HC Deb 29 July 1947 vol 441 cc244-5
30. Mr. Mitchison

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that the cash allowance issued by the officer in charge of Central Moribund Accounts in lieu of civilian clothing on demobilisation is £2 15s. 1od.; how that sum is arrived at; and whether he is satisfied that it is an adequate equivalent of the suit of clothing, shoes, shirt, hat and other articles issued as civilian clothing on demobilisation.

Mr. Bellenger

I would refer my hon. and learned Friend to the reply which I gave to a Question by the hon. and gallant Member for Pudsey and Otley (Colonel Stoddart-Scott), on 19th November, 1946, of which I am sending him a copy. In the event of an application from a man who was discharged before 16th October, 1944, without receiving either clothing or a cash grant in lieu, the officer in charge. Central Moribund Accounts, would issue a cash allowance based on the wholesale price of the garments at the time of the man's discharge.

Mr. Mitchison

Can the right hon. Gentleman tell us where we can get these goods for this price?

Mr. Bellenger

I do not think anywhere, but if my hon. and learned Friend had been in the last House, he would have known that on many occasions we raised this issue of the small cash allowance. It was only by the action of a previous Government that we got it increased in 1944. There has to be a date line drawn somewhere, and it was decided to make it 1944.

Mr. Mitchison

If a discharged soldier was not in the last House, how is he to get these clothes with this money?