HC Deb 01 February 1944 vol 396 cc1137-8
49. Mr. Bowles

asked the Prime Minister how much longer it is proposed to retain in the Army experienced miners under 36 years of age who are anxious to return to the mines and who are now engaged on menial jobs such as looking after wash-houses and feeding pigs and cleaning out their sties.

The Prime Minister

The word "menial" should not be applied in any disparaging sense to looking after wash-houses and feeding pigs and cleaning out their sties. All forms of duty required by the State in time of war are worthy of respect, and class or occupational prejudice about them should not be encouraged. If, however, the hon. Member will furnish we with the names of experienced miners under 36 years of age who are anxious to return to the mines, but whose work in the Army consists wholly or even mainly in looking after wash-houses and feeding pigs and cleaning out their sties and who have no prospects of taking part in operations of war, I will give my personal attention to their cases.

Mr. Bowles

May I ask the Prime Minister whether he will accept my word, that the expression "menial," is used by these men themselves and that there are plenty of examples. My Question is, how long it is proposed to maintain the present system—the arbitrary date in October, 1943, below which men who wish to do so may go back to the mines?

The Prime Minister

I took the precaution, before answering this Question, of looking up the word, "menial," in the dictionary and I found that it is generally used in a contemptuous sense. But I am sure that is not what my hon. Friend intended, and I was making that clear, in the character of my answer, to show how glad I was that he had not adopted that interpretation. I guarded myself in my answer by saying that it should not be applied in any disparaging way.

Mr. A. Bevan

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the matter is more serious than might be indicated by his reply? In many parts of the coalfields at the present time men and women are resisting putting up the men sent to their districts under the scheme because trained miners, their husbands and sons, have wasted their time for the last three or four years without doing anything in the Army of importance.