§ MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that a watch, the property of the late Quartermaster-Sergeant J. Macleod, which was handed over by the hospital authorities at Klerksdorp to Lieutenant W. Gates, late of the 14th Company Imperial Yeomanry, for despatch to the deceased soldier's father, resident in Ross-shire, has failed to reach its destination; whether, seeing that, although Lieutenant Gates states that the parcel was registered and posted at Klerksdorp about the end of March, 1902, he is unable to produce the registered receipt issued in such cases, and that the post office authorities at Klerksdorp deny all knowledge of the parcel, he will consider the expediency of granting compensation; and will he state the nature of the War Office regulations which govern the disposal of the personal effects of soldiers dying on active service in the field, and will he state under what authority Lieutenant Gates acted.
§ * MR. ARNOLD-FORSTERIt has already been decided to grant £2 as compensation for the watch and a belt, and orders have been given for the money to be paid. Under the Regimental Debts Act, 1893, any effects not disposed of locally are sent to the next of kin, and the watch in question was handed to Lieutenant Gates for this purpose. Considerable operations were in progress 1489 in the Klerksdorp district of the Transvaal at the time in question and means of communication were uncertain.