§ CAPTAIN NORTONI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War if he is aware that at an inquest held on Saturday last at Shorncliffe Camp, on Sergeant Wilmshurst, of the Sussex Regiment, it was shown in evidence that there was not a single orderly of the Army Medical Corps in the hospital, and that Wilmshurst, when taken to the hospital in a fit, died before a doctor could be found; and in view of the comments made by the jury at the inquest, whether he can say what steps, if any, are now being taken to secure without delay an adequate staff for our military hospitals both at home and abroad.
§ *MR. WYNDHAMNo information has been received in the War Office of this incident, but inquiry will be made the staff of the hospital consists of a sergeant-major, a sergeant, two corporals, and fourteen orderlies of the Army Medical Corps, besides regimental soldiers. The hon. Member will see that I have to make further inquiry in order to give an exhaustive answer to this question. I put it to him and to other Members that when a question comes before me for the first time at ten or eleven o'clock in the morning at the War Office, it is impos- 402 sible to deal with it satisfactorily before the House sits. I trust that more consideration will in future be shown to an already over-burdened Department.
§ CAPTAIN NORTONI will renew the question a few days hence.