§ MR. LUPTON (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)To ask the Secretary of State for War if the average annual strength of the British Armies in Egypt and India during the twenty ycars1881 to 1900 was approximately 69,751, and if the total number of cases of smallpox amongst those men was 1,149, and the total number of deaths from smallpox 113; and if, seeing that during the same period the town of Leicester had an average annual population of 165,415, and that the total number of cases of smallpox in Leicester during that period was 447, and the total number of deaths from smallpox was thirty-one, that the soldiers were all vaccinated and the population of Leicester largely un-vaccinated, and that the death-rate from smallpox in the Army per 100,000 was eight times the death-rate in Leicester, he will consider the advisability of relaxing the regulation for compulsory vaccination in the Army.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) It is not clear what value can lie obtained 157 from a comparison between the statistics of Leicester and those of the British Army in India and Egypt, but if my hon. friend will consider the statistics for the years 1901 to 1904 ho will find that while the troops in India and Egypt had 163 admissions to hospital for smallpox, and twenty-one deaths, Leicester had 740 admissions to hospital for smallpox, and thirty deaths. There would not appear to be any sound grounds for relaxing the regulations for vaccination in the Army.