98. Mr. EDMUND HARVEYasked the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been called to the action of certain Army medical boards in different parts of the country in passing over medical evidence submitted by civilian medical men and passing for general service, after brief examination, men who subsequently break down under training; and whether he is taking steps to ensure that greater attention should be given by Army medical boards and military representatives to medical evidence from private medical practitioners, in the interests both of the Army and the men concerned?
§ Mr. FORSTERThe responsibility for the decisions taken by the recruiting medical boards of course rests with those boards, but they have been instructed to give due consideration to medical evidence submitted by civilian medical practitioners regarding men who have been called up for service. It is not, I think, the case that there has been any general failure to do this, but, in view of statements which have been made, attention has again been called to the point.