§ Major BIRCHALLasked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that the military authorities have not yet vacated the college and residential halls at Becketts Park Training College, Leeds, and that, unless these buildings are immediately vacated, at least 130 students will have to be informed that they cannot commence their course of training in September next?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLThe question of concentrating this hospital in the hutted portion and so releasing the main college buildings has been carefully considered, but it appears that this would cause such congestion as to render the hospital useless. I regret, therefore, that it is not possible at present to fix a date for the vacation of these buildings. As I explained to my hon. and gallant Friend on the 2nd June, they are fully occupied with special orthopædic and jaw cases, the treatment of which needs specially fitted hospitals, and to remove these elsewhere at the present time is a matter of impossibility. There are, besides, in the Northern Command alone, some 4,500 limbless men awaiting admission to hospitals for further orthopædic treatment, which would be denied them if this hospital were closed. The local military authorities are doing their best to obtain premises in which to house the students so that their training may not be prevented.