§ 30. Mr. HURDasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office why Private Percy Penny, No. 201960, 14th Hants Regiment, who enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry on 14th April, 1915, and was demobilised on 21st November, 1919, 1093 after serving in Mesopotamia and India, is unable to obtain any satisfactory reply in regard to his gratuity and back pay, although he has made repeated applications to the Army Pay Office at Exeter; and what measures are being taken to remove the grievance created by the inefficiency of the present methods of dealing with cases of this kind?
§ Sir A. WILLIAMSONA Report has been asked for and I will communicate the result to the hon. Member as soon as it is received.
§ Mr. HURDMay I ask whether it is really possible to devise some more direct means of dealing with these grievances of ex-soldiers, so that they need not be banded about from office to office month after month?
§ Sir A. WILLIAMSONI know of no more direct means than that of asking for a Report.
§ Sir A. WILLIAMSONThe hon. Member has more information about it than I have.
§ Sir A. WILLIAMSONIf the hon Gentleman will tell me the date on which he asked for it, I shall be obliged.
§ Mr. HURDIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that when I did communicate with him, he did not even answer my letter?