§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the Secretary to the Admiralty whether men in the Navy who have left businesses which are being seriously interfered with through their absence can now be permitted to return to the management of their businesses?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAWe should be altogether unmindful of the services the officers and men of the Fleet and its auxiliaries have rendered to the country at this time if we did not make every endeavour to do the very best we can in3210W the matter of returning those, who have joined us for hostilities, to civil life, in such a way as to secure to them the greatest possible advantage. It may very well be that until the safety of the country at sea is fully assured officers and men cannot be relieved. We are fully confident that this will be cheerfully accepted as being at once the burden and the privilege of the Empire's first line of defence. My hon. Friend no doubt followed the statement made last Tuesday by the Minister of Reconstruction on the whole question of demobilisation, Navy, Army, and Air Force. He has also doubtless read the pamphlet issued by the Ministry of Reconstruction on demobilisation. We shall work along the lines therein indicated, in close co-operation with the War Office and the Ministry of Labour.