§ MAJOR RASCHI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether, when the Yeomanry at Aldershot were sent out for a mounted field day in the Long Valley on the 13th ultimo, he can say how many of them had had only ten days instruction in riding; and can he state how many casualties occurred. The hon. Member explained he should have substituted two days for ten in the question.
§ MR. BRODRICKThe exercise referred to was to give instruction in the general principles of outpost work in the field; there was no fast work, and no more was imposed upon the men than they have been doing daily over the same ground in the ordinary course of their training. Between fifty and sixty men had not received more than 10 days instruction in riding, but no men were taken out whom the Commanding Officers did not consider fitted for the work. Two casualties occurred, one to a sergeant, who is an experienced rider, and whose horse slipped up and fell with him, and one to a man who had more than 10 days instruction in riding, and whose horse bolted in the barracks before starting for the field.