Miss Wardasked the Prime Minister if he will inform the House on the details of a recent letter he has received from the Ex-Army Schoolmasters' Association.
§ The Prime MinisterYes. The text of the letter which I received from the President of the Ex-Army Schoolmasters' Association reads as follows:
"2, Hillcrest Avenue, Edgware.
15th December, 1954.
SIR,
I was very perturbed when I read that, in the House last week, you described Colonel George Wigg as an Army Schoolmaster.
Colonel Wigg never was a member of the old Corps of Army Schoolmasters. My Corps was dissolved in 1919 and the Army Educational Corps was formed. The main difference between the two groups was that the members of the old one had four years' training in one of the Army Training Colleges for schoolmasters and were all 'trained certificated teachers,' whereas when the A.E.C. was formed its members did not have to have any college training as teachers. In other words, we were all professionals while the A.E.C., to which Colonel Wigg at one time belonged, consisted mainly of laymen. Consequently, we resent the untrained men being classed as Army schoolmasters.
I should deem it a great compliment to the members of my Association if you could take the earliest opportunity of making the position clear.
On behalf of my Association, may I wish you the compliments of the season
I am, Sir,
Yours respectfully,
S. L. MECKIFF,
President,
Ex-Army Schoolmasters' Association."