§ Sir Smedley Crookeasked the Secretary of State for War if he is aware that in London alone there are more than 100 veterans of the South African war now in workhouses; and if he will arrange for funds collected during that war, for their benefit, to be transferred to the South African Wars Veterans' Association in order that these old comrades may be transferred to homes better suited for men who have served the country as fighting men.
§ Sir J. GriggThe funds referred to by my hon. Friend in the second part of his Question are now being administered by the various charities to which they were allocated and I have no power to reallocate them. But if he will send me particulars of the cases referred to in the first part of his Question I will bring them to the notice of the organisations concerned.
§ Sir Smedley Crookeasked the Secretary of State for War if he is aware that the cost of the military hospital built at Alton, Hampshire, for the accommodation of soldiers disabled in the South African War, was defrayed from funds subscribed for the benefit of these men; and, as this hospital was converted into a training home for children for which no payment was received, whether accommodation of a similar character can now be provided for veterans who arc aged and infirm.
§ Sir J. GriggI understand that a hospital was built near Alton with funds provided by the Kipling Absent Minded Beggars Fund and was opened after the South African War for the treatment of men wounded in the course of that war. Very few, if any, patients were treated there, and an Act of Parliament, known as the Alton Military Hospital Act, was consequently passed on 26th July, 1906, to enable it to be used as a hospital for crippled children.