for the present be treated under the conditions appertaining to the corps to which they have been transferred. If their qualifications are such as to render them demobilisable, they are being demobilised as occasion permits, subject to their liability to be temporarily retained until they can be replaced or their services dispensed with.
§ Lieutenant-Colonel DALRYMPLE-WHITEYes, but will priority be given to such men, or will two men, for example, who joined the Royal Army Service Corps on the same day, one of whom enlisted for the R.A.S.C. and the other for Infantry, receive identical treatment as regards demobilisation?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLNo, the man has been transferred to this corps, and he will be demobilised in that corps, according to age and length of service which he has as a soldier, and not given any special favour or priority over other men in the corps.