§ MAJOR GENERAL ALEXANDERasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether the War Office Regulation, requiring Militia Officers who are candidates for Commissions in the Army to signify to the War Office, three clear months before the examination, their intention to compete, and to forward at the same time a certificate that they have been present at two trainings, practically excludes from the September Examination those Militia Officers whose regiments are called out for training during June, July, and August; and, whether, looking to the hardship entailed by that rule, he is prepared to make any alteration in it.
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONSir, the object of the rule referred to is 85 that, before competing for the Army, a Militia candidate shall have given nearly two years' service in the Militia; and to admit candidates who have only just completed their second training would defeat that object. The abrogation of the rule would cause hardship to the present candidates at the September examination, by increasing the competition against them, and it would have the further undesirable result of rendering unequal the conditions of competition at the September and March examinations, at which now about equal numbers compete. I may add that I am now considering whether all Militia candidates should not be required to have given a fixed minimum period of service in the Militia before examination for the Army.