SAD WAR LEGACY.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 18240, 14 July 1931, Page 3

SAD WAR LEGACY.

,100,000 MENTAL -(CASES. BRITAIN’S HUGE TOTAL. A STARTLING REVELATION. Thirteen years after the war Britain has a tragic army of 100,000 ex-servicemen who have become mental wrecks as the result of their sufferings. The astonishing increase in -the number of mental patients was revealed to the Sunday Chronicle by the Ex-Service Welfare Society. This post-war charity runs two large homes for such cases, and has helped thousands of men whose nerves have been shattered by the war to pick up the threads of life at an industrial centre in Surrey. “The number of ex-service men afflicted with neurasthenia and mental breakdown lias now grown to at least 100,000, according to the latest information in the hands of the society,” said Mr E. Howard, the general secretary, in an exclusive interview. “The way in which this tragic army of war wrecks has increased is shown by the fact that in 1919 there were only 2500 ex-service men in asylums; to-day there are more than 6000. “These, it must be remembered, are only the very worst cases. “It will come as a shock to many that even the Army of post-war years had its mental cases. I am advised that in 1928 there was a disquieting number of cases of neurasthenia and nervous hysteria in the regular forces. “Although 13 years have elapsed since the war, the demands made upon the society have grown to an alarming degree. We are now getting hundreds of applicants for treatment by every post.”