(NO. 55.) THIRD READING. (Hansard, 12 April 1886)

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (Lord SANDHURST)

said, there was a great deal of information of different kinds on the subject at the War Office, and the way the Secretary of State intended to obtain his additional information was somewhat similar to that employed by the noble Viscount in 1879. A form had been issued, with columns for all the different items of expenditure that could be incurred. There were also three columns, with no headings, for expenses which might possibly have been overlooked. There were, of course, also columns for receipts, such as Capitation Grant and subscriptions, so that the Government might be able to judge how far income and expenditure 1285 balanced. The difference between the noble Viscount's plan and that of the Government was, that in the former Return, certain expenses were classified as necessary, and the remainder as unnecessary. In the present Return the Government had made no such distinction. The Returns were to be sent in to the Secretary of State, and he would then consider what were necessary expenses in proportion to the growths of the requirements of the Volunteer Force, and how far they were met by the existing Capitation Grant. He might add that a Paper of Questions, desiring all sorts of information, suggestions, and reasons of difficulties, financial and otherwise, accompanied those Returns. One of the Questions related to the difficulties in obtaining officers, and if there were such difficulties, to what cause they might be attributed. The Return would be for the last five years. It was as full an inquiry into details of expenditure as could be made. It was the earnest wish of the Secretary of State to look into the question in all its bearings; and he had every hope that this Return and the answers to the Questions would enable him to come to a right conclusion as regarded the increase of the Capitation Grant.