§ CAPTAIN DONELAN (Cork, E.)To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, if it is intended to charge the regimental pay of the companies of Royal Engineers on the Ordnance Survey against the Ordnance Survey Vote; what additional expense will this entail against the Ordnance 23 Survey Vote; and if the companies of Royal Engineers employed on the Ordnance Survey could be returned to their military duties, and thereby retain the service of civilians who are being discharged on reduction of establishment.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) It has been decided to defray the regimental pay, &c, of the three companies of Royal Engineers, except for the periods during which they undergo military training, from the Ordnance Survey Vote; and to give effect to this decision a sum of £20,000 has been transferred from the War Office to the Ordnance Survey Estimate for the next financial year. Any alteration in the organisation of the Ordnance Survey in the direction indicated in the concluding paragraph of the Question would be detrimental to the best interests of the Survey and of the public service, and cannot therefore be entertained.