§ Major HILLSasked the Minister of Pensions if he is aware that a number of pensioners with below-knee amputation have asked to be fitted with light metal limbs in preference to wooden limbs, and that in most instances such applications have been refused; and whether the number of cases in which pensioners with below-knee amputation have been fitted with light metal limbs, and in how many of these cases the pensioner has afterwards reverted to the use of wooden limbs?
§ Major TRYONI have no information to confirm the statement made in the first part of this question, but on the contrary I am informed by at least one of my largest limb fitting centres that a number of pensioners who have been fitted with metal limbs wish to exchange them for the new and lighter willow limbs and that more complaints are received from pensioners wearing the metal limb than from those wearing the wooden type. The number of cases in which pensioners with below-knee amputations have been fitted with metal limbs was, in the twelve months ending February last, about 2,000, but I have no specific record of the number of cases asked for in the last part of the question.