§ MR. WYNDHAMI rise only to interpose for one or two minutes in the debate. I see my hon. and gallant friend the Member for South-east Essex is in his place, and therefore I rise to give an answer to the question he asked some time ago. I must first take exception to one part of his speech. He said he was in the habit of calling a spade a spade. I must respectfully decline to be divided from the office which I have the honour of representing; and I wish to take my share of the blows which the hon. and gallant Member has dealt at the Gentlemen, military and civil, with whom I have the honour of working. I am not here as a conventional whipping-boy, and I consider it a privilege indeed to be allowed to represent men who have laboured so strenuously for their country as my colleagues have done at the War Office during the last seven months. As to the examination of Militia candidates next September, it is impossible to regard the Militia merely as a preparatory school for the Army. It is one of the 1582 most important forces in the country, and the War Office cannot treat the colonels of Militia battalions as if they were schoolmasters preparing candidates for commissions. We cannot order colonels to give no officers leave, or to give all officers leave, in order that they may prepare for an examination. That would be to interfere unduly with their discretion. If all the officers who intend to enter the Army are given leave, then officers who are needed, especially in the summer, would be withdrawn. If we held that no officers should have leave, we would be depriving some young candidates who are in commission of the opportunity of studying subjects which we wish them to study. We must, therefore, leave to the discretion of the Militia colonel what should be done, and I wish to state in reply to my hon. and gallant friend we shall try to devise some plan by which marks shall be given for the good soldiering they have done to those Militia officers who have been serving during the whole summer, which will make the handicapping more fair than it would otherwise be. I think I should say one word as to the speech of the hon. Member opposite. I do not feel called upon to inflict the pain on the House of replying to questions he has asked again and again. I can spare the House, and I intend to spare it, the useless penalty of listening to my remarks.