PASSENGER SERVICE FROM JAMAICA. (Hansard, 29 July 1947)

§ LORD LYLE OF WESTBOURNE
My Lords, I beg to ask His Majesty's Government the question which stands in my name.

§ LORD WALKDEN
My Lords, in each passenger ship sailing from Jamaica to the United Kingdom, 50 per cent. of the berths is reserved initially for Service requirements. There is a proviso that, in exceptional circumstances, all the available berths on any sailing should be placed at the disposal of the military authorities. These arrangements are necessary for the fulfilment of the policy of His Majesty's 609 Government that passages to the United Kingdom shall, whenever possible, be available for Service personnel as they become due for release. Over the past six months the proportion of berths actually taken up for Service personnel averaged 22 per cent., the remaining berths being available for civilian passengers. A reduction in the percentages reserved for Service personnel will be made as soon as circumstances permit.

§ LORD LYLE OF WESTBOURNE
My Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for his reply, may I ask him, further, why if in fact the military do not take up more than 22 per cent. of the berths they should continue to reserve 5o per cent. of them. Is not this just another example of the War Office and the Ministry of Transport hanging on to wartime controls at the expense of the civilian population? With regard to the matter of demobilization, is it not a fact that the arguments advanced by the noble Lord about demobilization will not in fact hold water at all, because the troops in Jamaica are all young men? It is not a question of demobilization. Nobody would object to reservations of as much as 70 per cent. of the berths if it was for demobilized men. The troops out there are young men and they only amount to a battalion.

§ LORD AMMON
My Lords, may I call the noble Lord's attention to the fact that it is not usual to make a speech upon a reply to a starred question?

§ VISCOUNT SWINTON
My Lords, cannot the supplementary question be answered?

§ LORD LYLE OF WESTBOURNE
My Lords, with great respect I am asking a question the whole time—in another place I was taught to do that—I am not making a speech. I am asking whether the Government will not very kindly consider the case of the civilian population, many members of which have done excellent work on the estates out there and in many other ways. They are sadly in need of leave in a great number of cases. Many of them have not been home for as long a period as ten years.

§ LORD WALKDEN
My Lords, I am not sure that I can answer now all the supplementary questions which the noble Lord has put to me, but I will do my best 610 to obtain the information for which he has asked and let him have it. I trim informed that the arrangement that now stands was arrived at locally between the civilian Government in Jamaica, the local agents of the steamship companies, arid the Service chiefs. The agreement wm made locally in Jamaica, and it has been found necessary to maintain it because when there is a flow of men released, naturally it is desired to get them away as soon as possible. I believe your Lordships would desire that all men liberated from military service should be allowed to go home as soon as may he practicable. There is provision so that any spare accommodation may be taken up by civilians. The agreement to which I have referred provides that 50 per cent. of lie available accommodation is reserved for Service requirements up to fourteen days before the sailing date. If, seven days before the 'sailing date, it is found that the Service authorities do not want it all, then arrangements are made to switch over the unwanted accommodation, and to make it known in the towns that there will be vacant berths available for civilians. The best that can be done locally appears to be done to give everyone a fair chance, but the principle is that the Serviceman shall have priority. I am rather inclined to think your Lordships will desire that that principle should be maintained.

§ VISCOUNT SWINTON
May I ask the noble Lord two questions. As regards the supplementary information he is gong to give the House, as there is a great interest in all quarters of the House on facilities between one part of the Commonwealth and another, will he undertake to arrange that it will be given in answer to a written question, so that we can all have the benefit? Everybody, I think, would want to give Servicemen priority, but there are also a great many others who were doing war work and have not been able to visit their homeland for, may be, eight or nine years, and they are entitled to consideration. Would the noble Lord, with the appropriate Ministers, consider whether more notice can be given when passages are thrown up? Is it not more likely that the military, who have to control only one battalion and can know quite a long time in advance whether they are going to use passages or not, are able to throw up passages early? It is very difficult for civilans 611 at seven days' notice, much less forty-eight hours, to be able to be ready to leave on a ship.

§ LORD WALKDEN
I fully appreciate the noble Viscount's points and certainly will raise the matter with the Minister. I would be very happy to reply either in a written answer or an oral answer if the noble Lord would be kind enough to put down on the Order Paper the separate points.

§ LORD LYLE OF WESTBOURNE
I thank the noble Lord for his courtesy; he is always very courteous in answering questions. May I ask him when the arrangement to which he referred was made? I think it would have been made in war-time between the shipping companies. I want to make it clear that I was not discussing the question of demobilization. I think everybody is agreed about demobilization. What I asked about was the one battalion which is over there composed entirely of young soldiers.

§ LORD WALKDEN
I have no information as to the date of the agreement to which I have referred. I imagine it was made soon after the end of the war, when the men were to be brought home.