CAPTAIN CRAIG (Down, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether ho is aware that owing to the absence of Volunteer regiments in Ireland in which Army candidates from the universities could get military training, as they do in England and Scotland, provision was made more than a year ago 1404 whereby Irish candidates were nominally gazetted to Militia regiments without being required to join them; that further regulations were made whereby applications were made by the colonels of such Militia regiments to the commanding officers of Regular regiments for the admission of such candidates to training with the Regulars, and that this was done without trouble to the candidates or universities, and has worked well for the-last eighteen months; will he explain why this arrangement has been upset by the War Office authorities, who now require Irish Army candidates to sign and fill up forms necessary in the case of those who purpose joining the Militia, involving details and certificates, baptismal and otherwise, with medical certificates, and involving expense for no useful purpose, as these forms, or analogous ones, must be afterwards filled and sent in before admission to the Army; and will he do away with these details, and revert to the arrangements which were approved of by the Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, and which have hitherto worked well.
§ MR. HALDANEThe facts of the case are not accurately stated. Formerly a university candidate had first to become a Militia officer and then to apply through his Militia, Yeomanry, or Volunteer commanding officer to be attached to a Regular unit. In order to save him the trouble of applying through several authorities, and largely on account of the representations of the Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, arrangements were made whereby, if not already holding a commission in the Auxiliary Forces, he could apply through his university authorities, direct to the War Office—(a) to be given a commission on the Unattached List of the Auxiliary Forces, and (b) to be attached to a Regular unit. On receipt of such application all further arrangements are made by the War Office. This arrangement was made by the War Office, not by the Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, who has no authority to make such arrangements. It applies equally to all universities whether in Ireland or elsewhere. The present procedure is thus the simplest that could be-devised. To fill in a simple form is a small matter for a gentleman who desires the honour of receiving His Majesty's Commission in the Auxiliary Forces, with 1405 a view to being attached to, and commanding men in, a Regular unit, and subsequently obtaining a commission in a Regular unit. A medical certificate of fitness is always required before a commission is given in the Auxiliary Forces. This certificate may save a candidate, who would be rejected by the final Medical Board, from subsequent disappointment, and from the expense of attachment.