§ Captain Sir C. BATHURSTasked the Minister of National Service whether the same treatment as regards exemption from military service is accorded to men between the ages of forty-three and fifty-one engaged in a one-man business, such as tailoring, and have been so engaged for at least twenty years and are employers of labour, as is meted out to insurance and bank clerks, newspaper compositors, blacksmiths, brickmakers, and other workpeople of the same ages in the excepted list; and, if not, will he state the reason for the difference in treatment of the two classes?
§ Mr. BECKI am not aware to what excepted list the hon. Member refers. A Departmental Instruction was issued on the 4th May by the Ministry of National Service to their officials throughout the country to the effect that men in certain occupations born in the years 1874 to 1875 were for the present not to be called up for medical examination. This Instruction was of a temporary nature only, and did not afford any kind of exemption. It is already in course of revision. The cases of proprietors of one-man businesses are dealt with in the ordinary course by the statutory tribunals, but Instructions were issued in December last by the Ministry of National Service to their officials throughout the country, and by the Local Government Board to the tribunals,806W designed to further arrangements which were being made locally, by means of cooperation and otherwise, to afford such protection as is possible to the businesses of men made available by the tribunals for military service.