§ 33. Mr. Snaddenasked the Secretary of State for Air whether he is aware of the feeling of grievance and frustration on the part of redundant aircrews and of the hardship suffered by them by remustering in lower ranks in lower-paid grades of the R.A.F.; whether length of service, aircrew rank and service record were taken into consideration on remustering; and what steps he now proposes to take to ensure that these volunteers for aircrew duty are not penalised by suffering reductions in pay through no fault committed by them.
§ Mr. P. Noel-BakerThe hon. Member will be glad to know that we have now told the Service that most of the redundant aircrew will be released by the 1st July of this year, and the remainder by the end of September. We have also told them that the present concessions in rank and pay have been extended until 193W the end of September. We have throughout tried to deal with this complex problem in the fairest possible way; I am sending the hon. Member a copy of the reply given by my hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State on 1st August last, which shows the detailed arrangements which had already then been made. I hope that the new extension which I have just announced will allay any sense of disappointment which may have arisen in the last few months.