Letter from M. M. to Robert Chalmers, 16 August 1916 Letters 1916-1923

This work was originally published by Maynooth University in Ireland in 2017. In 2026 this data, stored in a relational database was extracted and converted into this TEI/XML document.

 Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities Vienna, AT 2026

This is an open access work licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Letter to Sir Robert Chalmers (1858-1938) concerning fees paid to doctors in respect of their treatment of Police personnel . The author anticipates a claim for additional payment ‘as of right' and argues that this should be resisted. The author suggests that the two doctors are dissatisfied because the volume of work was much more than they expected when entering the contract(s).Sir Robert Chalmers was sent to Ireland as replacement under secretary for Sir Matthew Nathan, who had resigned along with Augustine Birrell, his chief secretary, following the outbreak of the Easter Rising in 1916.

 National Archives of Ireland Chief Secretary's Office Registered Papers, CSO RP/1916/5620/13622 https://letters1916.ie/item/577 English 1916-08-16T00:00:00 Sir Robert Chalmers CSO, Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland Industry and Public Administration

The data in these XML files was generated based on a data dump from the Magellan database (https://github.com/Maynooth-Center-for-Digital-Humanities/Magellan). Each database record has been converted to a JSON file (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/json). The element section of the JSON file contains the TEI-encoded contents of the letters. The TEI XML has been cleaned and made well-formed using a Python script (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/src).

 Sir R. Chalmers This claim must certainly be resisted if put forward as of right. If the County Infirmary at Navan is a Hospital within the meaning of the Act 25 and 26 Vic. Cap. 83, Sec. 5 of the Act says that Constables etc. 'suffering from 'fever or other disease or bodily injury requiring treatment 'in hospital may be admitted . . . . and shall contribute 'the full average cost of daily mintenance and establishment 'charges, medical and surgical treatment in such hospital 'for the whole term of their continuance therein.' These constables did so contribute (an average of about £5 apiece at about 2/6 a day) and at the request of the Inspector General I authorized repayment to the Constables at Navan under the discretion given me by the Treasury. Dr. FInagan appears to be Medical Officer of Navan Infirmary, and Dr. Timmon Visiting Physician. They were only doing their legal duty, therefore, and we have paid the legal charge made by the Infirmary under the Act. [I may say that I found out from Mr. Bacon in 1913 that His Majesty's Government cannot claim here, as in England, free treatment of Government Servants in rate supported hospitals where His Majesty's Government makes contributions in lieu of rates.] In addition to this, Dr. Finagan is the Local Medical attendant of the R.I.C. and under par. 386 of their Finance Code he receives 2/— per month for each Officer and men in his district (subject to certain conditions) whether he attends them or not. The position is that these doctors took on a contract or contracts (in Finagan's case) and find that they were involved in more work than they expected. If claims for some much smaller sum were put forward in equity, on these grounds, possibly the Treasury would agree/ agree to pay, as excess over contract prices, within strict limits, has been allowed in the case of contractors faced with a large rise of prices since their contract was made. But I agree with the Inspector General that to admit any claim as of right would be a most dangerous precedent. M. M. 16th August 1916. CSO, Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland Letter from M. M. to Robert Chalmers, 16 August 1916