§ Major CHAPPLEasked the Secretary of State for War (1) whether, in view of the necessity for economy and of the approaching need for further hospital accommodation, he will consider the advisability of using suitable large Poor Law schools for this purpose; and (2) whether, in the interest of accommodation for wounded soldiers as well as in the interests of economy, he will ask the Local Government Board to appoint committees of women to find suitable homes in which the children now herded in the great Poor Law schools of London may be boarded out, in order that these institutions may be used as hospitals; and whether, in converting them to this use, he will appoint someone to supervise the necessary changes who knows how to extemporise without squandering public money?
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§ Mr. LONGMy right hon. Friend, with whose Department mine has been in close touch in this matter from the first, has asked me to reply to these questions. A very large amount of Poor Law accommodation—amounting to some 40,000 beds—has already been placed at the disposal of the War Office for military hospital purposes. Schools are less suitable and less economical than other institutions for these purposes. In the circumstances, I see no advantatge in adopting the hon. and gallant Member's suggestion.