§ MR. M'FADDEN (Donegal, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War 1143 whether, in view of the fact that the 5th Battalion of the Inniskilling Militia have been in training at Dover for almost a year, and that the men of the battalion have recently expressed themselves in favour of immediate disembodiment, that a memorandum was sent from the depot at Omagh to the battalion asking if the regiment wished to stay for the annual training, and that only a few of the men and a couple of officers recently joined expressed their assent, and that few of the men whose time is expired have reengaged, on the ground of the hardship of being kept at training for so long a period, and also on the ground that the men, who are largely drawn from the farming classes in the counties of Tyrone and Donegal, will suffer loss by being absent from the putting in of their crop and from their farming operations—he will take a plebiscite of the officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the battalion as to their desire or otherwise for disembodiment; and, if the majority is in favour of this course, will he order its disembodiment.
LORD STANLEYI must refer the hon. Member to a reply given on the 25th April to a similar question put by the hon. Member for South Donegal.†
§ MR. M'FADDENThe noble Lord has not answered the question as to the representations made by the men.
§ MR. M'FADDENIt was not to the same effect as this.