§ Mr. JACOBSENasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that the Coal Controller has applied to the War Office for the release of Private James Whalley, No. 1341, a skilled coal miner, aged forty-three and graded B2; is he aware that this man has been employed while on leave from Salonika by his former employers, the New Moss Colliery, and that the War Office, while granting him three months' home service on compassionate grounds, have ordered him to leave the colliery and join a home unit; and will he state the number of coal miners of inferior medical category who have been applied for by the Coal Controller or colliery owners and refused by the War Office?
Sir A. STANLEYThe answer to the first three questions is in the affirmative. This man's demobilisation was asked for on compassionate grounds, the man not falling within any general scheme of release which has been arranged up to the present. No case is known where the War Office has refused to release an eligible man whose release has been asked for, who is willing to be released, and whose employer can re-employ him.