§ Dr. Morganasked the Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs if any figures or estimates are available of the number of residents or citizens of Eire who served in His Majesty's Forces during the 1939–45 war; and these figures can now be given.
§ Mr. Parker:There are no detailed statistics available of the number of persons who joined His Majesty's Forces from Eire during the late war. The only figures which are available are those given by my noble Friend in another place on the 19th March. As he explained, the only figures which can be given in the case of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines are based on information supplied 56W as to the address at the time of entry into the Service. Those for the Army and the Royal Air Force are based on information supplied as to place of birth, and in the case of the Army some of the men and women may have enlisted before the war. On these bases the figures are as follow:
Royal Navy and Royal Marines. Men entered and enlisted between 3rd September,1939, and 31st December,1944 483 Women enlisted between 15th December, 1943, and 31st August, 1945 34 Army. Total numbers serving at 31st December, 1944: Men 28,645 Women 4,133 R.A.F. Total numbers enlisted at Belfast between 1st January, 1943, and 31st August, 1945: Men 9,426 Women 528 As regaids R.A.F. and W.A.A.F. enlistments before 1st January, 1943, no distinction was drawn in the records between Northern Ireland and Eire. The R.A.F. and W.A.A.F. statistics also do not include enlistments in Great Britain of men and women of Eire origin as to which no figures are available. The bases on which the above information is given are, as my noble Friend said, not satisfactory, but it is not possible to supply more accurate figures without the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of time and labour.