§ Sir HILDRED CARLILEasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he can say how many able-bodied sergeants are now doing clerks' work in Record and other offices under the War Department at home and abroad; and whether, in view of the need for instructors at home and for non-commissioned officers in the firing line, he will consider the advisability of substituting old civilian clerks or women clerks for the sergeants so employed, retaining only sufficient to supply the technical knowledge?
§ Mr. TENNANTThe hon. Member is quite mistaken if he supposes that the clerks' work in Record and other War Department Offices in this country is performed by sergeants on the Active List. Any sergeants employed in these offices are pensioners, and a certain number of the more able-bodied have already joined as instructors, or for duty at home and abroad. The clerks in these offices are mostly civilians outside recruitable age, and arrangements are now being made to allow of the employment of women clerks. It is understood that the office work on the Continent is, as far as possible, carried on by men who are temporarily unfit for more active duties at the front. Obviously, neither old civilian clerks nor women clerks would be suitable there. In every army it is necessary to employ a certain number of active able-bodied soldiers in clerical work, though this number is kept as low as possible.