§ MR. COLSTON (Gloucester, Thornbury)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if Railway Companies have any right to refuse to carry Volunteers to camp on the Saturday before the August Bank Holiday, thereby forcing them to travel on the Sunday; whether Volunteers who desire to spend their holiday in the performance of a public duty have at least an equal right to accommodation as the general public; and whether he will remonstrate with the Railway Companies, with a view to induce them to make such arrangements 882 as shall enable battalions to reach camp on the Saturday, and thus secure Sunday to them as a day of rest?
§ * MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANVolunteers have precisely the same rights on railways as the general public. The Railway Companies state that on the Saturday preceding the August Bank Holiday it is, from want of rolling stock, a practical impossibility to convey Volunteers in special trains at specified hours, and as Volunteers travel, by private arrangement, at fares lower than the statutory rate for troops, I should hesitate to use on such a day, unless there were urgent national necessity, the compulsory powers vested in the Secretary of State. There has been much correspondence on the subject, and the Companies have promised to do their best to meet the convenience of the Volunteers, while the latter have been urged to arrange their movements so as to interfere as little as possible with the convenience of the general public.
§ MR. TOMLINSON (Preston)Are the Volunteers carried at a lower rate than excursionists on Bank Holidays?
§ * MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI have no knowledge of that. They make private arrangement with the Railway Companies. All I can say is that they get lower rates than I am able to exact from the Companies for the transit of troops.