§ MR. COBB (Warwick, S.E., Rugby)asked the Secretary of State for War whether the Colonel commanding the 2nd Volunteer Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment was acting with the approval of the War Office by making it known in the battalion some months ago that for the future the Capitation Grant earned by the several detachments would be placed at the disposal of the battalion as a whole, and not of the detachments earning the grant, as heretofore, and by since acting in incurring expenditure and otherwise, as if such alteration would be carried, out; whether such alteration is in opposition to Rule 18 of the Battalion Rules, 1880; whether he is aware that the action of the Commanding Officer has produced great dissatisfaction among the members of the Rugby Town Company; whether he is aware that in consequence of the opposition to such action of the officer commanding the Rugby detachment the Colonel wrote to him such a letter as caused him to resign his commission; and whether he will cause inquiries to be made into the matter, with a view of taking steps to continue to each detachment the right of control over the Capitation Grant earned by it?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe commanding officer of the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment is acting under the General Volunteer 225 Regulations in administering the Capitation Grant by a regimental financial committee; but by the rules of the battalion, as approved by the War Office, the amount earned by each company is handed over to the Captain, to be expended on the company under the supervision of the Colonel and the regimental finance committee. Any other distribution of the money earned would not be in accordance with the approved Corps Rules. Nothing is known at the War Office of the resignation of either of the two Captains of the Rugby companies. The Secretary of State is not prepared to give absolute control of the expenditure to Captains of companies. Whatever is spent must be subject to the approval of the commanding officer, to whom the Captains are responsible.