§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he will have immediate inquiry made into the allegations that the medical officer of the 4th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, stationed at Park-hall Camp, Oswestry, is passing men for overseas drafts without any proper examination, and that in consequence many men are sent from this battalion who are quite unfit for foreign service; and will he take steps to see that the duty of passing men from this battalion to foreign drafts is discharged in an efficient and responsible way?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONInquiries are being made into this matter, and I will communicate with my hon. Friend as soon as I am in a position to do so.
§ Mr. ANDERSONasked the Undersecretary of State for War whether he is aware of the practice of the military authorities in calling discharged men and others from work of urgent national importance during working hours, with the consequent loss of wages, for the purpose of medical examination; and whether, in view of the loss of work and wages, some other arrangement can be made?
§ Mr. BECKMy hon. Friend has asked me to reply. Instructions have been issued to the effect that no man who has been discharged from the Army on the ground of ill-health and who is doing work of national importance is to be called up for medical examination; and I know of no case in which this instruction is being disregarded. With regard to cases of men who are not discharged men but who are 1663W called up for medical examination in the ordinary course, instructions have been issued to the effect that medical examinations are to be so regulated as to interfere as little as possible with the work of firms which are doing work of national importance.