§ MR. HAYDEN (Leitrim, S.)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether Michael Noone, who enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, while training in the Royal Gymnasium School, received a hurt, which necessitated his removal to hospital in Dover, where he remained for four and a half months; whether he was discharged in consequence of being medically unfit for further service; whether it is a fact that he received no recompense whatever on his discharge, and was obliged, on account of the hurt received while training, to enter the Roscommon County Infirmary, where it was found necessary to amputate his right foot, as shown by Dr. Blakeney's certificate; and, whether, under all the circumstances, his case will be reconsidered, with a view to giving him a gratuity to enable him to learn a trade, and thus prevent his becoming an inmate of the Roscommon 828 Workhouse, and a charge on the ratepayers during the remainder of his life?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN)&c.) (Stirling,The man appears to have had a weak ankle; for it turned under him once on parade and again in the gymnasium. After the latter mishap he was found to be suffering from chronic scrofulous disease of the ankle joint, and was discharged on the certificate of a Medical Board that he was unfit for further service. He had only served for 230 days, and was not entitled to pension or gratuity on discharge. I have no funds at my disposal from which to make allowance in this case, in which it is unlikely that the injury would have been permanent if the man's ankle had not already been diseased.