Mr. CHANCELLORasked the Under-Secretary for War whether recruits who refuse to be inoculated will, unless physically disqualified, be given the same chance as those inoculated to proceed to the front and serve their country in the fighting line?
§ Mr. TENNANTThe instructions to general officers commanding are that special efforts are to be made to secure that no officer or man may, through not being inoculated, possibly risk his chance of seeing active service abroad.
Mr. CHANCELLORasked whether the regulations in regard to vaccination which apply to the Army or those which apply to the Territorial Forces are the regulalations under which are enrolled recruits who join for the period of the War only?
§ Mr. TENNANTThe Regulations of the Regular Army.
Mr. CHANCELLORasked whether anti-typhoid inoculation with serum from the Pasteur Institute has been practically universal throughout the French armies; and whether the widespread epidemic of typhoid which has been attributed to germ-laden soil has occurred mainly amongst these well-inoculated troops?
§ Mr. TENNANTI cannot say definitely that the vaccine used for inoculation in the French Army is prepared at the Pasteur Institute, but I believe it to be the case. I have no information as to any widespread epidemic of typhoid in the French Army, and cannot be taken as accepting in any way the suggestion contained in the last part of the question.
Mr. CHANCELLORasked the Under-Secretary for War if he is aware that, in spite of his statement in the House on 10th September that inoculation is not compulsory, some Army doctors are practically enforcing inoculation on unwilling soldiers by threatening not to report them as medically fit, and thus prevent them from serving at the front; whether he has been informed that this action is deterring many desirable men from joining the Army; and whether he will issue instructions to Army doctors or their superior 233W officers that will protect conscientious objectors from such illegal pressing and persecution?
§ Mr. TENNANTNo information has been received in the sense of the first part of the question, and I am not aware that any men have been deterred from joining the Army by the cause stated. The instructions already issued are intended to protect conscientious objectors.