§ SIR HENRY HAVELOCKasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether, considering the universally acknowledged and daily increasing difficulties of obtaining old and experienced noncommissioned officers for the Army, he has taken any steps to carry out the recommendations of the Select Committee presided over by the Right honourable Member for Pontefract in 1875 and 1876, 1011 on the civil employment for discharged soldiers, as to placing at the disposal of the Army, as inducements to non-commissioned officers to prolong their service to twenty-one years, that limited number of permanent posts in the Civil Service of the Country which that Committee found to be available for that purpose, after all the legitimate and reasonable requirements of the Civil Departments have been complied with; and, whether he can give any hopes that this great inducement will shortly be held out to non-commissioned officers to prolong their service?
§ COLONEL STANLEYThis question has not been lost sight of; and we are at present in correspondence with the Treasury as regards those appointments which affect the War Office. As to rural post messengers, it was found that, practically, there were no candidates.