§ MR. NEWDEGATEsaid, he wished to inquire of the hon. Under Secretary for War whether he would lay upon the table of the House the Report and names of the Medical Board who last examined into the state of the health and the fitness for duty of Captain Cassan, the adjutant of the 1st Regiment of Warwickshire Militia, who had applied for permission to retire upon the allowance provided for adjutants of militia, under the Act 9 & 10 Vict. c. 55; also the Report and names of the Medical Board who had previously examined and reported upon the state of health and fitness for duty of the same officer? He had reason to believe that Captain Cassan was at present in a state of health which totally unfitted him for the discharge of the duties of a militia adjutant, and that, he believed, had been the effect of the Report of a Medical Board which had inquired into his case. But another Board had, it would appear, instituted a second inquiry, and in consequence of their Report the authorities at the War Office had refused to Captain Cassan permission to retire upon the allowance provided for adjutants in the militia.
§ MR. FREDERICK PEELsaid, the first Medical Board before which Captain Cassan had appeared had reported that he was unfit for service in the field. But the militia regiments were about to be disembodied, and a second Medical Board had given it as their opinion that Captain Cassan was not disqualified by infirmity of health from performing the comparatively light duties which would devolve upon an adjutant under that change of circumstances. The authorities at the War Office felt that they could not, after that second Report, allow the officer in question to retire upon the allowance provided for adjutants of militia. He had further to state that he did not think it would be right to produce the Report of the Board, which might be fairly regarded as a confidential document.