§ DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)I Leg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether the enlistment of the Imperial Yeomanly was carried out by officers of the Medical Army Department or by local private practitioners necessarily unfamiliar with the details of the standard required for Regulars; whether he is aware that in the printed instructions issued there was a paragraph which stated that there was no need to reject men for minor defects and deformities, as the standard need not be so high as for Regulars and whether these instructions were seen and sanctioned by the Director General of the Army Medical Department before being issued.
§ MR. BRODRICKIn consequence of the absence of a large proportion of the officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps in South Africa, the bulk of the men were examined by local practitioners. Instructions were issued that the conditions required of a recruit enlisting for the full term of service in the Army might be modified. Instructions were issued to the effect that if the recruit was free from organic disease or other serious defect likely to prevent him from working during the continuance of the campaign, he might be accepted. I have not been able to trace whether the late Director General was consulted, but the question was rather military than medical.