§ General Sir IVOR PHILIPPSasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether 'officers and men who have served three years overseas without home leave were granted twenty-eight days' additional furlough on this account on their return to England; whether this decision was published to the Army in Mesopotamia; whether he is aware that non-commissioned officers and men who have lately returned from Mesopotamia state that the above was officially communicated to them by officers who were sent from General Headquarters in Mesopotamia to lecture to the troops on the question of demobilisation; whether he is aware that such furlough is now being disallowed by the War Office; and whether he will in future do his utmost to see that undertakings and promises made by the Army Council or on their behalf are fulfilled both in the spirit and in the letter?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLThere is no Regulation under which the grant of this leave is authorised. Special inquiries were recently made by cable to the General Officers Commanding-in-Chief, Egypt, Salonika, and Mesopotamia regarding the alleged promise of additional leave for service overseas, but no trace of the issue1266W of any such order could be found. There is no War Office authority for the granting of extra leave for service in the theatres mentioned, nor for the issue of pay and allowances in lieu of the same. Any man who was serving on a pre-war attestation at the outbreak of war, and who has completed the term of his original engagement and has been retained in the Service under the Military Service Acts, is entitled to an extra month's leave in addition to his twenty-eight days' demobilisation leave, under Army Council Instructions 851, of 1918, and 633, of 1919, or if discharged or demobilised, one month's pay and allowances in lieu of the same.