Question No. 2. How many men are there in our hospitals today who would voluntarily leave if we did not, by providing total disability rating and compensation while in the hospital, place a premium on their remaining there? How many of those who would leave really ought to leave? What can be done to correct the defects in the operation of Regulation No. 57, modified as it has been? Perhaps you think I am giving you several questions in one, but we will still label if “Question No. 2.” I am not alone in desiring to know the answer to that question. Before I go any further let me say that I regard admissions, transfers and discharges as such closely related operations that I shall not attempt to treat them separately, but shall discuss them in any sequence that may be convenient. I assume that all of you have been advised that under General Order No. 59, the allocation, distribution and transfer of patients of the Veterans’ Bureau are functions and prerogatives of that Bureau. Theoretically, none of the Services has anything to say about these matters. Practically, if I have not misunderstood the intent of this General Order, it does not mean that, altogether. The actual authority for and the right to refuse transfers certainly is vested in the Veterans’ Bureau and its representatives, but the Veterans’ Bureau and the District Medical Officers and District Managers depend on you to tell them when you think transfers ought to be made. Admission to a given hospital is the prerogative of the Veterans’ Bureau within certain limits; that is, the Service concerned must be able to take and care for the class of patient sent by the Veterans’ Bureau. With regard to the discharge of patients from hospitals, the Veterans’ Bureau is continually encroaching, perhaps unavoidably, on what was once the prerogative of the Medical Officer in Charge and the Service which operated the hospital. Blanket authority for field transfers from one district to another has been entirely withdrawn, and District Officers must either place immediately in an authorized hospital in an adjacent district, as specified in General Order No. 59, or, having placed for observation or diagnosis a patient in a hospital within their own districts, must apply to the central office if it is desired to transfer later. It is, or should be, understood that under the present regime, that Medical Officers in charge of hospitals who regard transfers as necessary must request the District Office to make these transfers if within the district, and must request the District Offices to obtain authority from the Central Office if it is desired to transfer outside of the District. Several questions suggest themselves with regard to General Order No. 59, and perhaps I should label this series of questions “No. 3.” (a) Has General Order No. 59 lessened the number of ill-advised and unnecessary transfers, which is one of the objects, I believe, that were intended to be accomplished.