HC Deb 05 April 1944 vol 398 cc2009-10
63. Mr. Petherick

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what principle permits are issued to women wishing to join their husbands in Egypt and India; whether priority is given according to length of time of separation; what categories are given priority; and whether there is a comprehensive list including all those wives who wish so to travel.

Mr. Peake

The grant of exit permits to leave this country is regulated by the Home Secretary, and the general principle regarding women who wish to join their husbands is that the husband must be permanently stationed abroad. The allocation of passages to overseas destinations, rests, in general, with the Ministry of War Transport, but every individual passenger has to obtain an exit permit, as well as, any necessary permission, from the proper authority, to enter the country where the husband is stationed. In the case of Egypt application to proceed there would normally require to be supported by some Government Department. Admission to India is, I am informed, sanctioned only in cases of special hardship, and a Committee set up by the Government of India deals with applications and arranges them in order of priority.

Mr. Petherick

Is my right hon. Friend aware that a number of women have been waiting for four years to join their husbands abroad, and that there appear to be far too many Government Departments involved in this matter? There is no comprehensive list arid only the wives of officials, so far as most of us can make out, are allowed to go on to the priority list in any Government Department.

Mr. Peake

I can assure my hon. friend that as between wives—and it is with wives that this Question is concerned—there is no priority for sea passages. They are taken in the rotation in which they obtain permission to leave this country and enter the country abroad.

Mr. Petherick

Would my right hon. Friend ask the Secretary of State to hold an inquiry into the whole system of allocating these passages, and try to arrange that these women should have to apply to only one Department, instead of three or four, being sent from one to the other?

Mr. Peake

That is extremely difficult because a number of different Departments are concerned—the India Office in the case of India, and the Foreign Office in the case of Egypt.

Mr. Higgs

Is there any consideration at all given to women who want to go to India to get married to men to whom they have been engaged for a considerable time?

Mr. Peake

Yes, Sir. The case of fiancées is considered on the grounds of special hardship but, as my hon. Friend knows, there was for a long time a complete embargo, for military reasons, upon women proceeding to India.