§ MR. SAMUEL SMITHasked the Secretary to the Admiralty, in reference to a correspondence published by Dr. Birkbeck Nevins of Liverpool, Whether it is true that a misleading comparison of the 891 amount of venereal disease as between "protected and unprotected" ports has been published in the Navy Report for several years past; and, whether it is the intention of the Government to discontinue the comparison, and acknowledge that it was erroneous?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe Table of Comparison of the amount of contagious disease at protected and unprotected ports was originally suggested by the leading opponents of the Contagious Diseases Acts, and was, at their instance, included in the annual Reports on the health of the Navy. Last year, on looking into the matter, the Admiralty came to the conclusion that the comparison was of no real value, and resolved to discontinue it. Through a pure inadvertence in the Office, however, the Table was repeated in the early copies of the Report issued this year. The mistake was at once corrected, and no such Table appears in the copies of the Report which have been provided for Members of Parliament, or put into general circulation.
§ LORD EUSTACE CECILasked, whether the rate of admission to Plymouth Hospital for Contagious Diseases had not risen from 104 per 1,000 during the last six mouths of 1882, when the Acts were in full operation, to 230 per 1,000 during the last six months of 1883, when the Acts were suspended?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe figures quoted by the noble Lord appear to be correct. They are taken from a Return on the subject laid on the Table on the 7th of March.