§ MR. RENDALLTo ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that under the Army Council's order permitting plain clothes to be worn by non-commissioned officers and well-conducted men, there is inserted a proviso that such plain clothes must not be kept in barracks and must not be worn either on quitting or returning to the soldier's station; whether he is aware that this proviso compels men to leave and return to barracks in uniform, to go long distances to their homes to change their clothes, taking with them materials for pipeclaying and polishing of buttons, and in the case of unmarried men to hire accommodation for their plain clothes; and whether he will consider the desirability of removing the proviso and permitting well-conducted men to quit and return to barracks in plain clothes.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) The proviso that plain clothes are not to be kept in barracks has been relaxed in 1387 favour of non-commissioned officers not below the rank of sergeant. The proviso that plain clothes must not be worn by a soldier, either on quitting or returning to his station will be omitted from the King's Regulations now in course of revision. In view, however, of the fact that railway companies, in spite of repeated solicitation, make the wearing of uniform a condition upon which cheap tickets are issued to soldiers proceeding on pass or furlough, this concession is of little value.