§ 35. Mr. WATERSONasked the Secretary for War whether he is aware that in. Bagdad on 15th March, Sapper A. J. Turner, No. 191432, Royal Engineers, was issued all papers for demobilisation, was shipped to India presumably for transhipment for home, but was ordered to wait, and then told off for Poona, and that he was going to the Afghan frontier, and though the soldier produced his paper, and was over forty years, and had been passed as unfit last year owing to various maladies contracted in the East, no notice was taken, and he was ordered to go; and if he will state the exact position of these men as to demobilisation, when they are likely to get it, and when the exigencies of the Service will permit men of forty years of age and over to be released?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLOwing to the situation in India, all men sent for demobilisation from Mesopotamia viâ India have 757 been temporarily retained in India (except in the case of men who are passed as unfit for further service). I have no knowledge of the case referred to by my hon. Friend, but Sapper Turner would not have been retained if he was unfit for service. I regret that at present I can make no definite statement regarding the demobilisation of personnel serving in India.