§ Major Bruceasked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that a recent demobilisation party consisting of 600 other ranks, who were due to be demobilised at Manchester, were ordered to Carlisle in order to hand in their web equipment; and whether arrangements have now been made to ensure that web equipment can be handed in at demobilisation centres.
§ Mr. LawsonAll men due for Class A release are dispatched on arrival in this country to a military disembarkation camp in the first instance. The purpose of this is not simply to enable them to hand in web equipment. At these camps they are made up to the correct scale of warm underclothing which they are allowed to retain in civilian life; all230W Government property which they are not allowed to retain, including web equipment, is withdrawn; necessary documentation is carried out and drafts are sorted out into separate parties in such a way that each man is sent to the military dispersal unit nearest his home. This process normally only involves staying one night at the disembarkation camp. The disembarkation camp at Carlisle is in fact being closed down largely because it is not altogether conveniently situated.