asked the Minister of Education why a member of the teaching profession who left an independent school to serve in the 1914–18 war and who, subsequently, joined the staff of a grammar school, is not allowed to count for pension the period of his war service; and how many men are affected by this rule.

War service by a teacher during the 1914–18 war cannot be treated as pensionable service under the Teachers' Superannuation Acts unless the teacher was recognised at the time as a certificated teacher, or was employed in recognised service immediately before the beginning of his war service. These conditions are contained in a Statutory Rule from which I have no power to depart, the broad purpose of which is to continue the pension rights which a teacher enjoyed when he entered on war service. I have no information of the number of teachers whose war service does not satisfy the conditions of the Rule.