HC Deb 29 April 1959 vol 604 cc1263-4
32. Mr. Stonehouse

asked the Secretary of State for War if he will arrange for 23506251, Craftsman L. G. Edwards, to have a compassionate release from the Services, in view of the circumstances at his home in Willenhall, details of which have been sent to him by the hon. Member for Wednesbury.

Mr. Soames

No, Sir. The hon. Gentleman has received an account of our inquiries into this case. It is not one in which the soldier's discharge would be justified. Craftsman Edwards is on a Regular engagement with an option to leave the Army next March if he so desires.

Mr. Stonehouse

Is the Secretary of State aware that both parents of this craftsman are in ill-health and that the burden of holding the family together falls on a 19-year-old sister? Does he know that the father's health has deteriorated considerably in the last two years? May I ask how much it will cost this man to buy his way out? Will the right hon. Gentleman give this matter his sympathetic consideration?

Mr. Soames

I should require notice of the last part of that supplementary question, but I will certainly let the hon. Member know. As to the first part, the hon. Member has received a detailed letter from my hon. Friend on this case but, as far as we have been able to ascertain up to the present, there is no change in the home circumstances of this man now compared with what they were at the time when he voluntarily joined the Army three years ago.

Mr. Strachey

Would the right hon. Gentleman not agree that the time would be appropriate now when his criteria for compassionate discharge could be considerably enlarged, not necessarily by whole categories as was suggested earlier, but in some way, because the right hon. Gentleman is not really scraping the bottom of the barrel by any means now in the way of call-up? I am sure that it would be appropriate to give instructions that a good deal more latitude could be given for compassionate discharge.

Mr. Soames

This is not a National Service man; he is a Regular.

Mr. Nabarro

He would get out if he were a "pop" singer.