Vote 9. Miscellaneous Effective Services (Hansard, 9 March 1964)

§ Mr. Lipton
The point I wish to raise is concerned with Subhead G "Council of Voluntary Welfare Work", rather than Subhead A. The problem that arises is a real one, especially in Germany and other overseas stations. In units which are stationed overseas it is not uncommon for the number of wives and children in married quarters to exceed the strength of the unit. It imposes a considerable burden upon the commanding officer of a unit if, as was the old tradition, he acts as a kind of father confessor and adviser to the wives and families of the men who serve under his command.
96 I understand that the Council of the Soldiers', Sailors' and Airmen's Families Association, which has done excellent work in this connection for many years, has been in touch with the War Office with a view to seeing what additional arrangements or services it can provide. I understand that one regiment appealed direct to the S.S.A.F.A. to train welfare officers to help commanding officers to deal with the family problems of the men.
I do not know what happened when this matter was referred to the War Office, but it would be interesting to know what has been done or is being done by the War Office, because we now have a different type of Service man's wife than we had years ago. She is generally younger, better educated and better dressed. The class distinction between officers' wives and soldiers' wives is much narrower now, if it has not disappeared. If we go to a unit where the wives and families of both officers and other ranks are living together on the same estate, unless we know that a certain house has been allocated to a sergeant or a corporal, it is not easy to know whether it is occupied by the wife and family of an officer or a Service man.
This situation creates a problem which it is not within the scope of a commanding officer to deal with. He has a lot to do, and if he has also to cope with the thousand and one problems of many wives and children his task becomes a very difficult one. The problem requires to be dealt with. That is why we should provide properly trained welfare officers—not necessarily Service men or women, but people provided by organisations such as S.S.A.F.A.—to help to make the wheels run more smoothly than they have been running in the past.

§ Dr. Alan Glyn
I should like to ask a brief question on Subhead B "Publicity and Recruiting Services". At the moment, each Service seems to be rather jealous of its own recruiting publicity. I wonder whether it would be possible to have some sort of combined operation between the three Services, first, on the design of recruiting posters and, more important, on the question of combined recruiting centres. All three Services might benefit if there were 97 co-operation rather than competition between them.
This question deserves careful consideration. My hon. Friend has produced some extremely good advertisements. I was particularly impressed by one over the weekend in the Sunday Times. But at this time, when we are talking about the integration of the Services it might be a good thing for them to get together so that the whole operation could be carried out as a corporate and joint effort. This is especially the case in relation to recruiting centres. Can my hon. Friend give us some indication of the Government's thoughts on this?

§ Mr. Kirk
We are only too conscious of the need to provide welfare services in Germany, especially now that no less than 47 per cent. of the other ranks are married. That is a very high percentage. These soldiers often need help to settle down in the rather strange environment of North German towns. I am grateful for the help that we receive both from the S.S.A.F.A. and the W.V.S. With most large units, or large concentrations of troops, we have W.V.S. help. This help is immensely valuable for both married and single soldiers, when it takes the form of running clubs. We should like to do more, and we intend to do so.
We are well aware of the fact that this high percentage of married soldiers and families imposes an additional strain on the commanding officers of units. I am glad to say that most commanding officers are prepared to shoulder this burden, but it is one of which we should like to relieve them as much as possible.

§ Mr. Lipton
And the commanding officers' wives.

§ Mr. Kirk
And the commanding officers' wives.
My hon. Friend the Member for Clapham (Dr. Alan Glyn) will have noticed that the small sum in the Estimate is not that which covers our general publicity, and to some extent that answers his point, because all the advertising and television publicity is done through the Central Office of Information, in close consultation with my Department. This means that to some extent there is already co-opera- 98 tion, because all the Services do the same thing.
As for joint recruiting centres, in the last year we have greatly increased the number of centres which are side by side, so that it is a matter of walking only 10 steps or so from the Army recruiting centre to the Navy recruiting centre. We are looking to see how much more we can do along these lines. I will write to my hon. Friend with further details when I have them.