HC Deb 31 May 1961 vol 641 cc249-50
32. Mr. Wainwright

asked the Secretary of State for Air if he will grant facilities for accommodation and travelling expenses, so that wives can join their husbands who are officers of the Royal Air Force stationed abroad and have reached the age of 21 years.

Mr. W. J. Taylor

Married Regular officers aged 25 or over may be joined by their families overseas at public expense. We do not think it right to extend this entitlement to younger officers.

Mr. Wainwright

Does the hon. Gentleman realise that that Answer will cause a good deal of dismay and un-happiness to young officers and their wives? What justification can the Government have for saying that married men of 21 should not be entitled to the same travelling facilities as those of 25? Is he aware that even politicians get married before they are 25? Will he consider this problem again and grant to these young officers and their wives the same facilities as are given to those of 25?

Mr. Taylor

I do not think that my reply will cause any dismay, because the facts are well known in the three Services. All three Services have long held the view that it is neither in the interests of the Service nor the individual to encourage young officers to take on family responsibilities in the early formative years of their careers when they might be absorbing the traditions of their Service and taking an active part in the corporate life of their units. I think that that is right.

Mr. Fletcher-Cooke

Does my hon. Friend realise that young people are marrying much younger today and that it would not be good for recruitment to the Services if it were thought that young men in the Services did not have the same sort of consideration received by those in civilian life in this matter of married quarters and so on?

Mr. Taylor

I appreciate what my hon. and learned Friend has said, but nothing he has said invalidates the argument which I nut forward in my original reply.

Mr. Cronin

If it is not customary for the Royal Air Force to encourage marriage of officers below the age of 25, why do officers below that age get a marriage allowance of £4 4s. a week and why does the Air Ministry adopt this extraordinary attitude of interfering with the normal marital relations of officers and their wives, as compared with the other Services?

Mr. Taylor

I understand that the hon. Member for Loughborough (Mr. Cronin) is a professional medical man and I could not follow the last part of his supplementary question. Although officers under 25 years of age receive a marriage allowance, it is at a reduced rate.