NERVOUS STABILITY.

HC Deb 29 February 1940 vol 357 cc2275-7W

Mr. Rhys Davies

asked the Minister of Labour whether, with a view to avoiding economic waste in training for mili-

Mr. E. Brown

The number of persons employed in the factories on 15th January, 1940, was as follows:

tary service men who are temperamentally unsuited and the needless sacrifice which is involved by the imposition of severe penalties on such men for succumbing to fright and deserting in face of the enemy, he will consider the desirability of instituting for all recruits to the Army a system of examination by qualified psychologists analogous to the physical examination by qualified physicians which is already in vogue for the purpose of excluding from the forces men who are physically unfit for military service?

Mr. E. Brown

I would refer the hon. Member to the replies I gave on Tuesday last to the hon. Lady the Member for West Fulham (Dr. Summerskill) and to the hon. and gallant Member for Lewes (Rear-Admiral Beamish) to-day, copies of which I am sending him.

Rear-Admiral Beamish

asked the Minister of Pensions what steps have been taken to give the widest publicity to the report of the conference under Lord Horder, in order that medical boards appointed by the Ministry of Labour and the military authorities concerned with training conscripts and others, may take the necessary steps to avoid the mistakes and misunderstandings of the past; and whether he will have the report printed and placed in the hands of Members of this House?

Sir W. Womersley

I am glad to be able to inform my hon. and gallant Friend that it has now been arranged to place on sale at the small price of 2d. the important pamphlet dealing with "Neuroses in Wartime" which was the main product of the conference referred to that I had the privilege of summoning. Copies will be available to Members of the House in the usual way. I may add that the substance of this pamphlet has already been printed in the "British Medical Journal" and in the "Lancet" of the 16th December last, and, further, that copies have been furnished to the three Fighting Services for issue to all their medical officers and to all Government Departments concerned.