HC Deb 26 July 1918 vol 108 cc2162-3W
Sir WATSON RUTHERFORD

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that one of the members of the Radstock local tribunal, Mr. J. W. Gent, is general manager of the Radstock Co-operative Society, age under forty, and in Grade 2, and that a sole proprietor of a grocery business, age forty-seven, and in Grade 2, was recently given three months' final exemption by this tribunal, of which Mr. J. W. Gent is a member; whether, in view of the unfairness of this and also of the concessions granted to employés of industrial cooperative societies, as contained in National Service Instruction No. 123, of 1918, issued on 4th July, 1918, he will see that this man is no longer allowed to sit on the tribunal, and be the means of his competitors older than himself being ordered to join the Army; and whether the chairman of the Radstock Tribunal was W. W. Mattick, also a grocer in the town, and therefore directly interested in Mr. Gent's business being closed?

Mr. FISHER

I am making inquiries as to the facts of this case