§ Sir WATSON RUTHERFORDasked the Pensions Minister whether soldiers and sailors whose mental condition has became impaired owing to active service are entitled to be separately housed in asylums and to rank as Service patients and not as paupers; whether he is aware that so far they are not being separately housed, but live and sleep in the same wards as paupers and under the same conditions; whether any distinction is being made in cases where an inquisition discloses that at some period anterior to military service the patient had a mental attack; whether he will consider the possibility, as promised, of arranging that special institutions or the exclusive use of portions of existing institutions shall be set apart for this class of case; whether such Service patients will be admitted and treated as private patients and not as paupers, and be freed from all association with either pauper or criminal lunatics; whether the grant of 3s. 9d. per head is inadequate to remove this stigma of pauperism; and whether he will arrange that all cases of men from the Army shall be accepted as Service cases, whether the lunacy was attributable directly or not to actual service?
§ Mr. HODGEMen whose mental condition has become impaired owing to their service and who are admitted to asylums are not separately housed but special arrangements are made for their maintenance; they are not chargeable to the rates and they do not rank as paupers. Evidence as to mental attack anterior to military service is clearly relevant in determining whether or not the disability is due to service. It is not considered that the provision of separate institutions is practicable, nor is it desirable, having regard to the expediency of placing the patients near their friends. The answer to the last two parts of the question is in the negative.