§ Mr. CAIRNSasked the Secretary of State for War whether the women telegraphists who served with Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps have been refused a gratuity on discharge and a retention bonus for service in connection with the machinery of demobilisation; whether this refusal has been made on the grounds that the women were civilians; whether he is aware that they were paid by means of soldiers' pay books, were ordered to salute their officers because they held the King's commission, were subject to trial by court-martial for offences committed on or off duty, and were forbidden to visit places out of bounds to troops in exactly the same way as all other soldiers; whether nurses without Foreign service receive a gratuity on discharge; and whether, in view of all these circumstances, he will reconsider his decision not to pay a gratuity or retention bonus?
§ Sir A. WILLIAMSONI would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave him yesterday.