asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty what steps are taken to ensure that an officer or a man desiring to be released from the Royal Navy outside the United Kingdom is not thereby avoiding his obligations to maintain his wife and family.

Naval Commanders-in-Chief abroad have been instructed that local release is not to be approved unless they are satisfied that the applicant has undertaken to make reasonable provision for maintenance of his family, and that inquiries are to be made beforehand as to whether the man's family know of his intention and ate satisfied with the arrangements he proposes.