HC Deb 18 May 1956 vol 552 cc2443-58

2.34 p.m.

Mr. R. J. Mellish (Bermondsey)

First I should like to thank those hon. Members concerned with the previous debate for finishing earlier and so enabling what I naturally regard as a very important subject to have a very good or better chance of ventilation than would otherwise have been possible. I am also indebted to the Parliamentary Secretary for being in his place before the proper time. May I add how very grateful I am to you, Mr. Speaker, for selecting this important subject for debate this afternoon?

The subject I am raising is that of the intake into Her Majesty's Army of men of medical Grade III. There has been grave controversy for some long time concerning many of those who have been called up within this medical category. Hon. Members of this House, and others, have taken part in a campaign, and many newspapers have taken an interest in this matter. I think it would be fair in my opening remarks to pay a tribute to one particular newspaper for having initiated this campaign. I refer to the Star. With regard to calling up Grade III men the Star declared some time ago: We believe there should be a complete inquiry into this system of call-up. Later, when proposals of the then Minister of Labour were announced, the Star went on to say that these proposals did not go far enough to satisfy the public anxiety now fully aroused as the result of a number of blunders by Medical Boards. That was some time ago, and it focussed attention on what many of us regarded as a serious problem, the problem of young men of eighteen years of age who have been down-graded for one reason or another and yet have been found suitable for service in Her Majesty's Army.

Like other Members of the House, I have been keenly interested in this matter, but I have not sought publicity for myself, nor have I sought publicity for my constituents. I have been concerned only with getting results. Here again, may I pay a tribute to the Parliamentary Secretary, whom I have found at all times amenable and very interested in this problem. I know he has been gravely worried about it, and I know that he, as much as anyone, has been anxious to do something about it. I will return to that a little later on.

It is right and proper that I should now refer to two good reasons why I have taken an active interest in this whole question. In the first place, it was, reported to me that one of my constituents, a young boy of the name of Smith—not an uncommon name—had been called up into Her Majesty's Army and placed in Grade III; yet this was a young boy who had, at the age of fifteen, been crushed by a lorry. The lorry had been stolen, and, in making their getaway, the thieves had mounted the pavement with the lorry and run over this young lad. His leg was badly crushed. He had a number of operations, and the result was that one leg was shorter than the other. When he reached the age of eighteen he was medically examined and it was found that he should be put into Grade III. and into the Army he went.

One can readily imagine the feelings of that young fellow. He is just an ordinary boy; he is not frightened of the Army or frightened of going overseas. In fact, he would willingly be Grade AI and play an active part in the Army, but, because of his disability, he is restricted at home. As the Parliamentary Secretary said to me in a letter earlier this year, in dealing with the whole question of this individual, He is consequently restricted to duties in base units only and excused parades, marching, drill, physical training and guards. If I may use the expression, Mr. Speaker, this young man can breathe, but cannot do anything else. He is embarrassed and unhappy. It needs little imagination to realise the reality of his situation; he is at an Army camp, limping about—he has a perpetual limp—but because of his medical category he must be treated as a person apart. I concede at once that his medical category was confirmed. The Parliamentary Secretary decided that there should be a special medical examination of this young fellow. His grade was confirmed and he was retained in the Army.

Next I have the case of another of my constituents, a boy named Menday. This youngster was in fact in the Merchant Navy and, whilst in the Merchant Navy, he fell from a derrick on to the deck of a ship, badly injuring his spine. It was a serious injury. It was found that he should never have been employed at this height, and he was adequately compensated and discharged from the Merchant Navy as unfit, with a very badly injured spine. That did not stop the Army from calling him up. He was put into medical Grade III and sent to the Army.

I knew this case personally and wrote to the Minister saying, I want strongly to protest against this boy's call-up and to warn the War Office of what I think will be the inevitable consequence. I related the story of his accident in the Merchant Navy and the nature of the injury to his spine, adding The trouble in this case is that the symptoms are not easily diagnosed, but after much exertion he has to go sick. I am convinced that it is a waste of public time and money to call him up, and I would beg of you, even at this late hour, to reconsider the whole matter.

If there is any repercussion with regard to his health as a result of his call-up. I shall certainly raise the matter on the Floor of the House. There has been a repercussion. This youngster went into the Army, and within a week of call-up his back became worse and he was feverish. He was sent to Millbank Hospital and from there he went to the Royal Herbert Hospital, where he stayed five weeks. It is true that he also had a throat infection, but nevertheless he received treatment for his back. He was told that nothing else could be done for him, but he was still kept in Grade III. This boy cannot even lift his own kitbag; somebody has to carry it for him. Because he is in this obnoxious medical category, however, he is retained in the Army.

When I investigated, not only these two cases but the whole consequences of the grade, I found that the argument by and large was that the Army retained these young men because they were able to do clerical work and in this way they relieved fit men from doing light duties the Al man could go to the front line while the Grade III man was kept at home at base doing clerical work. That is the stock answer of the War Office concerning the call-up of these boys. I appreciate the force of it, for I spent six years in the Army, and I recognise that the fittest men should do the hardest work; but surely the Secretary of State would not claim that Army clerical duties should be done only by those who are unfit. Certainly, a large amount of the clerical work is done by men who are the fittest.

There are no Grade III men in the Royal Navy—I was given the reply "None. Sir" in a Written Answer—although the Navy has a lot of clerical duties. The Royal Air Force has approximately 3,000 Grade III men, but considering the size and range of its clerical duties the same argument does not apply. In the Army the number of Grade III men is 10,000, and it is on behalf of Clem all that I speak today.

I do not think the two individual cases which I have related are exceptional. Obviously, a man must be of a very low medical category to be put in Grade III. This focuses attention, as the newspaper to which I have referred also drew attention, on the fact that the time must now have come when we can dispense with calling up the Grade III boys and we can demobilise those of this grade who are already in the Army.

If the stock answer of the War Office is that Grade III boys are needed to do clerical jobs, will the Parliamentary Secretary say whether he would accept a Grade III man who wished to undertake Regular service? I suggest that he would not take such a man as a Regular soldier. Quite rightly, he would say that the Forces require the fittest men. If that is so, why waste our time and the time of these boys in calling them up for a conscript Army for a period of two years?

One of the boys whom I have mentioned has just finished an apprenticeship. Special facilities for a sitting-down job were given to him for nearly the whole of his time. Now, however, a great disservice has been done both to these two boys and to the Army itself.

It is appropriate that I am raising this matter at the very time when there has been discussion as to whether there should be a cut in the size of the Armed Forces, although it would be wrong to go into that general aspect in this debate. We see in today's papers that Russia is calling upon Great Britain to follow what is called the great example of the Russian Army in making an enormous cut in its numbers. I am not one of those who fall for that line of propaganda, as certain others evidently seem to do. If, however, we could demobilise 10,000 Grade III boys and if we were to let it be known tonight or tomorrow morning, as well as deciding not to waste anyone else's time by calling up this category for the Army again, this would be some small contribution at least to the much bigger problem which we all have to face, and which I am certain the Government are as worried about as I am. I therefore urge the Parliamentary Secretary when he replies to be forthcoming and to let us have that kind of announcement.

I said earlier that the reason for calling up these boys was that they were needed for clerical jobs. I believe that that excuse has now been discarded—at least, I hope so. I hope the hon. Gentleman will not say that because there happened to be a cripple, on the one hand, with one leg shorter than the other, and another cripple with a bad back whose kitbag must be lifted for him, that they must be put into uniform to do a clerical job. As the Parliamentary Secretary, from his far more extensive and courageous Army experience than mine, will know, whether a man does a clerical job or not there are still duties to be performed, periods of waiting about and other things which happen in the Army which never occur in civilian life.

I wonder how much time is spent by the 10,000 boys receiving attention from medical officers. It must be an enormous amount of time. From almost their first day in the Army, not because they were malingerers, the two youngsters to whom I have referred have had to visit the medical officer almost every day. I know from experience in the Army that a great deal of time is spent by this type of person in the M.I. room, either being looked at by the orderlies or being attended to by the doctors. This waste of time is tremendous and these men are not able to give the service which the Parliamentary Secretary in his recent letter suggested they were giving.

I have been a Member of the House for ten years, and I do not think I have been able to render any greater service than anyone else to either my constituents or my party, but if we can get this Grade III position clarified and can get these men demobilised, my membership of the House will not have been wasted and I will have done something to justify my election as a Member. I have only two constituents involved, and I am certain that if I were to raise their cases long and hard enough I could probably get them out; but it is not simply these two cases who are involved, for there are many other youngsters in a similar position.

We had the question earlier of why certain sportsmen were called into the Forces while others were not, but if we can remove Grade III altogether we shall never again have this argument of the call-up of the Grade III s. If we can get a favourable reply from the Parliamentary Secretary, 10,000 young men and their families will be extremely grateful to him.

2.48 p.m.

Lieut.-Colonel Marcus Lipton (Brixton)

My hon. Friend the Member for Bermondsey (Mr. Mellish) has rendered a useful service in ventilating the question of Grade III men in the Army. The facts at his disposal and at the disposal of many hon. Members combine to prove that we are not getting value for money. A vast amount of money is wasted in the call-up of Grade III men, from whom we do not get service to correspond with the outlay of time and effort which is involved.

The cry today is for economy. I suggest to the Parliamentary Secretary that very substantial economy could be achieved without detriment to the efficiency of the Service if the call-up of Grade III men were abandoned The number of these men is not great. There are 10,000 in the Army, 3,000 in the Royal Air Force and none at all in the Navy.

These men undergo medical examination before call-up. They are issued with kit, accounts are opened for them in the pay office and the whole elaborate machine is put into motion, but what happens? Straight away, they report to the medical officer, and hours, days and months are spent in trying to put these men right and to get some useful service out of them. The orderly rooms and M.I. rooms are cluttered up with record sheets, and piles of paper accumulate. All that really accumulates, so far as these men are concerned, are huge files, showing that the War Office has made a very bad bargain in insisting upon these men being called up.

It so happens that on 10th April last, I submitted a case to the Under-Secretary of State of a man who had been in the Army since last September. He wrote to me as follows: I have got flat feet and pains in my foot when I walk and I cannot wear boots. They are forcing me to wear them, so will you please try to help me? I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Bermondsey that when a case is brought to the attention of the war Office the authorities go to a lot of trouble to investigate the details, but the fact remains that I wrote about this man on 10th April, and I received a reply from the Under-Secretary of State only this morning.

This is the reply. It is very brief, but it is very relevant to the point which my my hon. Friend made: I have made inquiries and find that Private…is a Jamaican who joined the Army in September, 1955. It seems that before coming to England, he rarely wore boots or shoes, and usually went about barefoot. He now has pain when he wears boots and he has been seen by a specialist, who considers that this pain warrants his discharge from the Army, He has, therefore, been examined by a medical board and their recommendation that he should be discharged has been approved. I should like to know how many hundreds of pounds of public money have been wasted in trying to absorb a man like that into the military machine. It is this kind of case which can be multiplied time and time again, which causes widespread doubts in all parts of the country about, first, the efficiency of the grading system under which these men are brought into the Army and, secondly, about the methods that are employed to find out whether, after they have been called up, they are really of any use.

It is usually possible, when the facts are brought to the notice of the political heads of the Department, to get something done about them, but months elapse before anything is done and, in the meantime, public money is wasted. I hope that the Under-Secretary of State will be able to make his contribution to the £100 million economy cut on which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is at present engaged.

According to reports in the newspapers today, the Chancellor is having difficulty with the Service Departments. I hope that the Under-Secretary of State for War is not one of the political heads of Departments who is putting difficulties in the way of the Chancellor's £100 million economy. Whether he is or not, the fact remains that he and the War Office generally could make a useful contribution to this £100 million reduction if they cut out the call-up of Grade III men altogether.

2.57 p.m.

The Under-Secretary of State for War (Mr. Fitzroy Maclean)

Before I go into the specific points raised by the two hon. Members who have taken part in this debate, I think that it might be useful if I were to enumerate, for the benefit of hon. Members who do not happen to be familiar with the details of the present system, the four grades under which men registered are divided by the Ministery of Labour and National Service.

There are, first, Grades I and II—those who are eligible for posting to the Services. There is then Grade III, of whom some are eligible and some are not eligible for posting, and finally there is Grade IV—those who are definitely not eligible. The hon. Member for Bermondsey (Mr. Mellish) mentioned cases of mistakes made by the medical departments and by doctors, but I would remind the House that after call-up soldiers, and members of the other Services too, undergo a further more detailed medical examination by Service doctors—what we call the P.U.L.H.E.E.M.S. system—and where there is any doubt at all soldiers are kept under constant medical supervision.

This, as the hon. Member for Bermondsey rightly pointed out, is an expensive and laborious business, but we think that it is well worth doing to make sure that there are no mistakes, or that wherever possible mistakes are avoided. The hon. Member mentioned the total number of Grade III men. Perhaps I might recapitulate them briefly, especially as on one perhaps not very important point we differ.

So far as the Army is concerned, the approximate figure—it is difficult to give the exact figure—is 10,000 at the present time and an annual intake of about 5,000 Grade III men a year. The R.A.F. has a total of 3,000 and an annual intake of 2,000—a good deal lower figure—and in the Navy, according to my information. there are 20 Grade III men at the present time and the annual intake is variable—one of us is misinformed here, but I would not venture to say which; our information presumably comes from the same source, but we must check it up

Whilst I am on the subject. I should like to mention a matter which gives rise to a certain amount of misunderstanding—certainly I receive many letters from hon. Members about it—namely, the different standards which exist in the various Services in relation to the acceptance of Grade III men. For instance, the R.A.F. has a different standard from the Army, and different requirements, to some extent. Within the Army itself there are also different standards in respect of National Service men and Regular soldiers. It occasionally happens that a man who wants to make the Army his career is rejected as a Regular, but is later called up as a National Service man. The reason is that the man who is going to make the Army his career must have a higher all-round standard, and must be available to serve in more than one theatre and capacity, whereas those requirements are not so important in respect of National Service men.

Before going any further, I should like to remind the House of the circumstances in which it was first decided to enlist Grade III men into the Services. As hon. Members will probably be aware, up to May, 1951, they were not accepted, but in that month, at the time of the acute manpower crisis which resulted from the Korean War, it became necessary to scrape the barrel, so to speak, for every available man. The Government of the day decided that it was necessary to lower the medical standard and to admit certain men in Grade III. I am sure that that was the right decision in the circumstances then prevailing.

Nobody knows better than I that it is sometimes difficult for the public, and even for Members of Parliament, to understand what use the Army can find for a man with a physical defect—a man who may not be 100 per cent. or even 50 per cent, fit. Any hon. Member with any experience of the Army—such as the two hon. Members who have just spoken—must realise that there are many tasks in the Army, and to a lesser extent in the other Services, which a man who is not 100 per cent. fit can very usefully perform, thereby releasing a man who is 100 per cent. fit for a more active job. Quite clearly, at a time when we need every man we can get, it is a waste to have the jobs of clerks, storemen and similar categories filled by men who are equally well able to serve in a commando.

Mr. Mellish

That would be in time of emergency, and I would concede that argument at once.

Mr. Maclean

The question is what constitutes an emergency—because we now live in times when an emergency has become almost the normal state of affairs. Perhaps I might touch upon the two individual cases mentioned by the hon. Member for Bermondsey. First, there is the case of Sapper Smith. It is quite true that he is not physically fit, but the fact remains—as I told the hon. Member in my last letter to him—that he is able to perform clerical work and is very well fitted for work of that kind by reason of his education and intelligence. He is in fact doing very useful work in the Army at the present time. His case provides quite a good instance of the way in which we are able to employ a man who would not make, say, an infantry soldier. In his capacity as clerk he is serving his country just as usefully as is a man employed in a much more active capacity.

Mr. Mellish

The hon. Gentleman will concede the argument that a certain amount of embarrassment is caused to this young boy who is crippled, and who limps, when he is walking across the barrack square to his Army room or his Army office to do his work. What must that boy feel, with everybody else fit and well, going off on marches and doing drills?

Mr. Maclean

I do not want to appear to be unsympathetic, and I am sure that anybody who comes into contact with Sapper Smith in the course of his duties is not unsympathetic. It is naturally accepted that, through no fault of his own, he is not as fit as other soldiers. The same considerations would apply if he were employed as an engineer, or whatever he does in civil life.

The considerations which I have mentioned in the case of Sapper Smith apply also to the other case mentioned by the hon. Member for Bermondsey. The case of the Jamaican constituent of the hon. and gallant Member for Brixton (Lieut.-Colonel Lipton) is one which I noted particularly because it was so unusual. It shows the wide divergency of cases with which we in the War Office have to deal. I think the fact that this Jamaican was not immediately discarded either by the Ministry of Labour or as soon as he joined the Army is very understandable. I do not know whether he turned up in boots when he presented himself for his original medical examination or whether he arrived barefooted, but until somebody saw what happened when he put on boots it was very difficult to say what the result would be.

Lieut.-Colonel Lipton

Would not the hon. Gentleman admit that it should not take as long as eight months to find out whether a man who has always gone barefooted is able to wear boots?

Mr. Maclean

I think that the Army has tried different types of boots and shoes. After all, it is well known that the West Indian makes a very good soldier indeed, and here was a man who, as far as I know, was perfectly fitted in every other way. He was a keen, good soldier. I do not think that the Army can really be blamed for exploring every possibility of turning him into a soldier without damaging his feet. It was only when we finally discovered that the two were incompatible that we decided to send him back to civil life.

The hon. Gentleman suggested that it was only when these problems were taken up with the political heads of the Department that any satisfaction was gained. That is really not accurate. As my right hon. Friend and I keep repeating from this Box, every soldier has recourse to the normal channels. He can always go to his N.C.O.s or his officers, and in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand he will get a sympathetic reception and the complaint will go on up. It is really only in the exceptional case that it is necessary for a soldier to go to his Member of Parliament. But I would again like to repeat that we are only too glad to have hon. Members take up cases where there is any legitimate complaint and to do our best to put such complaints right. In no case is action of any kind ever taken against a soldier who makes a complaint, whatever his rank or position may be. That is a very important principle and one which cannot be repeated too often.

Since 1951 the manpower shortage has continued and our varying commitments overseas and the need to build up a strategic reserve in this country have made it necessary to keep in the Army every available National Service man capable of rendering useful service. It is true to say that during this period almost every unit in the Army has been fully stretched. Indeed, a good many units have actually been under their proper establishment of troops. All that has made it necessary to retain Grade III men in the Army. But while saying that, I think I should also say that it cannot be denied that the calling up of Grade II men is something which has very definite disadvantages indeed from the point of view of the Army as well as that from the Grade III men themselves.

Both hon. Members have given a great many reasons why that is so, and administrative Army reasons as well as human reasons on the part of their constituents. The hon. and gallant Member for Brixton mentioned the files on the affairs of Grade III men, and I may say that nowhere is there a greater accumulation of such files than in my private office. Certainly, from my own selfish point of view, there is a lot to be said for ending this system.

Another obvious disadvantage is that most Grade III men are restricted by their medical category to employment in a certain limited number of jobs. A great many others are confined to base units which makes for a lack of flexibility in the Army. Obviously the ideal thing is that it should be possible to employ men anywhere and in any capacity. We should have fit men in the Army who can go anywhere and do anything.

Mr. Mellish

Now the hon. Gentleman is talking sense.

Mr. Maclean

I have been talking sense all along.

That is all the more true in a smaller Army, because there the burden and inconvenience of having men who are not fit and have to be left behind when the unit goes overseas is all the greater. Mention has been made of the blunders of medical boards. I do not accept that there are many such blunders, but a certain number occur, and it is unfortunate when they do. But doctors, however good and conscientious, find difficulty in differentiating exactly under the P.U.L.H.E.E.M.S system between a man who is fit to do a useful job and one who is not. The result is that while some Grade III men are able to do useful jobs, there are others—I hope that the majority of them have already been released—who spend most of their time in hospital or changing from one job to another and causing an immense amount of work administratively. That adds up to a considerable expense and waste of effort. It means that calling up Grade III men is an expensive proposition which may be undertaken or continued only when it is absolutely unavoidable.

Lieut.-Colonel Lipton

That stage has been passed.

Mr. Maclean

Perhaps the hon. and gallant Gentleman would allow me to carry my argument to its logical conclusion.

We recognise that it is an expensive and uneconomic proposition. But, for the reasons I gave earlier, I am sure that the decision of the then Government to accept Grade III into the Services was right. I am equally sure that for the same reasons successive Governments have found the continuance of this policy unavoidable. But in recent months it has been possible to undertake a reduction in the overall strength of the Armed Forces, which will be carried out between now and 1958. The review of our manpower resources has led us to the conclusion that we can safely revert to the system prevailing before 1951, and in future call up no more men in the medical category known as Grade III to any of the three Services. Those who are already serving will be required to complete their engagements. Otherwise, the sudden release of so large a block of men—there are 10,000 in the Army and most of them are trained—would cause undue dislocation. Grade III men at present serving will leave the Army, Navy and Air Force by the normal process of discharge spread over the next two years and starting now.

Mr. Mellish

I beg the hon. Gentleman to look at that matter again. I am grateful for what he has said up to now, but surely he realises that these Grade III people in the Army will have the knowledge that no more of that category will be called up in future and that will create an awful problem for these chaps. Will the hon. Gentleman look at that again?

Mr. Maclean

That has been gone into very carefully indeed. We have been forced to the conclusion that it is not possible to release 10,000 trained soldiers simultaneously without causing very grave dislocation indeed. The run-down will take place by the ordinary process of discharge. Some have only a week more to serve, some have a month, six months or two years.

Mr. Mellish

I understand that it would be very difficult to discharge 10,000 men overnight, but could it not be done within, say, six months? That would give the Army time to arrange machinery for the disposal of these men. As the hon. Gentleman has said, many of them are not doing a useful job of work, anyway.

Mr. Maclean

Many of them are doing a useful job. The hon. Member can be sure that we do not want to keep anybody in the Army who is not serving a useful purpose there. If we find any means of accelerating the process, we will certainly examine it very closely, but I cannot hold out any hope whatever.

Mr. Elwyn Jones (West Ham, South)

May I ask the hon. Gentleman whether consideration might be given to the possibility of giving discretion to the commanding officers of units where there are such men whose services might possibly be spared before their ordinary time for demobilisation is reached without interfering unduly with the life of the unit? I appreciate that many of these men are performing important duties but of the 10,000 there must be many who could be spared. Could there not be room for discretion?

Mr. Maclean

That is already the position. The hon. and learned Member must realise that not only commanding officers but the whole machine has discretion to release men if it is considered that they are not serving a useful purpose. if hon. Members will continue to write to me about cases, I shall be only too glad to look into them as I have done so far.

Mr. Mellish

My hon. and learned Friend's point was that if a commanding officer can say that X number of Grade III men in his unit are performing a useful job but nevertheless could be dispensed with without causing any sort of dislocation in the unit's activities, surely there is a case for the men being disposed of immediately. There seems to be no justification for keeping my two constituents, one of whom had a broken back and one of whom has one leg shorter than the other, for a full two years merely because of some ruling that they were called up for two years and therefore they must stay. Surely if their services can be dispensed with, that should be done.

Mr. Maclean

The criterion must be whether they are serving a useful purpose by remaining in the Army. That is the criterion that has existed up to now and it must continue. Suppose the commanding officer of one or other of the hon. Gentleman's constituents agreed to let him out and the commanding officer of the other found that he could not spare the other one, there would be considerable injustice between the two. We must have the rule that if a man is needed for the Army he is kept in the Army. If a man is not serving a useful purpose we are always prepared to let him out; but we have to treat these matters—we cannot make exceptions—in accordance with the general rule, otherwise we should get injustices.

Lieut.-Colonel Lipton

Will the hon. Gentleman clear up one point? Is it right that men in Grade III will not be called up from today? Is it from today, or is it from some date that the hon. Gentleman did not specify?

Mr. Maclean

I think I am right in saying that it is from today. Obviously a line will have to be drawn at some specific point of time, and it would be wrong for me to say that it is from this minute.

Lieut.-Colonel Lipton

There may be men who have had their medical examination but have not yet been asked to report for duty. Will the exemption apply to them?

Mr. Maclean

I think I am right in saying that from a date last week no further men in Grade III are being called up.