§ Captain BOWYERasked the Prime Minister whether he is aware that about 5,000 ex-service men are still in pauper lunatic asylums; and when will he transfer these men to the care and treatment of the Ministry of Pensions?
§ The PRIME MINISTERAs I told the House when outlining the policy of the Government on the 12th February, one of the first acts of the Administration on taking office was to terminate the system which appeared to us indefensible, whereby the maintenance of certain ex-service men while inmates of lunatic asylums was in certain circumstances defrayed, not from public funds, but from the rates, as in the case of pauper lunatics similarly placed. Under the arrangements now in force, this obligation has been accepted by His Majesty's Government, all ex-service men now being treated at Government expense on the same footing as other private patients in the public mental hospitals of which they are inmates.