DR. KENNYI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he has received a Memorial from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, dated 25th April, on the subject of the recent change in the mode of selecting Examiners for the Army Medical Service; whether it is correct, as therein stated, that the War Department or any branch thereof has given undertakings to the Royal College of Surgeons of England and to the Royal College of Physicians, London, that the selection of Examiners for the competitive examinations for admissions to the Army Medical Service shall in future be confined exclusively to past or present Examiners of those Colleges; whether it is also true, as stated in said Memorial, that out of a total of 891 officers constituting the Army Medical Staff, 429, or nearly one-half, hold Irish qualifications; and whether he will take into consideration the prayer of said Memorial that the War Department should constitute its Examining Board of Examiners selected in fair proportion from the teaching centres of the Three Kingdoms?
§ *MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANYes, Sir; the Memorial from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, dated April 25, on the subject of the recent change in the mode of selecting Examiners for the Army Medical Service has been received. The statement in that Memorial of the number of officers of the Army Medical Staff who have Irish qualifications is approximately true, the number being 380 out of a total number of 857. It is not the case that 1048 any undertaking has been given to the Royal Colleges in London restricting the appointment of Examiners to those Who have been Examiners to those Colleges; but, it was announced to be the present intention to appoint Examiners from that list. As I before explained, the appointment, for reasons of efficiency, will now be only for four years; and on vacancies occurring it will be quite open to the Secretary of State to consider whether he should appoint the new Examiners from among gentlemen with a similar guarantee of competency from the Scotch and Irish schools. I may say, however, that Examiners from the English schools have been employed for the last 35 years without any grievance being alleged; and from the numbers quoted it would not appear that Irish candidates have been unfairly excluded.
DR. KENNYAs to the last part of the answer, is it not a fact that they were permanent Examiners totally disconnected from any Licensing Bodies. The point of any question is that, inasmuch as the Examiners are now being selected from Teaching Bodies, it will necessarily induce the students to go to those Teaching Bodies to the detriment of the Irish and Scotch schools?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI have already said it will be open to the Secretary of State to consider applications from Examiners connected with those schools.
§ MR. CARSON (Dublin University)What is the percentage of Irish candidates as compared with the candidates from England?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI cannot say,