§ Mr. Moonmanasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether any papers relevant to the Haig board of inquriy into the Etaples mutiny in 1917 are retained by the Public Record Office; if any are not accessible to public inspection; and, if so, why such an exception to the normal rule has been made.
§ Dr. GilbertAlthough the PRO holds a war diary for the Etaples Base—(WO95 Piece No. 4027)—which describes the events of the mutiny and records that a board of inquiry was set up on the spot on the authority of the commanding officer, it has not been possible to trace any papers relating either to the board of inquiry or to one involving Field Marshal Haig. The rules governing the disposal of Army records which were in force until recently provided that records of boards of inquiry need be kept for only 10 years, so it is probably that the Etaples board of inquiry records were destroyed many years ago.