§ MR. MACFARLANE (Argyll)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty if he is aware that medical officers at Haslar Hospital are not permitted to administer anæsthetics without leave from head-quarters in London; and whether the medical staff of the Navy is short of its full compliment of officers, 864 and why, if that be so, there was no examination for new candidates in February?
§ MR. EDMUND ROBERTSON; The medical officers at Haslar, as at all other naval hospitals, are permitted to administer anæsthetics whenever they consider it is necessary they should do so, and they are under no obligation to refer to the Medical Department in London, nor is there any record of such an application ever having been made. The Medical Staff of the Navy is only three short of the full number for which provision has been made in the Estimates. Examinations are not now held in February, but in May and November as required.