§ MR. W. SIDEBOTTOM (Derbyshire, High Peak)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether complaints have reached him that several Volunteer battalions have suffered pecuniary loss through endeavouring to improve their efficiency by taking a larger number of their members into regimental camps than authorized; and, whether he will consider whether it is possible to take any steps which will prevent old administrative battalions that have no other means of practising battalion drills, except by attending such camps, from suffering losses under such circumstances?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. E. STANHOPE) (Lincolnshire, Horncastle)There have been a few such complaints, and they have been answered in accordance with the promise I made on May 11, in reply to the hon. Member for Sheffield (Mr. Howard Vincent), that if at the end of the camping season—say, in October—a saving should appear in the item for camps in the Volunteer Vote, I will consider whether it can be divided proportionately among the corps which may earn more than the amount allotted to them. It is not practicable to make any distinction in this matter between administrative battalions and consolidated corps.