HC Deb 31 December 1916 vol 88 cc1592-4
102. Mr. T. RICHARDSON

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that Mr. Patrick O'Daly, a conscientious objector to military service and formerly employed as a labourer in Kew Gardens, has been informed that, owing to his refusal to comply with the orders of the military authorities, he is to consider himself as discharged from the service of the Board; whether this treatment is in keeping with that meted out to other and higher-paid servants of the State; and whether, seeing that the man possesses agricultural knowledge and is used to working on the land, he will now be employed on agriculture instead of being detained in prison?

The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of AGRICULTURE (Sir Richard Winfrey)

The answer to the first two parts of the question is "Yes." As to the last part, the Board are not empowered to anticipate the finding of the proper tribunal or committee which will decide upon the merits of the case.

Mr. SNOWDEN

But is it not within the province of the Board to make representations as to a man so highly skilled in agriculture being sent to prison, when his services are so urgently needed?

Sir R. WINFREY

The Board is doing that.

112. Mr. O'GRADY

asked whether he is aware that Sidney Cooper, of 34, Waterloo Road, Leeds, a conscientious objector to military service, has suffered so severely at the hands of the military that he has now become wholly mentally deranged, and that he was removed on the 9th instant from his home to Beckett's Park Hospital, Leeds, and the following day sent to Lord Derby's military hospital at Warrington, Lancashire; and whether, in view of all the circumstances, the Secretary of State for War will order inquiries to be made, and, in view of the fact that a medical practitioner on the 24th instant certified Cooper to be suffering from acute insanity and had to give him sedatives, steps will be taken to give him a complete discharge from the Army?

Mr. MACPHERSON

If this man is suffering from acute insanity his discharge from the Army would follow as a matter of course. Details of this man's number and unit are not given, and I cannot, therefore, make any inquiry, but I must not in any sense be taken as accepting the suggestion of ill-treatment at the hands of the military.