§ MR. BUCHANANasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether it is a fact that, notwithstanding the announcement in Regimental Orders, by authority of the Admiralty, that subalterns of the Royal Marine Artillery are eligible for appointment to the Indian Staff Corps and Army Service Corps, the Admiralty refuses to entertain any application from Marine Artillery subalterns for employment in the corps named; on what grounds are these officers debarred from the privileges expressly declared to be open to them; and will the Admiralty, if the present practice is to be adhered to, 1025 notify publicly, for the information of candidates and their parents and guardians, that subalterns of the Royal Marine Artillery are not allowed any opening outside the limits of their own corps?
§ LORD G. HAMILTONThere is a regulation which states that "a certain proportion of officers of the Royal Marines are permitted to take service in the Indian Staff Corps and in the Commissariat and Transport Staff," and this has been allowed. But it was decided "two years ago that, on account of the paucity of numbers and also of their costly education, it was desirable in the public interest that officers of the Royal Marine Artillery should be reserved for the special duties for which they had teen trained. This decision is perfectly well known by the corps, and it is not proposed to take any further steps as to its publication.