Mr. Ralston:

But my hon. friend Is adopting Trenton instead of Borden.

Mr. RALSTON:

I recall that in November when the matter was discussed there was a proposal whereby, by a certain lower grading, particularly having regard to the "S" classification in the pulhems system, and possibly the eyes, although I am not sure about that -anyway the proposal was that by lowering the grading it might be possible to raise five hundred more men.

Mr. RALSTON:

My hon. friend says that is being done. The other day my hon. friend stated that altogether some four thousand men had been sent home on rotation leave. I know what the figures were; there was nothing secret about them, and I think I gave them to the house. The fact was that in Italy in November there were probably between ten and eleven thousand men who were entitled to rotation leave, and four thousand is only four-tenths of that number. That was for Italy alone. I am saying that if there are on hand the number forecast in November plus the number which my hon. friend has given as a saving in casualties, then it seems to me, if the programme forecast has been carried out, there should be available sufficient to give rotation leave to. the other six thousand at least. I say this in all seriousness, because this matter was impressed upon me when I was in Italy; it was one of the problems that I brought home with me; and one of the things to which I gave first attention was preparing the plans for rotation leave, which were on the desk of my successor when he took over. As I said to the house in November, just the second day before I retired, we had received assent of an arrangement whereby we could provide transportation. This matter of rotation leave is all important, and I cannot impress too strongly upon my hon. friend and the department the fact that these men ought to be taken care of if there is any actual surplus of trained reinforcements on hand. I am pointing out to my hon. friend that I think he ought to check and see if the surplus really is on hand, having regard to the figures as given to-night.

Mr. RALSTON:

It will be remembered that at that time 4,500 additional general service men were to be found out of the general service resources in Canada, and it was proposed that another 500 might be found, provided that the pulhems tests were regraded to some extent. I at that time expressed my dissatisfaction with that, because I thought that we should not lower the grading, and my successor came to the same conclusion. I was wondering if the change that is now made is any reversal of that policy or in what respect the lowering is being made whereby "S.l' is now not as good a grading from the point of view of stability as "S.l" was prior to this change in February.

Mr. RALSTON:

Significant change.