§ Viscount VALENTIAasked the Secretary of State for War whether any decision has been come to with regard to the Cheshire Royal Engineers (Railway Battalion), the establishment of which corps is 532 of all ranks, 60 per cent. of which must be Special Reservists, for the enlistment of whom no sanction has so far been received; does he consider the present state of the battalion with a strength of 213 of all ranks satisfactory, having regard to the fact that previous to 1908 the strength of the then 2nd Cheshire Royal Engineers Railway Volunteers was 716 of all ranks, with 245 reservists attached, the whole enlisted from the employés of the London and North Western Railway Company, from which source an equally strong Territorial battalion could be enlisted?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for WAR (Mr. Haldane)The whole question of the organisation and duties of railway troops in time of war is still under consideration. It is not, therefore, possible at the present time to permit this battalion to recruit up to its former strength.