The Schengen Agreement is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community, it proposed measures intended to abolish border checks at the signatories' common borders, including reduced-speed vehicle checks which allowed vehicles to cross borders without stopping, allowing residents in border areas freedom to cross borders away from fixed checkpoints, the harmonisation of visa policies. In 1990, the Agreement was supplemented by the Schengen Convention which proposed the complete abolition of systematic internal border controls and a common visa policy; the Schengen Area operates much like a single state for international travel purposes with external border controls for travellers entering and exiting the area, common visas, but with no internal border controls. It consists of 26 European countries covering a population of over 400 million people and an area of 4,312,099 square kilometres.

The Schengen treaties and the rules adopted under them operated independently from the European Union. However, in 1999 they were incorporated into European Union law by the Amsterdam Treaty, while providing opt-outs for the only two EU member states that had remained outside the Area: Ireland and the United Kingdom. Schengen is now a core part of EU law, all EU member states without an opt-out which have not joined the Schengen Area are obliged to do so when technical requirements have been met. Several non-EU countries are included in the area; the free movement of people was a core part of the original Treaty of Rome and, from the early days of the European Economic Community, nationals of EEC member states could travel from one member state to another on production of their passports or national identity cards. However, systematic identity controls were still in place at the border between most member states. Disagreement between member states led to an impasse on the abolition of border controls within the Community, but in 1985 five of the ten member states – Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, West Germany – signed an agreement on the gradual abolition of common border controls.

The agreement was signed on the Princess Marie-Astrid boat on the river Moselle near the town of Schengen, where the territories of France and Luxembourg meet. Three of the signatories, Belgium and the Netherlands, had abolished common border controls as part of the Benelux Economic Union; the Schengen Agreement was signed independently of the European Union, in part owing to the lack of consensus amongst EU member states over whether or not the EU had the jurisdiction to abolish border controls, in part because those ready to implement the idea did not wish to wait for others. The Agreement provided for harmonisation of visa policies, allowing residents in border areas the freedom to cross borders away from fixed checkpoints, the replacement of passport checks with visual surveillance of vehicles at reduced speed, vehicle checks that allowed vehicles to cross borders without stopping. In 1990, the Agreement was supplemented by the Schengen Convention which proposed the abolition of internal border controls and a common visa policy.

It was this Convention that created the Schengen Area through the complete abolition of border controls between Schengen member states, common rules on visas, police and judicial cooperation. The Schengen Agreement and its implementing Convention were enacted in 1995 only for some signatories, but just over two years during the Amsterdam Intergovernmental Conference, all European Union member states except the United Kingdom and Ireland had signed the Agreement, it was during those negotiations, which led to the Amsterdam Treaty, that the incorporation of the Schengen acquis into the main body of European Union law was agreed along with opt-outs for Ireland and the United Kingdom, which were to remain outside of the Schengen Area. In December 1996 two non-EU member states and Iceland, signed an association agreement with the signatories of the Agreement to become part of the Schengen Area. While this agreement never came into force, both countries did become part of the Schengen Area after concluding similar agreements with the EU.

The Schengen Convention itself was not open for signature by non-EU member states. In 2009, Switzerland finalised its official entry to the Schengen Area with the acceptance of an association agreement by popular referendum in 2005. Now that the Schengen Agreement is part of the acquis communautaire, it has, for EU members, lost the status of a treaty, which could only be amended according to its terms. Instead, amendments are made according to the legislative procedure of the EU under EU treaties. Ratification by the former agreement signatory states is not required for altering or repealing some or all of the former Schengen acquis. Legal acts setting out the conditions for entry into the Schengen Area are now made by majority vote in the EU's legislative bodies. New EU member states do not sign the Schengen Agreement as such, instead being bound to implement the Schengen rules as part of the pre-existing body of EU law, which every new entrant is required to accept; this situation means that non-EU Schengen member states have few formally binding options to influence the shaping and evolution of Schengen rules.

However, consultations with affected countries are conducted prior to the adoption of particular new legislation. In 20

An enlisted rank is, in some armed services, any rank below that of a commissioned officer. The term can be inclusive of non-commissioned officers or warrant officers, except in United States military usage where warrant officers/chief warrant officers are a separate officer category ranking above enlisted grades and below commissioned officer grades. In most cases, enlisted service personnel perform jobs specific to their own occupational specialty, as opposed to the more generalized command responsibilities of commissioned officers; the term "enlistment" refers to a military commitment whereas the terms "taken on strength" and "struck off strength" refer to a servicemember being carried on a given unit's roll. In the Canadian Forces, the term non-commissioned member is used. For the ranks used by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, non-commissioned ranks are coded OR1–OR9, OR being an abbreviation for Other Ranks; the five branches of the U. S. Armed Forces all use the same "E-" designation for enlisted pay grades, with service-specific names applied to each.

Each branch incorporates it as part of a service member's job specialty designator. In the United States Air Force, this job specialty designator is known as an Air Force Specialty Code, in the United States Army and United States Marine Corps, a Military Occupational Specialty, in the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard, a rating. List of comparative military ranks

Mental health in Singapore has its roots in the West. The first medical personnel in the field were from Britain. Medical education in the early years was exclusively for the British, until the establishment of King Edward VII College of Medicine on the island in 1907. Hence, many influential ideas flowed over from the West through the years; when Sir Stamford Raffles set foot on the island on 28 January 1819, he had with him troops of the Bengal Native Infantry and Sub-Assistant Surgeon Thomas Prendergast, in medical charge of the whole expedition. In May, Assistant Surgeon William Montgomerie, a more senior officer, came to join Prendergast, their duties were of military and civil nature, they served in Singapore until 1823 and 1827 before returning to Bengal. In June 1827, the medical duties were shared between Surgeon B. C. Henderson and Assistant Surgeon Warrand, who came with a detachment of troops to relieve Montgomerie. Henderson was responsible for the General and Pauper Hospitals while Warrand was responsible for the convicts and troops.

No institution for the mentally ill was available then. Prior to 1819 the population of the island was estimated to be 150. Since the population started to grow at a rapid pace, due to the people from the Southeast Asian region and India, who came to Singapore to take advantage of the employment opportunities generated by a growing entrepôt trade; as a result of this large influx of penniless people, bad living conditions and a habit of opium smoking led to a high rate of physical and mental illness. However, the medical needs of the natives were not top priority. Provision of health and medical facilities and services was limited because the government felt that the population was made up of immigrants who were not planning to make Singapore their home; the mentally ill were referred to as "insane", unless they were deemed dangerous, they were ignored and left on the streets. This meant complete neglect of the mentally ill; the first sign of a need for care for the mentally ill was a request to send John Hanson, a Dane who had lived in Singapore for about five years, "to Calcutta or any other place where a Lunatic Asylum may be established" by the Superintendent of Police S. G. Bonham to the Secretary to Government on 27 May 1828.

A similar item had been reported by acting Senior Surgeon W. E. E. Conwell, who had come in February 1828 on an inspection tour of the hospitals. In Conwell's report, it was noted that Hanson was being treated at the Singapore Infirmary and otherwise being confined in a jail since there was no suitable place for people like him; however after Singapore became the capital of the Straits Settlements in 1832 and the headquarters of the Medical Department in 1835, there was still no institution for the mentally ill. The jail was called the Convict Gaol, lunatics were taken care of by the inmates. Conditions in the jail were far from ideal. Overcrowding was still the biggest problem. In 1835, Senior Surgeon William Montgomerie, promoted and had returned to Singapore in 1832, received orders for himself and Assistant Surgeon Thomas Oxley to continue visiting the lunatics and convicts in the jail in their capacity as Medical Officers. Instead of improvements in mental health care, by 1837 the practice of putting lunatics in jail became more ingrained.

Special allowances were given to the Sheriff's Department, instead of the Medical Department, for care of lunatics: “Gaoler 25 Rupees. Public outcry regarding mental health care started in 1838. In the Singapore Free Press forum on 21 February 1838, it was argued that "it has been proved that in recent cases of insanity under judicious treatment, as large a proportion of recoveries will take place as from any other acute disease of equal severity" and the Editor added his comments highlighting the fact that "there is space enough in the hospital yard to construct a suitable building for their reception, we hope that the absolute necessity there exists for providing something in the nature of a Lunatic Asylum will not be overlooked." Despite that, little was done to improve the situation. The wakeup call came in October 1840. Bonham, who had become Governor by immediately requested that Montgomerie write "a report on the number and state of the lunatics under treatment, suggestions for their better management".

Montgomerie reported on 16 November 1840 that there were 22 insane patients and he expected that the yearly average of seventeen patients would increase with growth of the settlement. In the report, he suggested the Lunatic Asylum be built for 24 patients and should any more room be needed, buildings would be added on. In addition, floors "should be laid with bricks on edge, embedded in good mortar so as to admit of being washed, prevent the patients lifting the floors, which constructed with tiles as in the Jail, they have been enabled to do so. Montgomerie submitted a plan and estimate for $775.16. He did not suggest sending lunatics to India because he felt that they would feel more comfortable "among their countrymen than among strangers". On 28 November 1840, Governor Bonham presented the case to the Governor of Bengal; the Governor of Bengal accepted the plan on the recommendation of the Medical Boards. The Asylum was to be built for "'the custody of the patients' and the same number of staff attended them as w