§ Mr. RENDALLasked the Pensions Minister whether he is aware that W. J. 1125W Oates, No. 9460, who joined the Navy as a, boy of seventeen in May, 1915, was invalided out on 22nd March, 1916, with complete deafness, the result of scarlet fever caught from his comrades whilst in sick bay with a cold; whether he is aware that a claim to pension was made on his behalf by the hon. Member for the Thorn-bury Division in July, 1916, and after a lengthy correspondence and great delay the case was transferred to the Pensions Minister in January last; that he was eventually sent to Edinburgh to join a lip-reading class on 19th May, 1917, and that for the fourteen months between discharge and that date nothing was paid him and nothing was done for him; whether he is to be discharged from the lip-reading class on 19th July next because his defect is incurable; and when he will decide what this boy (whose father is serving his country as a sergeant-major), and who joined the Navy in perfect health and left it permanently incapable, is to receive weekly as monetary compensation?
§ Sir A. GRIFFITH-BOSCAWENThe Statutory Committee approved on the 20th June of an extension for six weeks of the course of training in lip-reading which was procured by the Gloucestershire War Pensions Committee for this lad. He is also receiving instruction as a tracer in the engineering design branch of the Heriot Watt Technical College at Edinburgh. With regard to the question of pension, as the hon. Member is aware, the Naval Medical Board found that the deafness from which he was suffering was not attributable to his service. I am, however, having the case looked into again, and will communicate with the hon. Member.