§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War what is
The authority from which the Commander-in-Chief derives the power of cancelling the discharges of soldiers, with the grave effect of practically misrepresenting the facts of their military service,as described by the Auditor General; whether H. Holdgate, who was discharged from the Army by purchase in 1885, had his discharge cancelled in 1883, and thereupon has obtained deferred pay for 11 years' service in the Army, for more than three years of which he was in civil life, while in regard to more than three and a half years, although in military employment, it was as a civilian and not as a soldier; and whether, in addition to receiving deferred pay for nearly seven years, whilst absent from the colours, he has also received a pension based upon service supposed to have been rendered during that absence?
§ MR. E. STANHOPEThe War Office is in correspond once with the Treasury on the subject of the cancelling of discharges as to the best way of giving the benefit of former service to soldiers who may have been re-enlisted. The case referred to, like all those to which my hon. Friend has recently called attention, is about to be considered by the Committee on Public Accounts, to which a full explanation will be given. It will then be seen that the case of H. Holdgate would have been a singularly hard one if no means existed of giving him the full benefit of his service. Daring the greater part of the time mentioned he was rendering excellent service to the State in South Africa.