HC Deb 17 February 1955 vol 537 cc661-2

Motion made, and Question proposed, That the Clause stand part of the Bill.

Mr. Elwyn Jones

There appears to be a remarkable discrimination in this and the subsequent Clause between the rights permitted to an officer and those permitted to other ranks. If an officer thinks himself wronged by a superior officer he can go to the Army Council, but a warrant officer or non-commissioned officer goes to his commanding officer or, in the event of dissatisfaction at that level, he can go to an officer not below the rank of brigadier.

I do not know why there is that distinction. Is it thought that there would be so many complaints from those members of the Armed Forces below the rank of officer that the Army Council would be swamped? Why is there this apparent discrimination in the provision for redress of complaints?

Mr. Head

The hon. and learned Member for West Ham, South (Mr. Elwyn Jones) has not put down an Amendment, nor has he given notice that he would raise this matter, but I would say to him that this is a matter in which either an officer or an other rank wants to have righted something in which he feels he has been wronged. At that stage it does not concern anything criminal. It is a complaint, really, against his superiors, who, he thinks, have treated him in a manner which is unfair.

An officer makes his complaint to the Army Council, which is the superior authority for him. The other rank, as has been customary in the Army for a very long time, I think, goes to his. commanding officer and says, "I have been wronged." His complaint, presumably, is against either an individual N.C.O. or officer in the battalion. The commanding officer has a particular position of trust and authority in the battalion and is responsible for its discipline and efficiency as a whole.

It is traditional in the Army that that individual should listen to the complaints and so-called wrongs—or rather, not so-called, but wrongs—of noncommissioned officers and put them right, and should have the authority to do so so far he is responsible for the whole well-being of that unit. I think that that trust in the commanding officer, and the knowledge of the individuals in the battalion that it is his responsibility, is something upon which the whole foundation of the army system and the battalion system is based.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 181 ordered to stand part of the Bill.