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 Tom Driberg Mr Tom Driberg , Maldon 12:00, 31 May 1945

Yes, but I do not see why even this predominantly Conservative caretaker Government, since it includes a few "men of good will," cannot show its good will, in its dying days, by a gesture of generosity in this matter. It is added in respect of New Zealand that a Service man undergoing treatment may elect to be discharged and take the war pension granted to him before the completion of treatment. I mention that, as one of my two points, in the hope that the Government will consider the practice of the Dominions and see if they cannot raise our practice at least to the same level of generosity.

The other point I want to mention is with regard to men suffering from tuberculosis, because they also find themselves discharged from the Service while they are in the early stages of their treatment. I can see that this is a purely administrative matter, about which a purely administrative point of view has been taken, but I wonder if I can persuade the War Office to consider also the psychological aspect of it. Men suffering from tuberculosis get very depressed during the long stages of their disease; it is terribly lowering and depressing. It comes as a real shock and blow to them—I know because I have been to the tuberculosis sanatoria in my own county and I have talked to these men—suddenly to receive notice that, because they have been in sanatoria for a few months and may not recover their full health, the Army no longer want them and they are, so to speak, almost thrown on the scrap-heap. It has a bad psychological effect which may well contribute to the retarding of their recovery—because, I believe, tuberculosis is one of the diseases in which the mental state of the patient is of considerable importance.

Those are the only points I wish to make. I would suggest that to the slogan, "Fit for service, fit for pension," which I believe was originally used in this House by the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Bowles), we should add the slogan, "Unfit for service, fit for full pay and allowances until fit to go home."