§ Sir B. FALLEasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether naval ratings who volunteer for physiological test in the gas school will be granted hurt certificates for their own protection in the event of the experiments having a deleterious effect on these men, and thereby rendering them physically unfit for service in His Majesty's Navy; and whether the introduction of these experiments in the Navy is due to the difficulty experienced by the Army in securing further volunteers for experiments in connection with the decontamination of clothing which has had contact with mustard gas?
Mr. ALEXANDERThe reply to the first part of the question is in the negative. Hurt certificates are not granted unless an actual injury is received and there is no need to provide for the issue of such certificates to meet a remote contingency. Compensation in respect of invaliding is not dependent on the existence of a hurt certificate. The reply to the second part of the question is in the affirmative to the extent that as the conditions of the experiments require a frequent change of observers it is not always possible to obtain the full numbers required from the Army, especially during the training season.