§ SIR HENRY KIMBER (Wandsworth)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether, in accordance with the recommendation of the Advisory Medical Board that all fluids employed as drinks at manœuvres, on service abroad and on active service, should be sterilised by heat, suitable apparatus and equipment for this purpose has been issued to the whole of the British troops in India and South Africa for service in the field and at manœuvres; whether the service of such sterilised fluids has been entrusted to specially trained men, having no other duties, in each unit, as recommended by the Commission on Dysentery and Enteric Fever appointed by the Secretary of State for War, August, l900; whether such specially trained men are placed under the direct supervision and responsibility of officers of each unit; and whether the regulations revised in the direction of devolving responsibility upon non-medical officers in the supervision of sanitary services in barracks, and camps have been issued.
939 (Answered by Mr. Secretary Arnold-Forster.) My hon. friend is mistaken in supposing that the Advisory Board made such a sweeping recommendation as that stated in the Question. Trials were recommended, and these have been made, both on service and at manœuvres; further investigations are still in progress. Heat sterilisation is being largely carried out at various places abroad, including India and South Africa. The supervision of water supplies and methods of water sterilisation, where required, are in the hands of the local authorities, and sanitary officers have been appointed at home and abroad, among whose special duties are the periodical examination of the drinking water supplies, and the diffusion of knowledge of practical sanitary procedure among officers and men. The regulations referred to are contained in the provisional issue of Combined Training, Part VII., Section 157, promulgated with Army Orders of March, 1903.