The hon. Member for Salford, East (Mr. Hardy) has raised two questions. First of all is the special case of Private Laffin, with which I will deal in detail, and the second is the general question of repatriation of the bodies of soldiers who die abroad.

The hon. Member says that the War Office behaved in a heartless way in this case. I refute that statement very strongly, as indeed it was refuted by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Aston (Mr. Wyatt) when he held my present appointment, and when the same charge, expressed in almost the same words, was levelled against him by one of his hon. Friends.

The War Office is not heartless. On the contrary, our approach to this whole question is sympathetic. We realise what a tragedy it is bound to be for a soldier's relatives when he dies and is buried overseas. We have given a great deal of careful thought to the whole matter but it has not been possible to find a satisfactory alternative to the existing procedure.

It has been the practice in the fighting Services for a great many years that men who are killed or who die overseas should be buried by their comrades near the place of death in the country where they die. As anyone knows who has attended one, a military funeral is both reverent and impressive. It constitutes a tribute by the Army to the dead comrade. The graves are in the care of the Imperial War Graves Commission, and again, anyone who has visited a military or war cemetery anywhere overseas knows how beautifully kept they are, and how everything is done to make them the sort of places which the bereaved relations would expect them to be.

During the war, of course, there was no question of repatriating the bodies of soldiers who were killed or who died abroad. That did not arise. After the war, the possibility of repatriating the bodies of all soldiers who died or who were killed overseas was very carefully considered. One thing became clear immediately; the practice could not be confined to any one country or continent. Either we had to bring back the bodies of all soldiers wherever they died—whether it was in the Far East or quite near—or bring back none. Exceptions could not be made. We could not say, "We are going to bring back the bodies of soldiers who die or are killed in Europe but not the bodies of those who die further away."

Quite clearly, to bring back the bodies of all British soldiers, sailors and airmen who die anywhere in the world, even were it desirable—and it is possible to make out a strong case against that as a general practice—would involve a very considerable expenditure of public funds and very considerable administrative difficulties. It was for those reasons and against that background that the decision was taken to adhere to the present procedure.

Perhaps I might say exactly what the present procedure is. When a soldier dies or is killed abroad, the first step is that the next of kin are informed of his death, first by telegram as soon as is humanly possible, secondly by an official letter, and also by a letter from the soldier's commanding officer to his next of kin. Normally, the military authorities then arrange for a military funeral locally. The hon. Member said something about our accepting no responsibility, but in that case—which is the normal case—we accept full response- bility. As I have said, the ceremony is an impressive one, and the graves are well cared for and looked after by the Imperial War Graves Commission.