Sir F. HALLasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if the Government are granting war gratuities to nurses employed on military service during the War including members of the Volunteer Aid Detachment, whose duties were not. of a strictly skilled character; if such gratuities are being withheld from the massage staffs although most of these were trained nurses and had to incur considerable expenditure in addition to qualify for employment on massage duties in the hospitals where soldiers were treated; if this distinction is drawn on the ground that the masseuses are to be classed as civil subordinates; if so, whether, in coming to this ruling, regard was had to the fact that the masseuses formed part of the essential skilled staff of all hospitals, that they had to sign agreements with the War Office undertaking to continue to serve and to go abroad if called upon to do so, and that for the purposes of war distinctions the hospital massage staff were on the same footing as the Army nursing service; and if he will reconsider the matter with a view to the massage staffs who have served in military hospitals for a year and upwards being granted gratuities on the same basis as the other nurses?
§ Mr. FORSTERAs I have stated recently in reply to several questions on the subject, I am looking into the matter, but have not yet come to a decision.