§ GENERAL LAURIE (Pembroke and Haverfordwest)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, as it appears 1047 from the published telegram, No. 61, of Secretary of State for Colonies to Governor General of Canada, dated 23rd October, 1899, that the Secretary of State for War could only accept Canadian military medical officers and trained female nurses for service with the Canadian contingent, as British troops can be legally only attended by surgeons registered in the United Kingdom and nurses belonging to the Army Reserve, and as Canadian troops accompanied by Canadian military surgeons and nurses are now serving at the front side by side with their comrades of the British Regular Service, whether he will take steps to remove the legal prohibition which prevents these Canadian and other colonial military surgeons from rendering medical assistance to their British comrades.
§ * MR. WYNDHAMThe Medical Act of 1858 prohibits the appointment as Army surgeon of a practitioner not registered in the United Kingdom; but it does not prevent a non-registered surgeon from rendering assistance under the orders of the Medical Staff. The general question of reciprocity with the colonies as regards medical qualifications is too broad a question for the War Office to deal with.