§ Mr. NEIL MACLEANasked the Secretary of State for War whether Driver A. P. Patterson, No. 76775, Royal Engineers, disappeared from the camp of K. K. Cable Section, Canal Defence, Egyptian Expeditionary Force, on 29th March, 1916; whether he has been posted as a deserter; whether all requests from his parents for his credits and gratuity and belongings have been refused on the ground that he is a deserter; and whether, considering that three years and eight months have expired since this soldier disappeared in the middle of a desert in Egypt, he can see his way to class him missing, presumably killed, and thereby enable his parents to receive his belongings and gratuity?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLA Court of Inquiry which was assembled at Port Tewfik in April, 1916, declared that Driver Patterson illegally absented himself without leave at Suez on the 29th March, 1916, and he was accordingly reported as a deserter. When Driver Patterson illegally522W absented himself he was not within the immediate zone of operations, and there is no reason to presume that he was killed or that he is missing owing to any other cause than his own act of desertion.