§ Mr. Tilneyasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) whether he will arrange for standard charges to be made for embalming the bodies of Service men who are killed or die while serving in overseas theatres;
(2) whether he will lay down maximum and minimum charges for the transport home of embalmed bodies of Service men who are killed or die while serving in overseas theatres, so that those families who are prepared to incur the expense of such transport can be aware of the cost, and not have to make their own arrangements through local undertakers, who have to rely on civilian airlines.
§ Mr. Christopher MayhewIf a Service man dies in North West Europe, we offer his next of kin the choice of bringing the body home at public expense, or of flying out two relatives to attend the Service funeral. There are obvious practical difficulties about extending this arrangement to more distant areas with different climatic conditions save in exceptional cases, but we are about to review these arrangements. Embalming will be considered during this review.