§ Mr. SPOORasked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the fact that the 1229W Government have transferred many ex-service men in asylums from the position of pauper lunatics to that of service patients because the condition of pauper lunatics is so undesirable and indefensible, he will immediately appoint a Royal Commission to examine the present conditions of pauper lunatics in asylums, which were thus officially admitted to be unfit for the men who had served in the War?
§ Major BOYD-CARPENTERThe hon. Member is under a misapprehension. The transfer of patients to the service class does not involve any admission that the asylums in which they continue to be treated are unfit for men who have served in the War. Asylums are frequently visked by members of the Board of Control, and those in which service patients are under treatment are also visited by medical inspectors from the Ministry of Pensions. A Departmental Committee presided over by the hon. Member for West Fulham (Sir C. Cobb) recently reported that the present provision for the care and treatment of the insane is humane and efficient, and as at present advised my right hon. Friend docs not consider the appointment of a Royal Commission is necessary.
Lieut.-Colonel WATTS-MORGANasked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the public indignation aroused by the late Government's treatment of ex-service men who have been and still are confined in asylums (many of them upon a pauper footing), he will appoint at an early date a Rcyal Commission to inquire into the whole question of the conditions prevailing in asylums in regard to the retention therein of both civilian and ex-service men patients?
§ Major BOYD-CARPENTERI would refer the hon. Member to my reply given to-Jay to a similar question put down by the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Mr. Spoor).
§ Mr. BECKERasked the Minister of Pensions whether he is prepared to reconsider his attitude with regard to mentally-afflicted ex-service men who have been transferred from the Ministry of Pensions to the Poor Law guardians?
§ Mr. MARDY JONESasked the Minister of Pensions what number of ex-service men now treated as pauper lunatics are now deemed to have been insane at, or 1230W prior to, enlistment; to what units were these men attached; what was their rank; whether they served at home or overseas; and will he supply a list of the medical boards which passed them as fit for service?
§ Mr. HAYDAYasked the Minister of Pensions the number of mentally afflicted ex-service men that have been transferred from the care of the Ministry of Pensions to the Poor Law guardians and are now pauper lunatics: whether dependants of these, men were notified, and the number of dependants who appealed in these cases; whether the whole of these men were enlisted as fit for service, by the Army doctors; and, if so, in view of the small cost to the public, he will have this matter reconsidered and the men re-transferred to the Ministry of Pensions?
§ Major TRYONI would refer to the answers which I gave on the 28th and 30th November to the hon. Members for Nottingham West (Mr. Hayday) and West Bromwich (Mr. F. Roberts), and to the full statement on the whole question which I made in the Debate in this House on 20th November. I may add that, although the review of these cases to which I then referred is not yet completed, the results so far to hand indicate that the percentage of those men who bad service overseas is less than six. It is not practicable at the present date to give detailed information a to the membership of the medical boards who examined men on enlistment. It will be remembered that in the earlier singes of the War men were examined on enlistment by a single civil practition[...]