§ Mr. T. GRIFFITHSasked the Minister of Labour whether his attention has been drawn to the cases of W. H. Rogers, late private, No. 2,331, l/7th Hants, and S. Challis, late lance-corporal, No. 45,793, 9th North Hants; whether he is aware that these two men started a six months' course of training in electrical engineering last June; that at the end of the period they received an extension of six months; that the Ministry of Labour then took over the training and they signed an agreement for a three years' course, but were discharged in December, 1919; and whether, in view of the fact that these two men are totally unfit for work as electrical engineers, he will state what action he proposes to take?
§ Sir R. HORNEThe reply to the first part of this question is in the affirmative; to the second, that these men started a six months' course of training in the Hartley University College, Southampton, on January 1st and 8th respectively, and not, as stated, in June; to the third, that the length of the prescribed course of training for electrical engineering, as regards which no agreement is signed by the men, is three years, of which 2½ years are to be spent in a workshop and only six months in a technical school, so that the training of these men was not terminated until December, when they had already received double the period laid down for the latter; and to the672W fourth, that they were passed as suitable for the trade by the Local Technical Advisory Committee representing employers and workmen. Efforts are now being made to find them improvers' vacancies, in order to enable them to complete the 2½ years' workshop training which is necessary in electrical engineering. The difficulty in finding workshop vacancies is connected with the temporary depression in the engineering trades caused by the moulders' strike. It is hoped that the situation will shortly permit of the placing of these men, but in the meantime, their retention in the technical school would only have resulted in the exclusion of other trainees, with no corresponding benefit to themselves.