§ On the bringing up of the Report of Supply,
§ MR. C. P. VILLIERSSir, I was not in my place last night when the hon. and gallant Member for Huntingdon (General Peel) made some observations in reference to the Board of General Officers lately sitting at Chelsea. I find it reported that the hon. and gallant General said that I had imputed a political bias to the General Officers who sat on that Board in the conduct of their proceedings, and in the decision at which they arrived. I wish to state distinctly that I never made any such charge; in fact, what I said was exactly the reverse. The only occasion on which I had to refer to the politics of the General Officers was in defending myself here against exactly the same 2301 charge made against me elsewhere, and I then said that I did not believe that they had been influenced by any political bias, and that I had not collected anything from what they said during the whole of the proceedings which could give me the least idea as to what their politics were. I believe that the hon. and gallant Member for Huntingdon did not impute that to me, and I only regret that upon that occasion, stating what I had heard, I should have said that they were all on the Conservative side. I regret that I was in error in that respect, and that that error has been made use of for the purpose of charging them with political bias. Although my statement was made seven or eight months ago, I never heard any complaint on the subject until two or three weeks ago, when the hon. and gallant Member for Huntingdon informed me for the first time that three of those General Officers thought themselves aggrieved by that reference, and I understand that Sir Alexander Woodford, General Knollys, and General Bell have all declared themselves not to be of the Conservative side. I regret very much that I should have imputed that to them, though I am very glad to hear that it is not the case.