§ MR. CLAVELL SALTER (Hants, Basingstoke)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether the 166 cadetships announced in April last for award at the recent examination for admission to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, will be sufficient to fill all the vacancies at the college as well as the company which is to be formed at Woolwich; and, if not, will he arrange for the publication, when the result of the examination is known, of an extended list of successful candidates so as to include approximately the number which will be actually required, or make some other alteration in the present system of publishing a list of successful candidates limited to the number of cadetships originally offered for competition, so as to mitigate the inconvenience caused to the parents of candidates, who in many cases, after having made other arrangements for their sons, are informed, some time after the list has been published, that cadetships will be offered to them.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) 166 cadetships will not be sufficient to fill the vacancies referred to. When 838 the announcement that 166 cadetships would be awarded was made it had not been definitely decided to form an infantry company at Woolwich. When this decision was reached at the end of May a notice to this effect, and that 60 additional infantry cadetships would be awarded, was given to each candidate attending the recent Army competitive examination. An extended list of successful candidates will, therefore, be published when the result of the examination is known.