§ Captain CLIVEasked the Under-Secretary of State for War (1) whether the General Reserve of officers is up to its full strength; and, if not, whether he will reconsider the decision, announced in the "London Gazette" of 12th April, to remove a number of officers from the Reserve on the sole ground that they have not reported their address; and (2) whether, seeing that retired officers get no pay for joining the Reserve of officers, he can see his way to alter Royal Warrant, Article 634, which re-quire's them to report their address annually, and to lay down instead that they shall be written to annually from the War Office?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for WAR (Colonel Seely)There is no establishment for the 'Reserve of officers. To enable the State to make use of their services on mobilisation at very short notice it is essential that their addresses should be known, and it is held that the best method of securing that the addresses are up to date is that laid down in the Article of the Pay Warrant quoted. In the case under review ninety-five officers had failed to report, and though sixty-three officers 1819 reported themselves in reply to an official reminder, no replies were received from thirty-two—these thirty-two officers were accordingly removed from the list.