Mr. STANFIELD:

How did they get

past the board?

Mr. STANFIELD:

Last fall orders were

given that before any troops should pro-

ceed overseas, the medical officer of the battalion had to pass on every man that that man was medically fit for overseas. I know of four battalions. After they arrived in England, they had a great deal of sickness-spinal meningitis, measles and so on. Each week the medical officer of the battalion had to send in a report of the number of men who were fit, and all those men who were quarantined were put down as unfit to go to France. Perhaps that may account for some of the large figures the hon. member has given.

Mr. STANFIELD:

Not all of them.

Mr. JOHN STANFIELD (Colchester):

I shall occupy the time of thd House for only a few minutes. I want to say this for the boys from Nova Scotia. At Aldershot camp, (Nova |Sootia) they behaved splendidly. On the bout going over, there were 5,988 troops; four battalions from Nova Scotia, one from Toronto, and one from Prince Albert commanded by my hon. friend from Prince Albert (Mr. Donaldson). Captain Hayes toljl me that he had never had better-behaved men on his boat. The officers commanding the battalions had no trouble at all with the men. The four battalions went to Witley damp, where a wet canteen was operated by the Imperial authorities. Personally, I think that whan a man is in training he should do without strong drink, but of course when our soldiers get over to the other side, they come under British .control. To prove how well the boys from Nova Scotia behaved iat Witley Camp, when they were given fifty-fifty leave, that is, half of them going for six days' leave and then the other half, there were only seven *absentees out of 4,000 men when the leave was up. The Provost-Marshal of London complimented the Highland Brigade from Nova Scotia on their splendid conduct while in the city. Owing to a severe operation I had met with, the medical officers considered that it would be unwise for me to go to France, even on a tour to see what was going on. I should have liked to go, but I took their advice -and came home, so I cannot speak of conditions at the front. But I can say this for the boys from Nova Scotia and- other parts of Canada in training at Witley Camp, that I never saw a drunken man the whole time I was there.

Mr. STANFIELD:

It is not a new job.