HC Deb 20 July 1900 vol 86 cc643-4
DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary for War a question of which I have given him private notice—namely, whether it is a fact, as stated by the hon. Member for Westminster in the daily press, that civil surgeons employed in military hospitals in South Africa have been required by the Army Medical Department to sign a contract not to divulge in any way what their impressions may be on hospital matters.

* THE UNDER SECRETARY FOR WAR (Mr. WYNDHAM,) Dover

Civil surgeons have to sign a contract—not being enrolled or amenable to discipline under the Army Act—accepting the terms offered and the obligation of discipline therein set out. I have in my hand a copy of the contract. The only paragraphs that bear upon discipline are as follows— During the said period I will devote my whole time and professional skill to my service hereunder, and will obey all orders given to me by commissioned military or naval officers, or by the permanent medical officers of either of those services. And the next paragraph runs— In case I shall complete my service hereunder to your satisfaction in all respects, I shall receive at the end of the said period a gratuity of two months full pay at the rate hereinbefore specified; but in case I shall in any manner misconduct myself, or shall be (otherwise than through illness or unavoidable accident) unfit in any respect for service hereunder, of which misconduct or unfitness you shall be sole judge, you shall be at liberty from and immediately after such misconduct or unfitness to discharge me from further service hereunder, and thereupon all pay and allowances hereunder shall cease, and I shall not be entitled to any free passage home or gratuity. That is the only contract civil surgeons have to sign, and for my part I cannot discover any foundation for the statement in question.

* MR. BURDETT-COUTTS (Westminster)

Arising out of the answer of the hon. Member, I desire to ask him a question which contains a correction of detail, but adds I think very largely to the force and significance of the statement to which the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire refers. It is this—whether it is not the case that after some letters had been published from doctors in South African hospitals they had to sign a declaration to the effect that they were not to communicate their impressions of hospital matters to the public, or that they were to take the consequences?

* MR. WYNDHAM

I have no knowledge to any such effect. The contract I have read is the only contract we have, and I am unaware of any other contract whatever.

SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN (Stirling Burghs)

On that point it may be desirable to communicate by telegraph with South Africa as to whether this declaration exists or was enforced.

* MR. WYNDHAM

There is no objection whatever.