§ MAJOR ANSTRUTHER-GRAYI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if, in view of the fact that the responsibility for reducing the Auxiliary Forces by some 74,000 men will fall upon the county associations, he can arrange to inform those associations, at an early date, what the probable requirements for each locality will be, in order that the necessary reductions may take place partly by stopping recruiting forthwith, in order to reduce to a minimum the number of units which will have to be ultimately disbanded and the number of individual men who will have to be dismissed.
§ MR. HALDANEAs I have already indicated to the House, the introduction of the measures contemplated in the Territorial and Reserve Forces Bill can only be very gradual, and every association will be given ample time to conform the organisation of the forces in its area to the General Staff scheme. I must not 1330 be taken to agree with the hon. and gallant Member in his description of the character of the reorganisation.