HC Deb 22 July 1878 vol 241 cc2052-3
MR. RATHBONE

asked the Secretary of State for War, If he has made arrangements to allow the men called out in the Army Reserve to return to their families and work; and, whether he will arrange that their first quarter's pay shall be issued in advance so as to enable them to maintain themselves while they are seeking employment?

COLONEL STANLEY

In answer to my hon. Friend, I am happy to inform him that Her Majesty has been pleased to command that the services of the First Class Army and Militia Reserves may be, until further orders, dispensed with. A special Army Circular was issued on Saturday, which provided that the men should be settled with up to the 31st instant; but that those men who were desirous of rejoining their families, or have got employment they could at once resume, may be allowed at once to go from their regiments without further delay. General officers and others commanding have been instructed to make such arrangements as shall insure regularity and order, and the men will be marched in parties to the rail or to the steamer, as the case may be. They will be given a free passage home; and in such cases where their families have accompanied them a point has been stretched, and free passage will be given to those families also. The men of the Army Reserve will receive plain clothes, or, where plain clothes cannot be furnished in time, a sum not exceeding £1 per man, for the purpose of providing plain clothes. Perhaps I may be allowed, at the same time, to answer a Question standing in the name of the hon. and gallant Member for Galway (Major Nolan), and to say that, with the view of avoiding any cases of distress until the men re-enter their old employment, directions have been given to advance, on their return to their stations, the remainder of this quarter's reserve pay. I think that these provisions will be considered sufficiently liberal to meet, in all equity, the circumstances of the case; and I believe that, in a very large number of instances, the men have had their private employment kept open for them.