HC Deb 01 February 1918 vol 101 cc1934-5
21. Mr. PETO

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been called to the War Office letter to General Officers Commanding, dated 18th March, 1916, which states that the Army Council cannot accept suggestions, made with regard to prevention, which would imply the adoption of any system of prophylaxis which might be said to afford opportunities for unrestrained vice; whether this deters Army medical officers from taking steps to prevent the spread of venereal disease in the Army; and whether the Army Council will now withdraw any restriction which prevents effective measures being taken to avoid the waste of man-power in the Army from this cause?

Mr. MACPHERSON

I regret that I can add nothing at present to the answers which I gave my hon. Friend on the 22nd January last.

Mr. PETO

May I ask is the Army Council letter correctly stated in the question, and does it not tend, at any rate, to prevent medical officers taking the necessary steps to stop this scourge in the Army?

Mr. MACPHERSON

I think I communicated by letter yesterday with my hon. Friend, enclosing a copy of the letter to which he refers, and which he will probably get to-day.

Mr. PETO

Can the hon. Gentleman give any idea, if not accurate figures, of the number of men who pass through hospital suffering from venereal diseases in a single year and who are at any one time incapacitated from that cause?

Mr. MACPHERSON

I am afraid I cannot give those figures definitely.

Mr. OUTHWAITE

Are we to infer that medical officers are prevented from taking every possible step to cure this hideous disease?

Mr. MACPHERSON

My hon. Friend cannot infer that from the reply given today or from the reply given previously.

Sir J. D. REES

is not that the result?

Mr. MACPHERSON

No; I do not think so.