THE MARQUESS OF CLANRICARDEsaid, he wished to ask the noble Lord the Under Secretary for War (Viscount Hardinge), whether it was true that orders had been given by the War Department to provide the 100th Regiment with complete clothing upon their arrival in this country from Canada, but that when the clothing came to be unpacked there were no buttons, owing to which the clothing was perfectly useless. That might not be the fault of the Secretary for the War Department; still it was the fault of some one; and when he (the Marquess of Clanricarde) recollected that numerous cases of similar neglect had occurred during the last few years without any person having been dismissed or punished for them, he thought it was his duty to mention in that House the rumour with regard to the 100th Regiment. He believed that until some person was punished for blunders of this kind they would be repeated. He remembered that great inconvenience was occasioned three years ago to the camp at Aldershot from the want of some wheelbarrows. The bodies of the barrows were sent from the Ordnance Department, and the wheels were sent down from the Engineers' Department. He wished to know whether the mistake of which he had heard with respect to the clothing sent to Liverpool had really occurred, and, if so, whether any person would be punished for the blunder?
§ VISCOUNT HARDINGEreplied, that no clothing was sent to Liverpool, because it was known that the regiment would disembark at that port fully equipped with fatigue clothing and necessaries. That dress clothing, tunics, and trousers, were sent immediately to Shorncliffe, from London, in order that no delay might take place in fitting the men when the regiment had arrived. That the buttons were immediately sent for from Weedon by telegraph, but that a delay was unavoidably occasioned by Sunday intervening, and the stores being closed. That another delay took place in London, which was entirely to be 1350 attributed to carelessness on the part of carriers employed by Messrs. Pickford to convey the stores from one terminus to another. That the buttons had certainly arrived forty-eight hours after the clothing, but that no practical inconvenience could have taken place, from the fact that it would take some weeks to fit the clothing to the men. That the Secretary of State was not aware that any blame attached to any officer in any department. That steps were now being taken to reorganize the clothing system, which would no doubt obviate any further complaints.