HC Deb 15 March 1894 vol 22 cc325-6
MR. ARNOLD-FORSTER

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether the drivers and horses allotted to the transport of the Army Hospital Corps are supplied by the Army Service Corps; whether the men and horses of the Army Service Corps, belonging as they do to the combatant brunch, will be under the protection of the Geneva Convention in time of war; or whether they will be liable to be shot or captured while in charge of, or attached to, the ambulance waggons; and whether the practice of supplying the ambulance transport from a combatant corps prevails in any Army other than our own?

MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

The transport needed for medical services in time of war would be supplied from the mounted companies of the Army Service Corps. Men so employed, when wearing the brassard, would be under the protection of the Geneva Convention. I am informed that in Austria, France, Germany, and Russia ambulance transport is provided from combatant corps.

MR. ARNOLD-FORSTER

was understood to ask, further, whether in France, Germany, and Austria those men were not deemed to be under the protection of the Geneva Convention, and whether the same did not apply to the ambulance drivers permanently attached to the Ambulance Corps?

MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

asked for notice.