§ 102. Major Wiseasked the Minister of Defence the numbers of civilian stokers and batmen employed in the Services; and whether he will consider their replacement by Service personnel and so release the civilians for employment outside the Services.
§ Mr. AlexanderThe figures are not readily available and could not be obtained without considerable expenditure of time and labour. The distribution of the duties between Service men and civilians varies to some extent according to the local manpower availability. We could not replace the civilians by Service56W men without increasing the manpower requirements of the Forces, and it does not follow that this rearrangement would ease the civilian manpower situation.
§ 103. Major Wiseasked the Secretary of State for Air if he is aware that men now being released from the Forces and who might otherwise return to agricultural employment are being engaged at R.A.F. stations as stokers and batmen and are being classified as civilian employees; and if he will make arrangements that the work they are called upon to do should be carried out by R.A.F. personnel and so release them for civilian work.
§ Mr. P. Noel-BakerI cannot say how many men who have been released from the Forces and are now employed by my Department as stokers or batmen would otherwise be working in agriculture. I am anxious that we should be as economical as possible in our use of manpower, but I do not think there would be any saving if we adopted the suggestion in the second part of my hon. and gallant Friend's Question. If we dismissed these civilian workers, we should have to recruit at least an equal number of uniformed men to take their place.