§ Mr. BOLANDasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that Private J. J. Barron, No. 07289, Army Service Corps, has been recommended for the fourth time for discharge as being quite unfit for any military service and has, within the last ten days, been moved from Woolwich to the Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital, Whittlesford, Cambridge; and whether, in view of the fact that this man has been kept in different hospitals in this country for over four months, is forty-nine years of age, volunteered in 1914, and has served for three years and nine months, he will state why he is not allowed to be discharged and to return to his home?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONI am making inquiries, and will communicate the result to my hon. Friend as soon as possible.
§ Mr. JACOBSENasked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he is aware that Private James Whalley, No. 1341, 446W of a Middlesex Pioneer battalion, is at present home on leave from Salonika; that his wife died recently, leaving five young children with no one to care for them; that he is forty-three and has served since 1915; that he has had malaria and is now graded B 2; if he is aware that this man is a skilled coal miner and was so employed for seven years by the New Moss Colliery, Ashton-under-Lyne, and that during his leave he volunteered to return to his work and was at once reengaged by the New Moss Colliery; is he aware that this man has been transferred to home service for three months on compassionate grounds; that although applied for by the colliery company and the Coal Controller he has been refused permission to continue his work as a coal miner and ordered to join a home unit; will he state if this skilled coal miner is now engaged on work of greater national importance than coal mining and the nature of that work; and if he can be allowed to return to the New Moss Colliery, which is near his home, at least during the period of the three months' home service granted to him?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONI am making inquiry into this case, and will inform my hon. Friend of the result as soon as possible.