§ MR. P. O'BRIEN (Monaghan, N.)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether it is true that James Kelly, Army pensioner, Newbliss, county Monaghan, late of the 16th Brigade Royal Artillery, was engaged in service in Meerut, East India, when, by the capsizing of a field gun, he sustained such serious injuries that he was under medical treatment from December 1872 to March 1874, when he was discharged from the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, after having one of his arms amputated, a portion of his left jaw, which was fractured, removed, with the sight of one of his eyes seriously affected, and his hearing almost destroyed; whether he was discharged on a pension of one shilling per day for eighteen months, which was subsequently, after submitting himself to two medical examinations, increased to one shilling and six pence per day for life; whether Kelly applied for, and was granted, a further medical examination, which was held at Armagh in August 1883, with the view of establishing his claim to a higher pension, at which examination, owing to the fact that he was only required to answer the usual formal questions not applicable to the gravity of his case, and, being very nervous and delicate at the time, he failed to direct the medical examiner's attention to the number and nature of his injuries; whether Kelly since forwarded to the War Office a petition, accompanied by the recommendations of eight medical doctors, praying for another medical examination, the expenses of which he declared his willingness to bear, and which prayer was refused; and, whether, taking into consideration the services, sufferings, losses, and present deplorable condition of this man, he will afford him the desired opportunity, by another medical examination, of proving his claim to a more generous pension?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN)&c.) (Stirling,Sir, steps are being taken to have a full inquiry into the case of this pensioner.