§ Mr. GARDNERasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that John Hughes, of 83, Divis Street, Belfast, applied several times, the first in 1919, for an ex-service man's house in the Belfast district and was refused; that Hughes had 22 years' continuous service in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, was three times on active service, possesses a discharge which describes his conduct as very good and says that he served his country well; that he has a wife and four children and, owing to the lack of houses in Belfast, was compelled to go into lodgings with his wife and family; whether he will inquire the reason why this man has been refused a house up to the present; and what steps he takes to satisfy himself as to the method by which houses, under the Sailors' and Soldiers' Land Trust, are allotted to ex-service men?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The particulars in the second and third parts agree with those given by Hughes in his application for a house, except as regards the number of children. The trustees have to decide the relative claims of a large number of applicants for a limited number of houses, and I have complete confidence in their discretion.