§ Mr. W. THORNEasked the Under-Secretary of State for War how many men of the 1st Scottish Provisional Battalion, stationed at Balnagask, Scotland, have been wounded or sick and are incapable of undertaking active military duty in future; whether the commanding officer has received from munitions firms applications for the release of a number of such men; and if the Army Council will direct the commanding officers, on the ground of national economy, to release men for munitions work whose health and condition precludes them from being of any real service in the Army?
§ Mr. TENNANTI have not the detailed information asked for in the first part of the question. As regards the release of men for work in munition firms, the proper course is, as the Ministry of Munitions have clearly made known in the Press, for the firms to apply, in the first instance, for the release of soldiers to the Ministry of Munitions. Soldiers are only released by the War Office to return to civil employment on munition work at the request of the Ministry of Munitions.