§ Mr. Prittasked the Secretary of State for War who constitutes the Forces Book Club and by what method and by what officials the books are selected; whether the Director of Army Bureau of Current Affairs is a director of the Forces Book Club; whether those subscribing for the books of the club receive a batch of books selected by the club or choose the books 1609W for themselves; how many copies of "Is To-morrow Hitler's?" were distributed to subscribers; and why that book was selected by the club at all?
§ Sir J. GriggThe members of the Forces Book Club are the units and establishments in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Dominion and Allied Forces who subscribe to the club. The titles are chosen by a panel on which the Admiralty is represented by their Director of Education, and by a member of one of their welfare organisations; the R.A.F. by their Director of Education' and their Director of Welfare; the War Office by the Director-General of Welfare and Education (who is chairman), the Director of Army Education, and the Director of A.B.C.A. The Officer in charge Services Central Book Depot and the chief librarian there are also members of the panel. I may add that the librarian of the Royal United Service Institution has just agreed to consider as an independent reader such books as are referred to him and to draw attention to any reasonable objection to the inclusion of those books. Ten books are produced and despatched to the subscribers every month. It is impossible for the subscribers to choose the titles but it is the policy of the panel to choose such books as the average soldier might be expected to buy for himself if he could. Of the 10 books about seven are works of fiction and three are non-fictional works of general interest which aim at giving a broad range of opinion and comment upon world affairs. It is rightly assumed that soldiers can make up their own minds and are not liable to swallow whole any single presentation of controversial matters. The Forces Book Club propose shortly to issue Charlotte Haldane's "Russian News Reel" as well as a book by Leonard Barnes about the solution of the problem of nationalities in the Soviet Union. If the short chapter about Soviet Russia in "Is To-morrow Hitler's?" has caused any misapprehensions about that country these books should amply correct them, 5,932 copies of this book were distributed to subscribers.