§ MR. JENNINGS (Stockport)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether it is the fact that three subaltern officers of the 2nd Dragoon Guards were rejected in their A and B examination, at Rawul Pindi, in November last, although the Board and President agreed that they were well qualified to pass, and exceptionally fitted for their work; whether their rejection arose from the fact that the President refused to sign a clause certifying that the candidates were qualified to command a regiment in the field, it being his opinion that no subaltern officer, however able and industrious, could possibly be so qualified; and why the President of an Examining Board is required to sign such a clause, seeing that no subaltern officer can be expected to comply with its conditions?
§ *THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (Mr. E. STANHOPE,) Lincolnshire, HorncastleAll the examinations, both at home and abroad, are intended to be under the rules laid down in the Queen's Regulations, and they do not require that a subaltern officer should be qualified to command a regiment in the field. No Report has been received from India on the subject, but I will make inquiry about it.