THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, with reference to his promise that Vote 18 in the Army Estimates (Administration of the Army), should not be taken until a statement of the proposed changes in the organization of the War Department had been laid upon the Table of the House, When that statement will be submitted to Parliament; and, whether any statement of proposed alterations in the audit of Military Accounts will be laid before Parliament in sufficient time to enable the Committee of Public Accounts to consider them during the present Session?
§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONsaid, in reply, that he did not recollect having made any such promise as that referred to in the Question of the noble Lord. When the Army Estimates were moved, he entered into a full statement of the changes which were intended in the War Department; but the details were not yet completed, and therefore he could not lay them upon the table of the House. As regarded the Audit Department, only one alteration had been made, and that was the transfer of the Department from the Assistant Under Secretary to the Parliamentary Under Secretary. The regulations, however, were not yet complete; but when they were, he would have no objection to lay them upon the table.
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONsaid, he and others were under the impression that, in the course of a desultory conversation in Committee on the Army Estimates, the understanding that Vote 18 shall not be taken till the statement in question has been laid on the table of the House was arrived at. It is most important that the House shall have the statement before proceeding to the Vote.
§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONsaid, he must repeat that he did not recollect hav- 1183 ing made any promise on the subject, but lie would endeavour to meet the wishes of the noble Lord if he would communicate with him privately.