National Service Bill.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 9 December 1941.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Robert Tasker Mr Robert Tasker , Holborn

Youth has deficiencies as well as old age. It is not always right for men from 50 to 80 to be passed over for a young man. Some very gallant men risked their lives to discover the secret of the magnetic mines, but, had the Admiralty listened to one man over 60 years of age, there would have been no risk to anybody's life, because those mines were not new. That Swedish invention was known many years before the war broke out. The man of 60 was evidently considered to be suffering from old age or some other infirmity. The Bill confirms that attitude of mind, and it underestimates the value of age. If men over 51 years of age desire to serve their country, their desires will be frustrated. If a man who is over 70 desires to serve his country, he ought to have the opportunity of doing so. We are told that men between 40 and 51 will be employed only in static and sedentary occupations. Will anybody deny that thousands of men between 70 and 80 could do such work perfectly well? Why should not men between 51 and, say, 81 be engaged on work regarded as clerical?