§ 11. Mr. RENDALLasked the Under-Secretary of State for War if Sergeant Arthur Harris, late of the 4th Gloucestershire Regiment, has recently been discharged from the Army; if, in October last, following inoculation, he became very ill, with the further result that his mind became seriously affected and he was first placed in the Severalls Asylum, Colchester, and is now in the Gloucester Asylum; whether the allowance to his wife and four children ceased to be paid on 2143 29th March, and his family are now in receipt of no income whatever; whether the War Office affirm or deny that his illness has or may have resulted from the shock to the system caused by inoculation; and what assistance it proposes to give to the family of this soldier, who served through the South African War and who afterwards, up to the time of the present War, acted as a postman and was always in good health?
§ Mr. TENNANTSergeant Harris was discharged on the 28th March last as being no longer physically fit for war service. He was first admitted to hospital on the 19th November last suffering from confusional insanity and was transferred to Severalls Asylum, Colchester, on the 21st November. The medical superintendent of the Asylum reports that the anti-typhoid inoculation has, in his opinion, nothing whatever to do with the mental disease from which Sergeant Harris is suffering, and that all the evidence which he has goes to prove that Harris lost his mental balance some time before he was inoculated. Separation allowance has been paid up to the 4th April, no further payment being due. The case will be laid before the Chelsea Commissioners. If they award a pension, as is probable, since the man's condition is attributed to the strain of military service, there is power to pay to his family any portion not required for his own maintenance.