§ DR. CLARK (Caithness)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether the Director General of the Army Medical Department informed the Select Committee on the Army Estimates that the principal reason why medical men refused to entered the Army, and the supply of candidates ceased about 1870, was—
The refusal to recognize medical men in the Army as on an equality with the combatant and other officers,and that at present—The medical officers feel that they are not treated as they ought to be with respect to rank and position,and that they desire the restoration of the position denned in the 17th Clause of the Royal Warrant of 1878; and, whether, as the agitation in the medical schools and journals, and the dissatisfaction felt by military surgeons may again diminish or stop the supply of candidates, he will appoint, as he promised, a Departmental Committee to consider the question of the rank and position of medical officers?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. E. STANHOPE) (Lincolnshire, Horncastle),in reply, said, he had several times stated that the recent Royal Warrant for abrogating relative rank detracted in no sense from the status, precedence, or privileges of the medical officers of the Army. It was a mistake to suppose 1142 that he had promised a Departmental Committee to inquire into the subject.