MANY BRITISH TROOPS IN KOREA ARE UNDER AGE OF 21 YEARS

Wanganui Chronicle, 7 September 1950, Page 5

MANY BRITISH TROOPS IN KOREA ARE UNDER AGE OF 21 YEARS

LONDON, Sept. 6 (Recd. 6 p.m.)— Conscripts under 21 are included in the Britjsh force sent to Korea to keep up the fighting power of their units, according to a reply by the Prime Minister. Mr. Attlee, to a letter from Mr Raymond Blackburn. Independent member for Northfield, Birmingham. Mr. Attlee said: “I am afraid, in view of the army’s stringent manpower difficulties, especially the shortage of regulars, I could not give you an assurance that no one under the age of 21 will be sent into action in Korea, or elsewhere. It would have been impossible to ensure the operational efficiency of the British units recently dispatched from Hongkong to Korea without retaining in them a certain number of national servicemen, many of whom, naturally, are under the age of 20. “I think I should mention that for the greater part of the 1939-45 war the minimum age of posting overseaes was 19 years. No soldier has been included in the Korean force who was not at least 19 years of age on date of embarkation.”