§ 53. Mr. Lowasked the Minister of Defence how many of those men now serving in the Royal Navy, the Army and the R.A.F., respectively, are serving otherwise than as volunteers.
§ Mr. AlexanderI regret that it is not possible to give precisely the figures asked for by the hon. Member, since our records do not distinguish between those who were called up and those who enlisted voluntarily on purely war-time engagements. I can give the combined figures for other ranks in these two groups, which were, at 30th September: Royal Navy, 64,500; Army, 510,000; Royal Air Force, 173,000 (approximately). These figures exclude men who, although they were called up under the National Service Acts in the first place, have subsequently deferred their release voluntarily.