§ Mr. RAPERasked the Secretary of State for Air why provisional exemptions 287W against substitution from outside accorded to certain non-service personnel by the Substitution Committee which ceased to function 12 months ago are now considered as permanent exemptions; and whether, in view of the completely changed conditions and the expressed view of the ex-service association that these exemptions can no longer apply now that genuine ex-service men are being discharged, he will set up a Committee containing an ex-service representative to review all these cases?
Captain GUESTThe cases referred to are covered by my answers to the Noble Lord the Member for Hornsey (Lord Ednam) on the 15th instant, and to the hon. and gallant Member for the Torquay Division (Colonel Burn) on the 23rd instant. I cannot agree to their being referred to a Substitution Committee, but I am prepared to review such cases after a suitable interval.
§ Mr. RAPERasked the Secretary of State for Air whether the Committee which recently reviewed all cases of non-service personnel retained as indispensable included an ex-service representative?
Captain GUESTWhen my hon. Friend brought the deputation to see me in November last, I made it clear that I could not remit to a Substitution Committee the question of indispensability on which the discretion is explicitly reserved—as, indeed, must be the case—to me as head of the Department, by paragraph 9 of the Third Lytton Report. What I promised to my hon. Friend was to review personally these cases. This I have done, with the results which I stated in the answer I gave to the hon. and gallant Member for Torquay (Colonel Burn) on the 16th instant.