§ 44. Mr. W. J. Brownasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that Mr. John Rodgers, who has been found to be redundant in three Departments, namely, the Ministry of Information, the Department of Overseas Trade, and the Ministry of Production, after he had been exempted from call-up on the ground that his services were essential to those Departments, has now been appointed to a post in the Economic Section of the Foreign Office, thereby continuing this exemption; and if he will cause a full investigation to be made into the circumstances of this case.
§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Assheton)I am fully aware of the circumstances of this case. Mr. Rodgers was born in 1906, his first employment in the Government Service being that of adviser to the Foreign Publicity Department of the Foreign Office, from June 1939 to October of that year. As my predecessor informed the hon. Member on 11th June, 1942, there is not, and never has been, any question of Mr. Rodgers being deferred as an individual. Mr. Rodgers is well above the age at which, under the arrangements recommended by Lord Kennet's Committee on the Call-up of Civil Servants to the Forces, and accepted by the Treasury and the Minister of Labour, administrative and executive officers employed as such before 3rd December, 1941, are, as a class, regarded as reserved, whether or not they remain in the employment of the same Department.