Mr John Loverseed: asked the Secretary of State for War whether he will now release, for employment in the Mercantile Marine, No. 14744013, Private A. W. Tann, R.A.S.C., who sustained injuries whilst chief engineer of H.M.S. "Empire Jonathon" on D-Day and who was subsequently arrested in Greenwich Hospital and enlisted in the Army.
Mr John Loverseed: Is it not a fact that a man with the experience of this Merchant Service officer is of far more value to the Merchant Service than he is kicking his heels in the Army?
Mr John Loverseed: In view of the discredit which the Minister is attempting to put upon this man's head, is it not a fact that after he was alleged to have been discharged from the Merchant Service he was found of sufficient use to take a boat to Arromanches on D-Day and drop the first blockship there?
Mr John Loverseed: Is it not a fact that when this soldier was arrested he was in possession at that time of his Merchant Service cards, and was in the uniform of a chief engineer in the Merchant Service, and despite that he was kept in the "rat pit" at Bradford, and had to suffer the indignity of cigarettes being thrown over to him by the guards?
Mr John Loverseed: In view of the fact that 19 days are to elapse between polling day and the declaration of the results, during which time the ballot boxes will be open for the Forces' vote to come in, will it not be possible for a ballot box to be kept open in each local government area for people returning from holidays to vote?
Mr John Loverseed: asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the scarcity and the unpopularity of farthings as units of currency, he will order them to be disregarded in the fixing of maximum retail prices or, alternatively, permit of adjustment in price, by mutual consent, between tradesman and customer, without recognised infringement of the maximum retail price orders where neither...
Mr John Loverseed: Is my right hon. Friend aware that a tradesman who, by mutual consent with his customers, accepted an extra farthing was recently fined £40 for so doing, and that, as a result, customers who now wish to buy commodities the price of which involves a farthing, in o many cases cannot get them unless they have that coin?
Mr John Loverseed: Is it not a fact that before the war any pilot could get a "B" licence on 200 hours' flying?
Mr John Loverseed: But he could qualify.
Mr John Loverseed: I would like to follow the hon. Member for Harborough (Mr. Tree), who raised one or two points concerning the training of pilots, and their navigational training in particular. I think I understand exactly the point he referred to. I would suggest that the fault lies not so much with the training of R.A.F. personnel as with the selection of the personnel who are posted to Transport Command. I...
Mr John Loverseed: asked the Secretary of State for War what are the circumstances under which Mr. A. W. Tann, a chief engineer in the Merchant Navy, was arrested as an absentee from the Army whilst lying in Greenwich Hospital suffering from the effects of five shrapnel wounds and delayed shock inflicted upon him in the D-day operations in the performance of his duties in the Merchant Navy.
Mr John Loverseed: Mr. Speaker, I wish to draw attention to an inaccuracy in the OFFICIAL REPORT in the answer to a Question asked by me on Tuesday last of the Secretary of State for War. I had Questions 23 and 24 on the Order Paper, but I had given notice at the Table that Question 23 was postponed for a week. I received a reply from the Secretary of State for War in answer to Question 24, which was to the...
Mr John Loverseed: asked the Secretary of State for War whether he will state the reason why the commanding officer of a machine-gun training centre in the northwest of England, of which he has been informed, has been relieved of his command.
Mr John Loverseed: I intervene because I have raised this matter on other occasions in the past, and it is one on which I feel very strongly. I feel particularly that the method of appointment of these committees is wrong. In the first place, instead of being appointed on a democratic basis they are hand-picked by the Minister. Many who are serving on these war agricultural executive committees are men who have...
Mr John Loverseed: Is not the investigation made by the same people who dispossessed them?
Mr John Loverseed: asked the Minister of Agriculture by what means a dispossessed owner-farmer may, after a reasonable period, exercise his right as landlord to recover possession of his farm when it becomes apparent that its condition is becoming seriously impaired by the bad husbandry and management of the tenant appointed by the county war agricultural executive committee.
Mr John Loverseed: asked the Minister of Agriculture why county war agricultural executive committees are not required to pay rent quarterly in respect of farms taken over by them from owner-farmers; what interest rates are payable by them on arrears of such rent beyond quarter days, and whether they are entitled to deduct from the sums paid, debts in respect of tithe for which a court order has been obtained...
Mr John Loverseed: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that, in many cases, the compensation payable to the dispossessed farmer is in fact the only income which he has; and can he give some reason as to why the interest payable on arrears should be less than that which anyone can get from National Savings Certificates? Further, will he investigate a case in which a court order is existing for tithe, which is...
Mr John Loverseed: I intervene briefly because I have from the start taken a great interest in this particular Parliament in the Middle East. I am rather sorry that my right hon. and gallant Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Air has been made the target of the attack to-night because I think it should have been directed to the War Office, who have behaved in the most blimpish manner over the whole...
Mr John Loverseed: At this stage of the war in which our efforts have been crowned with success, I do not wish during this Debate to record a note of discord or to open up any old sores, but, nevertheless, I feel that it is necessary for us to look back well before 1939. This war is a war of atonement—atonement for the mistakes of democracies in the years before 1939. We have all in this country made...