§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Prime Minister whether it is contrary to the Regulations at present in force in the Army, Navy or the Air Force, for an officer or a member of the ranks to write direct to his Member of Parliament on any subject affecting the welfare of the Services provided he does not make disclosures which are contrary to the Official Secrets Act; can a man be prevented from, or punished for writing such a letter; and will he make sure that this information shall in fact be received by those concerned by including this information in the daily routine orders of the three Services as soon as possible?
§ The Prime MinisterKing's Regulations require serving officers and men who wish to make any representations relating to Service matters to do so through the recognised Service channels and in no other way. The practice and principles of the Services in this respect are, however, well understood, as also are the reasons underlying them. These reasons were fully explained to the House on 10th December last by the then Secretary of State for War in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for East Wolverhampton (Mr. Mander).