§ MR. LAMBERTI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury if Lord Roberts has informed the Defence Committee that our armed forces as a body are as absolutely unfitted and unprepared for war as they were, in 1899–1900; and what steps are being taken to remedy the defects indicated by that officer.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI should, in no circumstances, state to the House what a particular member of the Defence Committee said on any particular occasion. Quite apart from that general principle I may remind the hon. Gentleman that it is not the business of the Defence Committee to deal with Army reform, which is in the province of the Secretary of State for War.
§ MR. LAMBERTIs it not the business of the Government to see that our armed forces are in a state of efficiency?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThat is the business of the Government as a whole, no doubt, but of the Secretary of State for War and the Army Council in particular.