OBSERVATIONS. (Hansard, 9 June 1870)

§ VISCOUNT ENFIELD

rose, according to Notice, to call attention to the hardship that will be inflicted on Quartermasters of Militia by their compulsory retirement during the next financial year. He said that the pay of the quartermasters of Militia at present amounted to about £139 a year, and the whole charge for them upon the Estimates was £17,955. The scale of retiring allowances for those officers proposed by the Secretary of State for War was for those quartermasters of Militia who had served under five years, 2s. 6d. per day; for those who had served over five and under 10 years, 3s.; for those who had served over 10 and under 15 years, 3s. 6d.; and for those who had served over 15 years, 4s. per day. Now, what he would suggest was, that the existing quartermasters should be permitted to serve until they were entitled to the maximum allowance of 4s. per day; or, if it was thought better altogether to abolish the office of quartermaster of Militia, that they should be allowed to retire on 4s. per day. The quartermasters of Militia had received their commissions, as it was supposed, for life; and on the strength of so receiving them they had incurred considerable outlay; they had paid for their uniform and outfits, had made themselves responsible for some portion of the regimental charges of their corps, and had probably also taken permanent quarters in the towns in which the Militia corps to which they belonged were established—all of which expenses fell very heavily 1830 on them. The compulsory retirement next year of those who had served the minimum time—namely, over three and under five years, would entail on them the loss of £84 out of their £139 per annum—a loss which to that class would amount almost to absolute ruin. There was no class to whom he was sure the country was more anxious to accord a safe and an honourable retirement than meritorious non-commissioned officers of the Army, and he hoped the Secretary of State for War would favourably consider their claims, and satisfy a very deserving body of men without prejudicing the public service.

§ MR. CARDWELL

said, he regretted that he was compelled to turn a deaf ear to the appeal just addressed to him, for it was always painful to have to reject proposals made on behalf of a meritorious class of men. At the same time, some regard must be paid to the bearing of such proposals on the interests of the public. What was the case of the quartermasters of Militia? Those officers might, perhaps, have thought they would be safe and would remain as quartermasters for life; but they could not have expected to receive a retiring allowance. It had been his duty to endeavour to combine the efficiency of the service with economy, and it appeared to him that quartermasters for Militia regiments were really an unnecessary luxury. There was no branch of the public service in which retrenchment could be better enforced. The adjutant of Militia was actively employed during only six weeks in the year, and the regulations sanctioned a special allowance to the officer who performed the duty where there was no quartermaster. The whole of those functions could be discharged without maintaining those officers in perpetuity. After 1829 the quartermasters of Militia were discontinued altogether; but after the Crimean War a sort of compromise was agreed to, by which they were revived, but without being entitled to any retiring allowance. He had sought to make the best arrangement he could in the matter by conceding the demand for retiring allowances, which he did all the more willingly because those officers were the only commissioned officers of the Army who had no retiring allowance. At the same time, he had thought it right to take the opportunity of determining that 1831 the duties now discharged by quartermasters should in future be discharged by the adjutants and the quartermaster-sergeants. He did not think the proposed scale of retiring allowances was at all insufficient. With regard to the proposal of which the hon. and gallant Member for Buckingham (Sir Harry Verney) had given Notice as to the billeting of the Militia, he could not have agreed to that Motion if it had been pressed. Every arrangement that could be made to minimize billeting, or to induce the regiments of that force to come out at the time of the year when they could be placed under canvas, should have his cordial support; but it was impossible for him to give the hon. and gallant Member (Sir Harry Verney) the assurance to which his Notice of Motion pointed.