HC Deb 05 June 1918 vol 106 cc1593-4W
Mr. SNOWDEN

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will have a thorough inquiry made into the practice of fining men employed in the mat department of the works centre at Wakefield, seeing that the practice is becoming more common while no charge of slackness is made against the men?

Mr. BRACE

I would refer the hon. Member to his question and my reply of the 6th May last. The Committee have inquired further into the amount of the task set in the mat-making shop at Wake-field, and arc satisfied that it is not too great. Eight or nine of the men employed there have incurred repeated stoppages of pay for failing to perform their task, but the Committee are satisfied that they are able to perform the task; and unless an improvement in the industry (which was one of the conditions of their release) is shown in the near future, the Committee will have no alternative but to recommend to the War Office that they should be recalled to their units.

Mr. JOWETT

asked the Minister of National Service if a man who has been exempted from military service on occupational grounds on the application of his employer, but whose exemption has been withdrawn under the Military Service (No. 2) Act, 1918, may make a personal application for exemption on conscientious grounds providing that he has not himself previously made a personal application for exemption and his personal reasons for exemption have never been considered by any tribunal; and, if so, what is the procedure he must adopt for putting his application in order?

Mr. BECK

A man whose certificate of exemption is withdrawn by a Proclamation under Section 3 of the Military Service (No. 2) Act, 1918, has only such rights of applying further to a tribunal for exemption as are conferred by the Proclamation itself. The Proclamation made on the 20th April provided for the making of an application solely on the ground of conscientious objection to the undertaking of combatant service in respect of a man whose previous certificate was expressed to be granted or renewed on such ground, in addition to other grounds. The man to whose case the hon. Member refers does not appear to have held a certificate expressed to have been so granted or renewed.