§ Lieutenant-Colonel ARCHER-SHEEasked the Secretary of State for War 352W whether he is aware that many men over forty years of age are being retained in the British Expeditionary Force and Army of the Rhine as indispensable; and whether the services of these older men can now be dispensed with?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI would refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the answer given to-day to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Moss Side to the effect that senior officers have been appointed to inspect unit registers with a view to ensuring that no officers or men who are eligible for demobilisation are retained without good and sufficient cause. It must also be remembered that men, though eligible for demobilisation, are liable to retention if temporarily required for the military machinery of demobilisation. Such men are, however, being released as soon as their services can be spared or they can be replaced.