HC Deb 26 April 1955 vol 540 cc760-2
52. Mr. Driberg

asked the Secretary of State for War if he will investigate the circumstances in which a National Service officer, Mr. P. J. R. Breslin, serving as a second lieutenant in the 2nd Basic Training Battalion, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Blackdown, was ordered to leave a regimental dinner on 5th April, 1955, and served with dinner in his own room, because he had arrived in the ante-room of the mess wearing battledress; whether National Service officers are now required to purchase special mess dress; what additional uniform allowance is provided for this purpose; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Head

No officer is required to purchase mess kit, No. 1 dress or Service dress. The question of an allowance does not therefore arise. It is customary in many units for officers to change for mess either into mess kit, No. 1 dress, Service dress, a dinner-jacket or an ordinary suit, but it is not compulsory. In this particular incident this officer was known to have Service dress, but it was not known that he had disposed of it just before the guest night in question.

Mr. Driberg

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that, in this particular case, the officer disposed of his Service dress because he could not afford to go on keeping it, as he needed the money for civilian clothes? Is he also aware that dinner-jackets were compulsory at a dance which all officers were compelled to attend in this mess? Does he not agree that it is undesirable that a National Service man, fit to hold a commission on merit, should be debarred from doing so because he cannot afford to buy various kinds of uniform?

Mr. Head

The hon. Member is drawing a very wide deduction from one incident. There was a mess meeting and this officer then had his Service dress and he was perfectly prepared to wear it. He then disposed of it and had not told his commanding officer, "I have to come in battledress." This matter is purely voluntary and no officer can be compulsorily required to wear this dress.

Mr. Shinwell

If the facts given by the right hon. Gentleman are correct, what is he doing about the commanding officer who acted irregularly and ordered this man to leave the mess and have dinner served in his own room. What will happen to the commanding officer?

Mr. Head

This matter was due to a misunderstanding, because the officer was known to have a Service dress and one does not always expect that in a matter of a few days an officer will have disposed of it. The commanding officer thought that the officer had deliberately come in battledress as a sign of disrespect.

Mr. Shinwell

Is it not remarkable the number of misunderstandings we have had since the right hon. Gentleman became Secretary of State for War, and is he going to condone a stupid action of this kind? What is wrong in any circumstances, in any atmosphere and in any place with wearing battledress while associated with Her Majesty's Forces?

Mr. Head

As I have already said, it is perfectly in order for an officer to wear battledress. In this case a voluntary undertaking had been come to and there was a misunderstanding. As far as misunderstandings taking place are concerned, I think it is evident that they take place over a very wide area even where the right hon. Gentleman is concerned.

Lieut.-Colonel Bromley-Davenport

Can my right hon. Friend say whether there is any type of person more despised by all ranks than the person who goes behind the back of his commanding officer and complains to his M.P.? [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] If I may, I will put another point in an interrogative way. Can my right hon. Friend say whether in this case the normal military channels were used to make this complaint?

Mr. Strachey

Will the Secretary of State make it perfectly clear that he repudiates the view which has just been put to him by his hon. and gallant Friend, and will he also make it clear that an officer, in drawing attention to what the Secretary of State himself has said is an irregularity, was doing a public service?

Mr. Head

I have always said to this House, and it is well known throughout the Army, that anyone has a right to refer a matter to his Member of Parliament. I think hon. Members will acquit me of any charge that I have ever in any way attempted to get in the way of that or deny that right.

Mr. Driberg

While appreciating that, would the right hon. Gentleman also reassure his hon. and gallant Friend by making it clear to him that in this case the officer concerned did submit the matter to his commanding officer, and can he say, further to his general point, whether a mess meeting has any right whatever to make rules which are in conflict with Queen's Regulations?

Mr. Head

A mess meeting has no right to make such rules. What happened in this instance was they were going to have a guest night and there was a mess meeting. I suppose they decided what they were going to eat, who was going to attend and what they were going to wear. It is usual and natural that people do not want to feed in the evening in the clothes in which they work all day. This is the normal thing throughout life. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] Hon. Members may be aware that miners do not sit down to their dinner in the clothes in which they have been down the mine. This meeting decided this, and I do not think that in any way hon. Members would think that wrong. What happened was that this was a voluntary arrangement; it is not regular throughout the Army. In this particular case the officer disposed of his Service dress between the date of the mess meeting and the guest evening. I think hon. Members will agree that this is an unusual circumstance. I say here and now that there is absolutely no regulation about officers not being able to wear battledress on these occasions.

Mr. Driberg

In order to elaborate this very interesting argument, I beg to give notice that I shall seek your permission, Mr. Speaker, to raise the matter on the Adjournment before the dissolution.