HC Deb 20 February 1893 vol 8 cc1864-5
KEARLEY (Devonport)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he has decided to cancel the restrictions set forth in Paragraph 109, Section 7, of the Queen's Regulations, which, whilst permitting certain Warrant Officers of the Army to wear plain clothes under the same conditions as those laid down for Commissioned Officers, deny to other Warrant Officers the privilege of wearing plain clothes except when on pass or furlough, and leaving the place where they are stationed; whether he is aware that Lord Wantage's Committee recommended that this privilege should be extended to a much lower rank in the Army; and whether, when the Warrant rank was extended by the Government in 1881, it was clearly intended that all recipients of the Warrant should have the privilege of wearing plain clothes when oil duty?

*MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

This is a more complicated matter than is presumed in the question. Warrant Officers are not all alike. Some of them discharge purely military duties, others have duties of a quasi-civil character. I do not think, therefore, that there can be in all cases precisely the same regulations as to wearing uniform. It appears to me that this is a matter which is best left mainly to the discretion of the General Officers commanding districts, who are acquainted with the circumstances of the several classes of officers and of individuals. Recently, indeed, certain irregularities were brought to the notice of the Military Authorities which led to a warning being issued against undue laxity in this respect, but it appears to me that this is not a subject upon which a very definite regulation is desirable. I wish also to say that while I desire to see the greatest liberty allowed consistent with discipline, I will give countenance to the idea that it is a "privilege" for any man serving the Queen to put off Her Majesty's uniform, or the infliction to have to wear it. I am not sure that there is not a great deal to be said in favour of proceeding in the opposite direction, and making the wearing of uniform more obligatory than it is upon the upper ranks of the Army.

MR. KEARLEY

Does the right hon. Gentleman intend his remarks to apply to Commissioned as well as Warrant Officers?

*MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

I had better not interpret my own answer.