§ The officers who may be authorised to issue a billeting requisition under Section one hundred and eight A of the Army Act shall include general 1985 or field officers commanding any part of His Majesty's Forces in any military district or place in the United Kingdom, and accordingly in Sub-section (1) of that Section, for the words "any general or field officer commanding His Majesty's Regular Forces," there shall be substituted the words "any general or field officer commanding any part of His Majesty's Forces."
§ Mr. ASHLEYMay I say to the Under-Secretary how much I welcome the change which he proposes to make in this Clause. It is time that we recognised that the officers of the Territorial Force, now so closely approximate in many ways to their brethren of the Regular Forces, that this power of billeting should be given to them, and not confined entirely to the officers of the Regular Forces. In the early days of the Volunteer movement the officers were not, perhaps, so highly trained as at present. You had a marked distinction existing between them and their brother officers of the Regular Forces. But now officers of the Territorial Forces go to much trouble to make themselves efficient in every way. They would not have thought of doing this ten or twenty years ago. This change will be welcomed by the Committee in general, namely, that officers of the Territorial Forces should be given the same power of billeting as is given to their brethren of the Regular Forces. One more step has been taken to recognising the self-sacrificing efforts of many Englishmen to try and make the Territorial Force a real and effective part of our national defence.
§ Question, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill," put, and agreed to.