§ MR. JAMES ROCHE ( Kerry, E.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether he can give, even approximately, the average length of service of the soldiers on board the Warren Hastings, the conspicuous steadiness and discipline of whom, under such trying circumstances, entirely contributed to the immunity from a grave loss of life when that ship was recently wrecked on the island of Réunion?
MR. POWELL-WILLIAMSThe average service of the soldiers on board the Warren Hastings was probably between four and five years, which is the average of all foreign battalions.
§ MR. P. J. POWER (Waterford, E.)asked whether it was not a fact that most of the non-commissioned officers and rank and file of this regiment which displayed such marvellous discipline and steadiness on the occasion referred to, were Irishmen? [Laughter.]