QUESTION. (Hansard, 3 March 1873)

§ THE DUKE OF RICHMOND,

in asking the Under Secretary of State for War the Question which stood in his name in reference to commissions in the Army, said, it would be in the recollection of their Lordships that when the abolition of purchase was determined upon by Her Majesty's Government, they were informed that new modes of entering the Army would be provided, that men would no longer be able to advance themselves by means of money; but that the avenues to rank in the Army were to be open to all classes of Her Majesty's 1180 subjects. Commissions in the Army, they were assured, were to be given to gentlemen who complied with certain regulations then laid down by the Secretary of State; and a Memorandum was issued respecting first appointments to the Cavalry and Infantry, which stated that commissions in the Army without purchase and without competition would be given to University candidates who had passed certain examinations therein set forth; and further that gentlemen who had held commissions in the Militia for a period of two years and received certificates of competency in drill from their colonels would also receive direct commissions in the Army without competition. Under these circumstances, those who stood in the position to which he had referred looked forward with considerable and natural anxiety to the first nominations to commissions issued from the War Office. Their disappointment might be imagined when they found from the Memorandum issued last month that they were virtually excluded from the advantage which they had been led to expect, inasmuch as the appointments in question were thrown open to general competition. He happened to know a case in which a gentleman had qualified himself in every point by having passed an examination at the University, and also by having served the requisite period with the Militia, and by having received a certificate of competency from his commanding officer. He was therefore doubly qualified; but when he sent in his application for a commission, the answer he received was that there were no commissions to be issued to gentlemen in his position, and he was told he might compete as one out of several hundreds for one of about 80 vacancies, several of which were in West Indian regiments. He would therefore ask his noble Friend the Under Secretary of State for the War Department, with reference to Paragraphs 22, 23, and 24 of the Memorandum respecting first appointments to the Cavalry and Infantry—except from General Orders 52. and 65. of 1872—What steps have been taken to enable gentlemen who had taken the required Degrees at the University, or who, being in the Militia, have conformed to sub-sections a, b, and c of Paragraph 25, to obtain commissions in the Army?