HC Deb 17 January 1945 vol 407 c156
47. Mr. Quintin Hogg

asked the Prime Minister whether he has now considered the re-allocation of personnel as between the Army nursing sisters and the R.A.F. nursing sisters with a view to equalising the period of overseas service.

Mr. Attlee

The number of R.A.F. sisters is relatively small and the shortage of nursing sisters is as acute in the R.A.F. as in the Army. Transfers to the Army—even if desirable on other grounds—would not materially help to solve the Army's problem.

Mr. Hogg

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the period of four-and-a-half years' overseas service for a girl serving in a hospital in a tropical climate undermines her general health, and that when she sees someone else in the same theatre being sent home at a much earlier date she becomes bitter and demoralised?

Mr. Attlee

That is another question.