§ MR. BROOKFIELD (Sussex, Rye)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether by the present Volunteer regulations all rules for the internal management of Volunteer corps must be submitted to the approval of "a general meeting of the corps"; whether this regulation was made in the early days of the Volunteer movement, before Volunteer battalions were included in any scheme of mobilisation; whether his attention has been drawn to any inconveniences which arise from the regulations in question; and whether he can so amend the present 765 regulation as to bring it into greater harmony with the present improved military status of the Volunteer Service?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe regulation referred to in the question only carries out Section 20 of the Volunteer Act of 1863, in requiring that matters affecting property, finances, and civil affairs should be decided at a general meeting of the corps, but such a meeting has no control over discipline. No representations have recently been made of inconvenience arising from the practice, but it is not altogether a satisfactory state of the law; and whenever there is an opportunity of amending the Volunteer Act, I think some change should be proposed.