§ Mr. JOWETTasked the Minister of National Service if he is aware that the officials of the Ministry at Manchester are handing to every man immediately after his medical examination a statement informing him that if he is in Grade 3, any age, Grade 2 and over thirty-five on the 1st January, 1918, he may, within ten days of being medically examined, register at an Employment Exchange for enrolment as a war-work volunteer, that 443W if accepted for a job as a war-work volunteer he will, as long as the job lasts, be protected from military service, and informing him also that there are only a limited number of jobs for Grade 2 men over the age of thirty-five on 1st of January, 1918, and that if he should wish to enrol and is of acceptable age and category he should register forthwith at the Employment Exchange nearest his home for enrolment before the jobs are filled, and that the conditions of employment will be explained to him at the Employment Exchange; and whether, in view of a previous official statement by the Ministry to the effect that men who have not been refused exemption or have not been called up may volunteer for war work at any time up to 1st September next, the Manchester officials are entitled to hand the notices in question to men at their medical examination?
§ Sir A. GEDDESThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The hon. Member will find that in all the official notices issued in regard to the W.W.V. scheme, it has been pointed out that no man can be enrolled under the scheme until he has been accepted by the employer to fill a definite vacancy for which the employment of a volunteer is authorised, and that the "Z" class of vacancies are only open until 1st September, when the scheme is to be reconsidered. The number of vacancies of the kind for which Grade 2 men over the age of thirty-five on 1st January, 1918, are authorised to apply naturally varies from day to day, and is not, of course, unlimited. The intention of the notice at Manchester is to call the attention of men to the fact that if they desire to offer themselves for enrolment as W.W.V.s it is advisable that they should do so at the earliest moment, after being medically graded, and, further, to the fact that the number of W.W.V. vacancies is not an unlimited one. In these circumstances the course followed by the Manchester officials appears to be a reasonable one.