Wing-Commander Jamesasked the Secretary of State for War if he is aware of the increasing number of cases of acute domestic hardship accumulating consequent upon the duration of the war and the inadequacy and slowness of the present machinery for securing releases from the Forces; and whether he will set up machinery to examine such cases and to have facilities to make authoritative recommendations for speedy release where circumstances justify such a course.
Sir J. GriģģI am aware of the large and increasing number of soldiers who are endeavouring to secure their release from the Army on compassionate grounds. There is undoubtedly hardship in many of these cases and I can assure my hon. and gallant Friend that they have my full sympathy. It is, I am sure, unnecessary for me to remind my hon. and gallant 41W Friend of our extreme shortage of manpower and of the absolute necessity to conserve such resources as we have at this crucial stage of the war. I regret, therefore, that any relaxation of the standards upon which applications for release are judged cannot be contemplated, at any rate for the present.
Under the existing system a man on home service who feels he should be allowed to go home on strong compassionate grounds should put his case to his Commanding Officer. He is in the best position in the first place to weigh up the man's case against others like it in his unit. If he considers the case is a good one he has power to grant up to 28 days' compassionate leave. If he considers that a longer period may be necessary he reports to the War Office, where further investigations are carried out to determine whether any further period of release from the Army on compassionate grounds is justified. A decision is normally reached well before the 28 days' compassionate leave expires. The above applies to the man on home service. The procedure for dealing with applications from men overseas was described in a very full answer I gave on 7th November in answer to a number of hon. Members. As far as I am aware these arrangements have worked fairly and as speedily as possible, but owing to a great increase in the total number of cases the machinery has recently become clogged. In this connection I would refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the replies I gave the hon. Members for Rugby (Mr. W. J. Brown) and South Croydon (Sir H. Williams) on 27th February. It is, therefore, very much in the soldier's best interests for these cases to be dealt with by the Commanding Officer in the first place. Applications received direct in the War Office from other sources inevitably tend to slow down the machine.