COLONEL WELBYI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Imperial Committee of Defence has modified, and, if so, by what numbers, the estimate dated May 11th, 1903, laid before the Royal Commission on the Militia and Volunteers by the War Office, that the total number of troops required for Home defence is, Defensive Garrisons, 150,000; Mobile Force, England, 120,000; Mobile Force, Ireland, 30,000; Cadres of Depôts and Training Units, 30,000; Total, 330,000.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe figures to which my hon. friend refers, and which were supplied to the Royal Commission, were not authoritative, and the Commission were informed that they were not authoritative. Personally I should myself dissent from them.