§ Major GLYNasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies what steps are being taken by his Department to encourage ex-officers and men to settle in various parts of the British Empire; and whether the High Commissioners for the Dominions, in conjunction with the Colonial Office, have been able to formulate a scheme whereby assisted passages and financial advances can be made to deserving cases who have qualified as being eligible to settle or hold appointments overseas?
§ Lieut.-Colonel AMERYAs regards assisted passages, I invite the attention of my hon. Friend to the answer which I gave on the 17th instant to the question of my hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon regarding the extension by His Majesty's Government of the period for granting free passages to ex-service men who intend to settle within the British Empire overseas. As regards financial advances, certain of the Governments in the self-governing Dominions have446W adopted chemes for the settlement of ex-service men from the United Kingdom, and particulars of these will be found in the handbooks issued by the Overseas Settlement Committee. Under many of these schemes advances of capital may be granted to settlers, who must be approved, in some cases overseas, by special selection committees, and should possess some capital of their own. The Joint Committee of the National Relief Fund and Overseas Settlement Committee have limited funds at their disposal out of which they have in the past made grants, and propose in future to make loans, to persons accepted as settlers under approved overseas settlement schemes.