COLONEL DUNNEsaid, he rose to ask the Under-Secretary for War, What course the Government intend to take with respect to the Retiring Allowances to Barrack-Masters, and to call attention to a recent Warrant concerning their position? The barrack-masters had important duties to fulfil, and he thought their case was one which the Government ought not to overlook. At present they were neither considered as civilians nor military men, and consequently no fixed rule could be applied which would secure them sufficient compensation on retirement, and induce them to do so whenever they became unfit to perform their duties. There were numbers of barrack officers unfit to perform their duties who ought to be allowed to retire upon suitable pensions. It was true that the War Office had recently issued a warrant to define their position, but the whole barrack department, in fact, required reconstruction, and was in a most inefficient state. The subject of barrack drainages and other complaints had often been brought before the House. He trusted that the Government would not object to the appointment of a Select Committee to consider the subject. It would be well if those barrack-masters who were disabled by age or long-service were put in receipt of retiring allowances, and more active men employed to fill their positions. But they were generally chosen from those who had served in the army, and many had been highly distinguished, but they entered the barrack department late in life, in consequence of having spent the earlier part of it in the service; and, unless they were allowed to reckon a certain portion of their military service, they could not be expected to retire, when they became unfit for duty upon the pension awarded in proportion to their period of service as barrack-masters. If they were confined to the same rules as regulated civil retirements, where men entered 1208 the services early in life. A proposition had been made to give barrack-masters commissions, but he thought that would be a provision of very doubtful expediency. Were it proposed to give them with that rank any power of command over troops within the barracks to which they were attached there would be a manifest inconvenience, but he did not see any in giving them that same honorary rank which was at present conceded to store-keepers and other civil officers connected with the army. He (Colonel Dunne) felt unwilling to claim through the House of Commons the justice that should be effected in the department, but if the War Department neglected these serious subjects, or were incompetent to deal with them there was no other remedy but for the House to interfere, and if the War Department did not deal satisfactorily with the question he should feel himself under the necessity of moving for a Committee on the subject.
§ MR. VINCENT SCULLYsaid, he trusted that when the Government considered the claims of the barrack-masters they would take into consideration the much harder case of the quartermasters. The adjutants had 10s. a day, and the quartermasters only 5s.; while the adjutants had besides various allowances in excess of those of the quartermasters. When the adjutant died his wife had a pension, and his children a claim upon the Compassionate Fund, while the family of the quartermaster had no such advantages.
MR. T. G. BARINGsaid, he was much obliged to the hon. Gentleman the Member for Cork for directing attention to the case of the quartermasters, because the House must see from the instance he had quoted that it was very difficult to consider the pay and allowances of any one class of officers without taking into account those of others. His noble Friend the Secretary of State for War would be the last man to depreciate the important services of the barrack-masters, who were responsible for the proper occupation of barracks and the due consumption of the stores, and were also accountants to a considerable extent. The question of pay and allowances to barrack-masters had been recently considered at the War Office, and on the 7th of February, 1860, a warrant for increasing their rates of pay was issued. Before that warrant the barrack-masters were paid after seven different rates, varying from 5s. to 10s. a day. They were now divided into four classes, receiving 1209 from 8s. to 25s. a day. The barrack-masters were only eighty in number, and, as an aggregate increase of £3,000 had been made to their pay, it was evident that they had received a considerable individual increase of income. He could not, therefore, say that it was the intention of the Secretary of State for War to propose any increase in the pay of barrack-masters, who stood in no disadvantageous position if their pay and allowances were compared, for example, with those of the adjutants of Militia regiments. The pay and allowances of a barrack-master of the first class was £433 5s., so that he could not be said to be ill-paid, as compared with other officers of similar rank. The proposal that they should have commissions as barrack-masters was under the consideration of his noble Friend, and if it should be found that it did not involve an increase of expense the Secretary of State would be inclined to concur in the plan. His noble Friend in answer to a question put by the hon. Member for Roscommon (Colonel Dunne) on a former occasion, stated that barrack-masters, as respects retirement, were under the Superannuation Act, but no pledge had been given that their retiring allowances should be taken into consideration.