§ [SECOND READING.]
§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."
§ MR. CALDWELL (Lanarkshire, Mid.)said this Bill had been introduced without any discussion whatever. It was a very short Bill, but it seemed to him to have far-reaching consequences. The Military Lands Act of 1892, which it was now sought to apply to Naval Volunteers, was an Act which enabled money to be borrowed for military lands to be used for Volunteer sheds, ranges, halls, etc. Those lands might be acquired by the Secretary of State on his own account for military purposes. He thought the Bill now before them would place a heavy burden upon the localities concerned. Assuming that a locality was loyal enough to raise a considerable number of Volunteers, then instead of meeting the expense out of the Imperial purse as they ought to do, they were now proposing to place the cost upon the locality. It should be borne in mind that they were now proposing to make the Volunteer force practically part of the Regular Army. It seemed to him very strange that they should now be introducing legislation which would impose a burden upon certain localities which happened to be so loyal as to undertake the raising of Volunteers. He agreed that at one time there 402 was something to be said for asking county councils and borough councils to do something in this direction, because then the force was essentially a Volunteer force, and it was not so much mixed up with the organisation of the Army as it was at the present time. If land was taken for naval purposes, for the construction of a battery, this Bill would enable money to be borrowed on the security of the grants which Parliament gave to the Volunteers, whether naval or military.
§ And, it being Midnight, the debate stood adjourned.
§ Debate to be resumed to-morrow.