Viscountess ASTORMasked the Minister of Pensions whether he is aware that a meeting of men discharged from the Ministry of Labour offices at Kew on the grounds of relative efficiency, or because, being home-service men, they had to make room for the retention of overseas men, was recently held outside the Pensions Issue Office to protest against the employment of women there while these men remain unemployed; whether he is aware that an assistant branch head at the Issue Office presided; that appeals were made to the men to vote against every Government candidate put before the electorate, and statements were made reflecting on the civil servants responsible for preparing answers to questions in the House, arid asserting that most of the women remaining in the Issue Office were there to earn pin-money and had comfortable homes; whether it is in accordance with the rules of the Civil Service for a Government official to preside over a meeting advocating an electoral campaign against Ministers of the Crown; and whether steps will be taken to see that this officer will not he placed in charge of women whom he has openly attacked for retaining their employment?
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Major TYRONI think the Noble Lady must have been misinformed. A meeting of discharged ex-service men was held outside the Ministry of Pensions premises at Acton on the 16th instant, and was addressed by an officer of this Ministry in his capacity as Chairman of a branch of the Association of Ex-service Civil. Servants. I am assured that he did no more than express the sympathy of the branch with them in their difficulties and congratulate the discharged men on the orderly way in which they were carrying out their protest. He did not preside at the meeting, nor did he make any attack on the staff of the Civil Service or on the Government, neither did he make any reference whatever to the employment of women in the Ministry of Pensions.