On This Day, 31 January 1918

Birmingham Mail

Thursday 31 January 1918

WOUNDED SOLDIERS.

SUGGESTION THAT THEY SHOULD BE TREATED NEAR THEIR HOMES.

At a quarterly meeting of the Birmingham City Council on Tuesday next Mr. Councillor Perry will move:

(1) That this Council, representing a large industrial population, protests against the practice of the responsible authorities of placing sick and wounded soldiers in hospitals and institutions at distances from their homes, such a practice being directly inconsistent with the Government’s exhortations to the public to economise, as it leads to considerable waste of time and money, and also involves additional anxieties on the part of the men concerned and their relatives, and respectfully urges his Majesty’s Government to give instructions that will lead to sick and wounded soldiers being placed as nearly as possible in localities accessible to their homes.

(2) That this Council considers the existing differentiation in the pay of colonial and British soldiers anomalous, and urges the Government bring the pay the British soldiers up to the colonial standard. That copies of this resolution be forwarded to H.M. Government and to the local members Parliament.