Orders of the Day — Discharged Soldiers (Hospital Treatment)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 31 May 1945.

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Photo of Mr Thomas Brown Mr Thomas Brown , Ince 12:00, 31 May 1945

The hon. Member for Ipswich (Mr. Stokes) is doing a great public service in having this matter ventilated. The War Office do some things very slowly, and my experience in dealing with them indicates that, although they are slow in doing some things, when it comes to meting out unfair treatment and injustice to the soldier who has had the misfortune to receive wounds on the battlefield, they are in a tremendous hurry. I come into contact with men who have suffered from the attitude of the War Office, and I can only sum it up by saying that they are very parsimonious in their treatment of the unfortunate wounded soldier. I ask the Financial Secretary why there should be this differentiation between members of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. I get many letters on this question from serving soldiers, but I have never yet had one from an airman or a member of the Navy; all my letters complain of the treatment meted out to soldiers. The War Office get the men on the cheap in the first instance, and they try to cheapen the process further as the men emerge again into civil life. When men have had the misfortune to sustain wounds on the battlefield, some of them so serious that they will never fully recover from them, it is essential that the War Office should be more humane in their treatment. The men remain in hospital for 56 days, and then they are discharged. Their pay is reduced and they are denied the ordinary amenities which go to other people.

I ask again why this treatment is meted out. Everybody in these days wants to be fair and square with people who have served in the Forces, and everybody I meet has a keen desire to see that fair play and justice are meted out to these men. We fail to find that attitude manifested by the War Office, however. I could quote case after case showing the heartbreaking circumstances of these unfortunate men, and I beg the Financial Secretary to have this matter re-examined in view of the different treatment which is meted out to the men in the Air Force and the Navy, so that the treatment in all three Services is brought into line.