COLONEL NORTHsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, What steps have been taken to bring into operation at Aldershot the Contagious Diseases Prevention Bill?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONsaid, in reply, that Dr. Leonard, the Inspector under the Act, had been directed to report at the end of last year upon Aldershot and the local hospitals which were likely to be available for the purposes of the Act. He reported that neither the Infirmary nor any other hospital in the neighbourhood was adapted for the purposes of the Act. Under these circumstances arrangements were temporarily made to remove persons subject to the operation of the Act to the Lock Hospital in London. The very limited experience they had had of the working of the Act at Portsmouth, Devon-port, and other places, had shown that, unless the provisions of the measure could be thoroughly and completely carried out, little or no good could result from putting the Act in force. Dr. Leonard had lately made proposals for trying the experiment upon a more complete scale at Aldershot, and the matter was now under consideration.