Mr. CHANCELLORasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the eighty-four experiments reported in the Return for 1915 as having been performed for the Medical Research Committee by Dr. M. W. Flack include or are in addition to those performed by him on cats and other animals with chlorine gas; whether these gas experiments were paid for out of National Health Insurance funds; and, if so, whether the Auditor-General's attention was called to the matter and the payments passed by him as a proper use of National Insurance funds?
Mr. ROBERTSMy right hon. Friend hag asked me to reply to this question.228W The experiments referred to in the fourth line of the question are included in the eighty-four reported in the Return. The gentleman referred to is a member of the staff of the Medical Research Committee established by Regulations made under Section 16 of the National Insurance Act, 1911, and the expenditure of that Committee is made from moneys provided by Parliament under Sub-section (2) (b) of that Section. The accounts for the matters in question come before the Controller and Auditor-General, who will make such observations as he thinks fit upon them to the Public Accounts Committee in due course.