THE EARL OP GALLOWAYrose to move that an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that the conditions under which militiamen were induced to enrol in the Militia Reserve 1844 Force during the years 1868, 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872 may not be annulled retrospectively as proposed by paragraph 1, clause 38, of the Auxiliary and Reserve Forces Circular, dated War Office, 21st April, 1873; but that the operation of this clause shall commence only from the date of its issue. The noble Lord the Under Secretary for War had, on the 13th of June, been asked a Question by his noble Friend (the Marquess of Exeter), respecting the amount of bounty which was refused to men of the Militia Reserve who enlisted in 1868, and whose term of service did not expire till after the training of 1873; and he (the Earl of Galloway) must say that the answer the noble Lord gave in return to the Question was anything but satisfactory. He thought, indeed, that something like a breach of faith—unintentional, no doubt—had been committed by the War Office towards the men who had enlisted in the Militia Reserve. In 1868, it was thought advisable to establish a new military force called the Militia Reserve. The conditions of entering it were that an ordinary militiaman who met with the approval of his commanding officer, and who had been two years in the force, might be enrolled in the Militia Reserve, whereby he became available for drafting into any regular regiment during his five years in the event of either actual or imminent declaration of war. The point in dispute was the amount of emolument this man became entitled to after enrolment in the Reserve. The original Order was issued on the 9th of May, 1868; and that was followed by an explanatory Memorandum on the 23rd of April, 1869. He maintained the meaning of the original Memorandum was the man should be paid £1 on attestation, and £1 at the close of every subsequent training during his Reserve engagement; but in the explanatory Memorandum the second "£1" was omitted. But without this the Memorandum had no meaning whatever. The understanding these men believed to have been come to with them was that they should receive £1 on entering and £1 a-year for each of the five successive yearly trainings which they agreed to serve. In 1868, they were enlisted, and would consequently be entitled to £6 in 1873. Hitherto the men had received their £1 every year; but on the 23rd of of April in the present year an Order 1845 was issued from the War Office stating that to preclude misunderstandings as to the Militia Reserve bounty, the Militia Reserve man was only entitled to receive for his five years' service a total of £5. The men would not understand this as a performance of the engagement made with them. It must be remembered that ordinary Militiamen made many sacrifices in entering the Reserve force. In the first place, at the end of four years' service he received £1 6s.; he got on being enrolled 15s., which made £2 1s. Added to this he generally got a free gift and the price of his kit, which made altogether about £6. He contended that under all the circumstances of the case the decision of the War Office was a breach of faith, and he hoped it was not yet too late to rectify it. It might be followed by very serious consequences. For example, the regiment which he had the honour of commanding, assembled last week, but the number of men absent amounted to at least 40 per cent. He would have to join in the course of the following week, and what was he to do? He was told by a high military authority that he ought to arrest and punish those who absented themselves as so many deserters; but how was he to accomplish that? In the first place, the police did not display any great energy in arresting deserters from the Militia, because they did not now receive any reward for exercising that part of their duty, and he feared that in many cases they sympathized with the offenders. There were already many grievances alleged, and if this one were added he thought this old constitutional force would dwindle away to a considerable extent.
Moved that an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that the conditions under which militiamen were induced to enrol in the Militia Reserve Force during the years 1868, 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872 may not be annulled retrospectively, as proposed by paragraph 1, clause 38, of the Auxiliary and Reserve Forces Circular, dated War Office, 21st April 1873, but that the operation of this clause shall commence only from the date of its issue.—(The Earl of Galloway.)
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEsaid, the difficulty, in so far as it had practically arisen, was limited to those Militia Reserve men who engaged in 1868, and whose engagement expired this year. After the conversation which took place some time ago he had com- 1846 municated with his noble Friend opposite, and had also referred to the documents. The question was under what contract did those men engage. The terms of their engagement were to be found in the Act of 1867, and in the Regulation of 1868, which was signed by Sir John Pakington. When he gave his answer to the noble Marquess (the Marquess of Exeter) at that time, he believed that the engagement was for a service of five years in consideration of a payment of £5. He still believed that this was intended, and he should not despair of bringing forward a good technical argument for refusing the sixth £1 to those men who had only five trainings. But this was not a case for such technical arguments. The Government were dealing with an important force, whose education as a rule was not very high, and any appearance of bad faith was to be avoided. Acting under this view, he had laid the documents before the Lord Chancellor, and begged him to advise him what was the contract apparent upon the face of the papers, regardless of technical construction. The noble and learned Lord had advised him that its obvious interpretation did not exclude the payment of a sixth £1 to those men who had engaged in 1868 on account of the training of 1873. They would therefore receive the sixth £1, not as a matter of right, but because Her Majesty's Government thought that if there was a doubt as to interpretation that doubt should be ruled in their favour. As a consequence, all the Militia Reserve men similarly circumstanced, and who engaged after 1868, but before the issue of the Circular of 1873, would get their sixth £1 if their fifth training was held within the period of their engagement. This difficulty would, he trusted, not arise in the case of future engagements, because a Bill was now in progress whereby Her Majesty's Government proposed to extend the service in the Militia Reserve from five to six years, with a bounty of £6—£1 for each year's liability.
THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCHexpressed his great satisfaction at hearing the statement of the noble Marquess, because there was great dissatisfaction among these men when they were told they were not to receive the bounty this year. Whatever might be the noble Marquess's estimation of the education 1847 of those men, they were at all events shrewd enough to form a judgment as to their rights.
§ Motion (by leave of the House) withdrawn.