§ Mr. RYLANDS (for Mr. J. Holms)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether his attention has been drawn to a report that two soldiers of the force now encamped upon Blackheath, near Guildford, died instantaneously of sunstroke during the usual forenoon exercise of the troops on Friday last, and that many men had to fall out of the ranks from exhaustion; and, whether, during the intense heat, the exercise of the troops might not take place early in the morning or after five o'clock in the afternoon?
Mr. GATHORNE HARDY, in reply, said, that in consequence of receiving Notice of the Question of the hon. Gentleman he had ordered a telegram to be sent and he had not yet received an answer to it; but no report of any suffering of the troops of the kind had reached the War Office. As to mustering the troops at an earlier hour he believed that a regulation of that kind had been carried out, for he saw that there was a Brigade out at 7 in the morning; but, inasmuch as the General Officer Commanding, Sir Thomas Steele, was in the habit of inspecting the troops, it was necessary for them sometimes to appear on parade later than that.