asked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that delays of six to eight weeks regularly occur before replies to correspondence are received from his Department; and whether he will take urgent action to avoid any continuance of such delay?

I do not think the facts bear out my hon. Friend's assertion. I have made a complete analysis of the 44 cases which he has sent to the War Office in the last year. Excluding four special cases the average time is one-third of that suggested. In two of the four special cases my hon. Friend's correspondent omitted to give a vital piece of information which naturally prolonged the investigaton, while in another—a medical case—a special period of observation was necessary. The fourth was a complicated pension case.