Volume 1

Minutes of evidence taken before the Royal Commission on the War in South Africa.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the South African War, 1899-1900
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Minutes of evidence taken before the Royal Commission on the War in South Africa. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    500/558 (page 482)
    A. Ugston, C.M. 482 speaking, up to date, but were the medicines that you had anything to do with, in your experience, of good quality /—They were of good quality always. 11157. Did you see anything of the Ambulance Corps belonging to the Colonials, not South African, but from Canada, Australia, and so on ?—No, not so that I could give you information regarding them; 1 know that generally they were looked upon as most excellent and desirable. into them in preference, and the surgeons who had seen them reported that their instruments and all their appliances were very much superior, and some of those that were sent from Canada—one in particular that I saw a great deal of, was fitted up vastly better than ours alongside it. 11158. (Sir John Jackson.) As I came in a little late, I did not hear the whole of your evidence. Were you out at the war in South Africa ?—Yes. 11159. And in the Soudan also ?—Yes. 11160. About what percentage did the Army Medica] Corps form out in South Africa to the total number of men engaged in the war?—I am afraid I could not give you that figure. 11161. I understood from what you said a few proportion ?—Yes. 11162. Of the whole men engaged there should be about 5 per cent. connected with the medical service /— Yes. 11163. If you had to have so large a proportion as 5 per cent. that would be a very serious burden to provide for in times of peace, would it not, assuming for the moment that these men were to be on the permanent staff of the Army Medical Corps?—But if they are of so much importance to the Army as they are, they must be provided. 11164. It obviously would be a serious burden ?—It would be a large burden. 11165. So that really it becomes a question as to how, if practicable, the remedy could be provided without relying solely upon the permanent men ?—Yes. 11166. You are a professor in Aberdeen; are you a Professor of Medicine ?—I am Professor of Surgery in the University of Aberdeen. 11167. We all know that in Scotland, in the medical schools, in Kdinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, you have young men getting through their courses who find it somewhat difficult to get a start, as it were, with their work /—Yes. 11168. In order to provide for having men ready, in the event of war, quickly, do you think it is a practical suggestion that the Government might in some way bring in many of these young men qualified by the medical schools by giving them some grant, and then in consideration of that, having a call upon them at once in the event of war? A great many of these young men, I take it, go as junior assistants to medical men in practice ?—I conceive that it would be quite practicable to do so, even if only in connection with the Volunteer force. They have a system like what you mentioned in Germany, which is the following: that every medical man who has not served in the German Army as a doctor, but who is practising as a doctor, receives an- nually from the German War Office an inquiry whetner he is willing to serve in the case of war breaking out, and if so his place is allotted to him, and he receives some acknowledgement of it, which is adequate to secure his services. 11169. Some small monetary payment ?—I believe so, and some little rank, I daresay; but I am not perfectly sure of that. All their University professors are similarly treated. The most eminent civil medical pro- fessors hold military rank, and they have to give courses to the younger medical officers in the Army, and they have places allotted to them also as consultants in the event of the outbreak of a war, and in acknowledg- ment for that they have a certain military status and certain emoluments. It will be found in the Friedens proportion to the Army in the event of the outbreak of war, which is fully determined and’ recognised, and. adequate. 11170. So that that system you speak of is practically the system that I have suggested ?—Yes, so far as it will apply to a nation which has compulsory service. 11171. In the case of the British nation, where thiere is not in the ordinary way compulsory service, there is no reason why the Government should not make an arrangement as I have suggested, which would compel these young men in the event of war, so long as they continued under the engagement in peace, to take foreign service as medical men ?—The principle is per- fectly applicable, and it would have this further ad- vantage, that whereas in a prolonged war, such as that in South Africa, the eminent consultants served only for a short time, and were nearly all home at the end of six months or so, and the supply of very high-class consultants fell off very muéh towards the end of the war—and it would do so in any long continued large war—if it were part of their duty for which they re- ceived consideration in time of peace to serve in war, we would then ensure the quality being maintained all through, however prolonged the campaign might be. 11172. And you would also ensure that these men, who would come under that rule, would be a class of in surgery ; many of them would be about the hos- pitals, and so forth, and would have more practical ex- perience in surgery than would be found in the case of the regular Army surgeons?—By such a plan as that you would obtain a very fine class of men indeed, but I should like to see the Army Medical Service in such a position that it could not be surpassed even by them. Army medical men should have more opportunities of hospital work, and that kind of thing ; but I am just on the one question as to whether what I have suggested is not a practical way of meeting the demands that would come about in the event of war without the country in- curring any very great additional expense in connection with it?—I think such a principle is the only practi- cable way. 11174. (Sir John Edge.) How long does it take to effi- ciently train a medical orderly {Two or three years. 11175. And I suppose the non-commissioned officers would require even a longer period than that 7—Yes. 11176. -In your judgment ought the Army Medical De- commenced to deal with the ordinary requirements for India and home, and for the 200,000 men in the field in taking place in other nations similarly situated to our own (I refer to continental nations), they would have been very much better prepared than they were. 11177. But I want to see whether you are prepared to advise, for instance, that we should keep up the normal strength of the Army Medical Corps for all our ordinary peace purposes, and for dealing with an army of 200,000 men in the field—in the case of a war breaking out—in addition. That is what your evidence comes to, is it not #—When you saw those poor men suffering, and the enormous waste of life such as we had in South Africa, for there is no doubt that enormous numbers of men might have been alive to-day who are not, one cannot but aim at the ideal. 11178. I am entirely in sympathy with you in that respect, but I only want to see what it comes to in figures. My question is: Do you suggest that the Army Medical Corps for our ordinary peace establish- ment here at home and in India and our colonies, plus sufficient for dealing with 200,000 men in the field in the case of war?—It seems to me that our existence as a nation may depend upon our doing so. 11179. Do you suggest that it is reasonable, and that we ought to do it?+--Yes. 11180. The orderlies of that corps would take from two to three years to be efficiently trained 7—Yes. 11181. So that it would be a permanent corps ?/—Yes. 11182. I presume from your position that you are consulting surgeon, or attached te some hospital in Aberdeen ?—Yes. . 11183. How many fouse surgeons have they in that hospital ?—Half-a-dozen. some of the young men who go through the hospital desire to become house surgeons ?—Yes, it is a point of ambition with them. 11185. And the fact that a man has been house surgeon gives him a chance of getting on in his profes- sion. 7—It is always a certificate of exrellence. 11186. Do you not think there would be little diffi- a