§ 3.7 p.m.
§ THE EARL OF LUCANMy Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of the wives of personnel of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force respectively, living with their husbands abroad, are registered as Service voters.]
§ THE MINISTER WITHOUT PORTFOLIO (LORD MANCROFT)My Lords, about 40 per cent. of the wives of members of the Army and Royal Air Force living with their husbands abroad are registered as Service voters. In the case of the Royal Navy, the proportion of the wives living overseas who have registered is not readily available. The regulations of the three Services provide proper facilities for registration. Wives going abroad are given a declaration form to enable them to register as a Service voter, and the form explains what they must do.
It would, I think, be difficult for us to do much more than this. If, however, the noble Earl, Lord Lucan, has any particular case in mind in which there has been difficulty, I should be glad if he would let me know in order that I may investigate it.
§ THE EARL OF LUCANMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord, though, 168 without any great enthusiam, for the reply he has given, I must ask him whether Her Majesty's Government are satisfied with the situation disclosed, whereby 60 per cent. of those wives are without their vote.
LORD SALTOUNMy Lords, may I ask one further question? In the case of wives abroad who are under age, are there any facilities for them to acquire voting rights when they are abroad, or must they come home first?
§ LORD MANCROFTMy Lords, I think the difficulty here is that you can take a declaration form to a Service wife, but you cannot make her sign it. As to the Service wives who are under age, I believe that arrangements are made for the necessary forms to be given to them when they come of age. I should like to confirm that, if I may, and tell the noble Lord whether I am right or wrong.
§ LORD SHEPHERDMy Lords, at what stage is this official form sent to the wife before she proceeds overseas? May I ask the noble Lord whether he is aware that the wife will be presented with a document containing at least three pages of close print of a technical character? Would the noble Lord not agree that it is highly possible that the wife may not understand what she is required to do and, therefore, may not fill in the form? Would the noble Lord ask the Minister whether some greater assistance could be given to the wives prior to embarkation to fill in these forms?
§ LORD MANCROFTMy Lords a Service declaration form is sent, with other documents, to every Service man's wife when she is about to proceed overseas to join her husband. I know that in many cases commanding officers make it their duty to explain to Service wives what the form involves and what their rights, and possibly their obligations, are. It may be that that explanation is not sufficiently widespread, and not in sufficiently simple terms. I will look into that point, and if there is any improvement that can possibly be made in that respect I will see whether it can be done.
§ LORD DYNEVORMy Lords, can the noble Lord say how many of the 60 per cent. unregistered wives are, in fact, under twenty-one?
§ LORD MANCROFTNo, my Lords.
§ THE EARL, or LUCANMy Lords, would the Minister say whether there is any reason why units should not be required to make an annual check of wives serving under their command overseas and render a certificate as to the numbers who have registered? That is done in the case of men serving overseas. Why should it not also be done in the case of the wives, because it would give them a second chance of obtaining their vote?
§ LORD MANCROFTMy Lords, I am not quite certain that I understand what sort of check the noble Earl wants made. An inquiry is made, because it is upon the results of that inquiry that the figures I have given the noble Lord are based. Whether that inquiry is sufficiently far-reaching I should have to find out. I think we must be careful here. The liberty of the subject is slightly involved. If the Service wives do not wish to register, I do not think we can go a long way out of our way to make them register. If a Service wife misunderstands what she has to do, and would like to register but has not done so, that is a different matter.
§ THE EARL OF LUCANMy Lords, the noble Lord has given no evidence that it is because of unwillingness to register that there is this large total of non-voters. Would he not agree that it is the responsibility of the Service Departments to ensure that the right given to soldiers' wives by Parliament is not taken away from them?
§ LORD MANCROFTYes, I would cordially agree with that. As I have told the noble Earl, so far as I know most commanding officers of units go out of their way to see that the right to vote in this way is brought to the notice of Service wives. I do not think the large percentage—I must confess a surprisingly large percentage—of the number of people who do not register is due in any way to negligence on the part of commanding officers. What it is due to, I should not like to guess.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, is it not important for all Parties represented in the country to try to get the maximum possible vote in an Election, and for those votes to include, so far as possible, all those in the Services who want to vote? 170 I am disturbed to hear that the noble Lord is not able to give comparative figures for the Royal Navy as in the case of the other Services. I do not understand why that should be so. Could we be assured that the noble Lord will obtain the same kind of information for us in respect of the Navy as he has for the other Services?
§ LORD MANCROFTMy Lords, the reason why the Royal Navy is unable to provide figures is that there is no central machinery for keeping a record of forms forwarded; nor have the naval authorities been instructed to make returns on this subject. Why they are not instructed to make these returns available is perhaps something which the noble Viscount, as an ex-First Lord, would know better than I.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I am quite sure that while I was there we did all we could to see that they had the facilities. Since the matter has been raised by some people who think that they have not had the full facilities, I think some step should be taken to get information from overseas naval stations.
§ LORD MANCROFTMy Lords, the noble Viscount will remember that it is much more difficult to collect this information from the Navy than from the other two Services. At a rough guess, I should imagine that the proportion is roughly the same. If the noble Viscount would like that information gathered, I will see if that can be done.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHYes, please.