§ SIR T. ESMONDE for Mr. ARTHUR O'CONNOR (Donegal, E.)I beg to ask the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether the Queen's Regulations for 1881, which allowed a soldier, on conscientious grounds, to send his children to a certified efficient civil school instead of the regimental or garrison schools, have been altered this year, so as to deprive the Catholic soldiers and their children of religious liberty in the matter of education, and compel all warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, and men to send their children to the school of the corps or garrison, except where, "with a view to obtaining a higher class education," the children are permitted by the General Officer commanding to attend a civil school?
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY, WAR OFFICE (Mr. BRODRICK,) Surrey, GuildfordThe Army Order referred to was issued two years ago, and it does require that soldiers shall send their children to the corps or 355 garrison school. It was found that their going to civil schools did, to an appreciable amount, involve the risk of introducing infectious disease into barracks; but the main reason for the order was that, as soldiers frequently move from station to station, it was indispensable that their children should be educated on a uniform system. Army schools being all under one management secured this, while the latitude allowed to the managers of civil schools resulted in children taught in one school being frequently quite out of touch with the course in the school of another place. Army schools are altogether undenominational, and every facility is afforded for religious instruction being imparted by the ministers of the denomination to which the parents belong.