26. Brigadier Clarkeasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Defence if he will give an assurance that the Service documentation of deserters pardoned under the recent amnesty will be identical to the documentation of deserters who surrendered or were apprehended before the amnesty.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Defence (Mr. Nigel Birch)The documents issued to deserters 1156 granted the benefit of the recently announced amnesty will not be identical with those issued to deserters dealt with before the amnesty, since the circumstances are not comparable.
Brigadier ClarkeDoes not my hon. Friend think it rather unfair that a deserter who was apprehended or who surrendered before the amnesty now has his documents marked in such a way that he perhaps cannot find employment in a Government Department whereas the recently surrendered deserters under the amnesty have no such mark on their documents?
§ Mr. BirchIt is not normal on discharge documents to say that a man has been a deserter unless he has a very bad character indeed.
§ Mr. ShinwellAre we to understand that there is some substance in the allegation made by the hon. and gallant Member that there is something in the document relating to the amnesty which might prevent a man from obtaining employment?
§ Mr. BirchThe right hon. Gentleman has got it the wrong way round. My hon. and gallant Friend suggested that deserters dealt with before the amnesty might have had on their documents something which those dealt with under the amnesty would not have.
§ Mr. ShinwellPrecisely. That is what I understood the hon. and gallant Member to say. Am I to understand that in one of the documents referred to there is something which might prevent a man from obtaining employment?
§ Mr. BirchA man who surrendered under the amnesty gets a protection certificate which ensures that he is not arrested for being a deserter; it is not a discharge document.
§ Mr. ShinwellLet us be quite clear about this. Are there two kinds of documents, and is there something contained in one of the documents which might prevent a man, because of a reference to his character, from obtaining employment? That is what I want to know.
§ Mr. BirchI have already said that the documents are different ones. The ordinary document which is the same as obtained under the dispensation of the 1157 right hon. Gentleman, does not normally say that the man has been a deserter except in very exceptional circumstances. Normally it gives his character on discharge. That is all that happens.