§ MR. WALTER LONG (Dublin, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if he can state how many outbreaks of typhoid fever have occurred at Bulford Camp, and at what intervals; how many cases have resulted fatally; and what steps he proposes to take to protect the lives of officers and men from the grave risks to which they are exposed.
§ MR. HALDANESince 1900 there have been sixteen cases of enteric fever among the regular troops at Bulford—two in 1903, three in 1904, three in 1905, and eight in June, 1907. None of these cases were fatal. As regards the Auxiliary Forces, of whom 45,000 were camped at Bulford in 1906, there were nine cases in the Honourable Artillery Company, of which it is understood two proved fatal. Full investigations were carried out by specialist sanitary officers into the outbreaks of 1904, 1906, and 1907, and though no definite cause for the origin of the disease could be traced, in each instance the available evidence pointed to the introduction of the infection from without and not to any sanitary defects within the camp area. The medical and sanitary arrangements of the camp are supervised by the Principal Medical Officer of the Southern Command and the Administrative Medical Officer, Tidworth District, who have the assistance of a specially qualified sanitary officer in dealing with the prevention of infectious disease among the troops.