§ COLONEL EGERTON LEIGHasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether there is any intention of altering the Royal Warrant of the 29th December 1870, by which six weeks must elapse after an Officer has made application to sell his Commission before such permission is granted, he being possibly very ill or in a dying state; if he would explain to the House why such permission cannot be granted in consequence of the expense, and how it should cost the country one million sterling if such permission were granted to an officer applying to sell at once; and if an Act of Parliament be requisite to cancel the Clause mentioned, why it should not be brought in?
MR. GATHORNE HARDYThere is no intention of altering the Royal Warrant referred to. I appear to have been misunderstood in what I have said on this subject with respect to the amount involved. What I said or meant to say was that the change proposed would seriously reduce the saving of £1,100,000 taken credit for in the original Estimate. Officers remain in precisely the same position in this respect as before the abolition of Purchase, and I cannot undertake to bring in a Bill to alter it, however much I may feel for surviving relations in certain cases.