§ Sir H. NIELDasked the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that the total commitments of the State for financing the scheme for the higher education of ex-service men at the universities and other similar institutions is £8,145,000; whether any inquiries are made before these grants are given as to whether there is a reasonable probability that the persons in receipt of these grants will thereby be enabled 897W to secure suitable employment and to earn a livelihood; and whether it is essential, in order to secure efficiency and avoid waste of public money, that such inquiries should be made, and that any savings which after such inquiries may be effected in the administration may be devoted to other methods of training for disabled officers and men.
§ Mr. HERBERT FISHERThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. Grants are only made to those applicants who after careful scrutiny have been considered capable of profiting by a course of higher education. The Board felt justified in leaving to the applicants the responsibility for selecting the courses of higher education which they desired to follow, subject to the approval of the heads of the institutions and the university or local committees who recommended them for assistance. For practical purposes inquiries as to the absorptive capacities of the various occupations at home and abroad, two, three, or five years hence, could only have yielded very speculative results. In the Board's opinion it would not have been practicable for them to have administered the scheme on the basis of the specific prospects of the employment of individuals in particular occupations, without intolerable delay, and such discrimination between applicants, particularly between those who were demobilised early and late, as would have given rise to very serious grievances. I do not think that any saving could be made in the way suggested as a means for giving disabled officers and men additional benefits.