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Though the second reading of the Reinstatement in Civil Em- ployment Bill was carried in the House of Commons without a division, the measure evoked no conspicuous enthusiasm. That is natural enough, for while much of the Bill is just and right, it is almost impossible to draft it in such a way as to obviate constant con- troversy. A succession of employees may have held a particular post as one after another was called up for service. Yet it is clear that only one of them can be reinstated (for a minimum of 26 weeks) in that particular post after the war. That difficulty is to be solved under the Bill by giving the post to the senior returning service-man who applies to it. The others must be found more or less similar work, so far as that is "reasonable and practicable," and it was admitted by the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Labour that over the interpretation of those words almost endless dispute might arise ; to meet this difficulty, reinstatement committees are to be appointed, with an appeal from them in certain circum- stances to some tribunal not specified. It is too much to hope that their findings will give general satisfaction. The fault, if the Bill works only indifferently well, is not the Government's ; the circum- stances are such that no more than partial success is possible. But it is essential that the men in the Forces should be given whatever assurance is possible about their future employment, and the Bill goes a considerable way in that direction. In one respect it remedies a manifest injustice. The 1939 Act on similar lines dealt only with conscribed men ; this covers the case of volunteers.
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