§ Brigadier-General SURTEESasked the Minister of Labour if he can give the number of demobilised service men who have been refused work or have been discharged because they have not served the five or seven years' apprenticeship customary in the trade in question; and to what city, country, and trade is such prohibition most in evidence?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAIf my hon. and gallant Friend has in mind the case of the lad whose apprenticeship was interrupted by the War, that case, I think, is fairly well covered. Over 38,000 such apprenticeships have been or are being completed under conditions consistent with the fact that the person concerned is no longer in his teens. If my hon. and gallant Friend means that ex-service men who might have been apprenticed, but who were not apprenticed because of the War, are not allowed to sign on as skilled men, that is, of course, true. Their case is, however, intended to be met by the power given to the Ministry of Labour to train fit men who, on account of joining the Forces at an early age, did not enter upon an apprenticeship to a skilled trade. About 1,000 have been so trained. The great bulk, I imagine, however, of fit ex-service men now unemployed are unskilled, and there is, of course, particular difficulty in fitting these men into employment. We are giving close consideration to this problem, the solution of which, as my hon. and gallant Friend will at once see, is not easy to find.