§ SIR JOSEPH M'KENNAasked the Secretary of State for War, If it be the fact, and if so why is it, that the roster for Medical Officers has, since 1873, been kept as a private document, which officers are not allowed to see in the same manner as customary between 1858 and 1873; and, whether he is prepared to place Medical Officers on a footing, as regards exchanges, similar to that on which the other branches of the service now stand?
§ COLONEL ARBUTHNOTasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether the Committee appointed to inquire into matters affecting the Medical Department has reported, and when such Report will be circulated; if he will state if there is any objection to a system of open and unconditional exchange, such as exists in the combatant branches of the Army, being allowed to prevail in the Medical Department, and why the old system of keeping a public roster for Foreign Service has been abandoned; and, whether he will order a roster to be kept, either at the Adjutant General's Office or at the Office of the Director General of the Medical Department, which shall be open to inspection by all members of the Department?
§ COLONEL STANLEYSir, the roster for medical officers was, up to the time of the late Director General of the Army Medical Department—that is to say, 1873—hung up in the waiting-room of the Department, in accordance with the regulations of 1859; but it was found that this practice led to various abuses, 2087 consequent upon Army exchange agents and other persons coming and inspecting the roster, and then writing letters to the officers who were likely to be concerned. That led to abuses, and it was, therefore, removed from the waiting-room, and was kept in the office of the Surgeon General of the Medical Department; but it is open to the inspection of any officer, and any officer can ascertain his place upon it by application by letter to the Surgeon General. The Committee appointed to inquire into the Medical Department have reported, and I trust to lay their Report upon the Table as soon as the House meets next Session. I believe it will be in a completed state, and fit for Parliamentary publication, by that time. I have further to say, that my own personal wish is to see exchange among medical officers made as free as it can be, compatible with the interests of the Service; but I am bound to point out that, in the other Departments, it can never be so entirely unrestricted as in the combatant branches, and I am not prepared offhand to say it could be entirely assimilated to the system which exists in the combatant branches. That, I think, answers the Questions of both my hon. Friends, and that is all that I am in a position to say at the moment.