§ COLONEL WARING (Down, N.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, whether he is aware that the Officer commanding the 83rd regimental district has prohibited the band of the 5th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, at present training at the Palace Camp, Holywood, county Down, from playing the regiment to church, although 583 out of 682 of the men composing the regiment are Members of the Church of Ireland; and whether, seeing that it has been the invariable custom of the regiment for the last 40 years to play to church wherever the regiment was 66 quartered, he will direct that the order for the discontinuance of this practice be withdrawn?
§ *THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (Mr. BRODRICK,) Surrey, GuildfordThis is one of the matters in which the Secretary of State is reluctant to interfere with the discretion of the General Officer commanding the district, who, no doubt, had good reasons for the course he has adopted.