§ MR. PERCY WYNDHAM, in rising to move that, in the opinion of this House, it would be advantageous and convenient to substitute a system of weekly in lieu of daily payments to those non-commissioned Officers and Soldiers of the Army whose previous conduct might warrant the extension of this indulgence, said, he was of opinion that this indulgence would be of great benefit to soldiers of good conduct. The driblets of pay they received daily were of very little use to them, being so small after the regulation deduction. Raising the soldiers' pay had led to no less than 26,000 enlistments, and he believed the proposal he had in view would be attended by the most advantageous results, and would greatly encourage and facilitate the habit of saving. That proposal was a very simple one, and it had the great merit that it would not add one farthing to the Estimates. What he proposed was, that non-commissioned officers and soldiers should be paid weekly instead of daily. It was quite clear that they would prefer it, as even now they often got the captain to keep the money for them until the end of the week. The large number of men offering themselves for re-enlistment had enabled commanding officers to refuse men who had been guilty of misconduct, so that the men in the ranks were now of a class clearly entitled to favourable consideration. There had been instances before Delhi, and in Canada, and elsewhere, in which the ordinary rule of daily payments had been departed from, and the change had given great satisfaction to the men. There was recently a case in which, when some troops were sent to Malta, the officers of some of the regiments directed the arrears of ninety days' due—owing to the advance in the amount of soldiers' pay made last Session, on the recommendation of the right hon. and gallant Member for Huntingdon (General Peel)—to be paid in one payment, which amounted to 15s. or 20s. each man; and not only was this regarded as a boon, but the conduct of the troops who received it 2004 was such as fully to justify the confidence reposed in them by the officers; while, on the other hand, in other regiments at the same station, those arrears were paid in driblets; not only did the money do the soldiers very little good, but their conduct was not so praiseworthy as that of the men who received it in a lump sum. He also instanced the case of the payment of the men who were sent to Canada after the affair of the Trent, and stated that they much approved of the system of weekly payments. On these grounds, he hoped that the Government would give the question careful consideration.
§
Amendment proposed,
To leave out from the word "That" to the end of the Question, in order to add the words "in the opinion of this House, it would be advantageous and convenient to substitute a system of weekly in lieu of daily payments to those non-commissioned Officers and Soldiers of the Army whose previous conduct might warrant the extension of this indulgence,"—(Mr. Percy Wyndham,)
—instead thereof.
§ Question proposed, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the Question."
§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONsaid, this was one of those matters affecting the internal economy of regiments in which he should not venture to interfere with the discretion of His Royal Highness the Commander-in Chief. There was, no doubt, a good deal to be said in favour of the view advocated by his hon. Friend, and the matter, he promised, should not be lost sight of. Indeed, he believed, the Commander-in-Chief was about to make the alteration.
§ MR. PERCY WYNDHAMsaid, he would withdraw his Amendment.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.