§ MR. SCLATER BOOTHasked the Secretary of State for War whether, seeing that no alteration had been made in the 66th clause of the Mutiny Bill, the Government was prepared to make an allowance, out of the compensation money, for losses accruing to licensed victuallers by the passage of large bodies of troops to and from the Autumn Manœuvres. Looking at the large number of troops which these manœuvres brought into unfrequented districts, and the costs thereby imposed upon the keepers of public houses and the high price of meat and other provisions, the Government ought to take this matter into consideration.
MR. OTWAYconfirmed the statement of the hardship inflicted on innkeepers on whom soldiers were billeted owing to the increased price of provisions.
§ MAJOR ARBUTHNOTbore testimony to the willingness with which the troops were received wherever they went.
§ SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSONsaid, that the mode of quartering the troops in the district with which he was connected had been attended with considerable inconvenience.
§ SIR HENRY STORKSIt has been considered not advisable to alter in the Mutiny Act the allowance ordinarily granted to innkeepers for meals supplied to soldiers because of a rise in the prices which may prove to be temporary, but the Government has under consideration a proposal to allow temporarily an increased rate in consequence of the present high prices of provisions. The proposal includes the same allowance to be given retrospectively to those publicans on whom the difference operated exceptionally last year in consequence of the large numbers billeted upon them during the Autumn Manœuvres, With 389 respect to forage, they did not consider that the same grievance existed. The expenses would be defrayed from the sum estimated for the movements of the troops. Vote 10.