HC Deb 20 June 1901 vol 95 c892
SIR JOHN LENG

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if he can explain why Reservists who returned to this country from South Africa last July are still kept at Aldershot, thus throwing on their employers the responsibility of continuing to support their wives and families in fulfilment of promises made when the Reserves were called out.

MR. BRODRICK

The men who are retained at Aldershot are those whose services cannot be spared. With the large number of young soldiers at home, it is absolutely necessary to keep a proportion of older men with the regiments and at the depots. The local military authorities have been given discretionary power to allow any men whose services can be dispensed with to return to their homes.