HC Deb 12 May 1919 vol 115 cc1350-1
99. Mr. G. W. H. JONES

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that Private Lazarus Goldstein, No. 115548, A Company, Royal Army Medical Corps, who joined up on the 28th April, 1917, was relegated to Class W Army Reserve on the ground of ill-health on the 12th March, 1918, and put on work of national importance at a distance of fifteen miles from his home at a salary of £2 per week, which work he was unable to perform satisfactorily owing to ill-health and was consequently discharged by his employer; whether he is aware that whilst ill at home he was called up for permanent service and ordered to rejoin his depot at Blackburn on the 16th December last; that, as a result of illness, he was unable to so rejoin until the 20th December last and was thereupon charged as an absentee and fined although still ill; whether he is aware that, whilst home on leave, he had to go to Homerton Military Hospital on the 24th January last, where he was detained four weeks and operated upon unsuccessfully for fistula; that he was then sent to Hampstead Military Hospital for further treatment and again operated upon unsuccessfully for fistula on the 16th March last, and that the hospital doctor shortly afterwards recommended him for a medical board; whether his colonel, on his return to Black pool, refused to allow him to go before a medical board and caused him to be classed A and sent to Alders hot for the purpose of being included in a draft for Russia; whether, on arriving at Alders hot, to which he had been so sent without food or pay, he was so ill that the military authorities sent him back to Black pool as being unfit to be included in a draft for Russia; whether on his way back his condition became so bad that he had to break his journey and was conveyed in an ambulance to Bethnal Green Military Hospital, where he still remains; whether he will order Private Lazarus Goldstein to go before a medical board; and whether he proposes to take any, and what, steps in regard to his colonel?

Mr. CHURCHILL

My inquiries in this case are not yet complete, but I will write to my hon. Friend as soon as I am in a position to do so.