GENERAL LAUR FE (Pembroke and Haverford west)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War when the proposed separation of the lists of Officers of Field and Garrison branches of the Royal Artillery will he carried into effect; whether, in the meantime, anti just after it has been decided to largely augment the force of Garrison Artillery, it is a fact that non-commissioned officers and gunners of the Garrison Artillery have been lately transferred to complete Field and Mountain Batteries sent on service; and whether, if such transfers have taken place, he will state what number of men have thus been taken from each of the Garrison Companies of Royal Artillery, and to which Batteries they have been posted?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe detailed arrangements for the separation of officers of the Royal Artillery into mounted and dismounted branches are not yet completed, and the date for final separation cannot at present be stated. No noncommissioned officers or men have been lately taken from the Garrison Artillery to complete Field Batteries, but the Mountain Batteries are a branch of the Garrison Artillery, and when a Mountain Battery was recently sent to Crete, 100 men were detailed from ten garrison companies to strengthen the depot at Newport.