§ Mr. MARKHAMasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if, in view of the number of stokers invalided yearly out of the Service with tuberculosis, the will set up a Departmental Committee to investigate the cause?
Mr. ALEXANDERThe question of tuberculosis in the Services was examined in 1928 by a Joint Medical Services Committee and no useful purpose would be served by appointing a further committee. Methods of combating the disease are constantly under consideration. I may add that the incidence of tuberculosis among this branch of the engine-room ratings is not considered to compare unfavourably with the incidence in the Navy as a whole or with that of the urban civil population of England and Wales.