§ LORD STRATHNAIRNrose to call attention to a Paper in the form of a Circular issued at the Post Offices, purporting to have the authority of the War Office, inviting young men to enlist under the promise of great advantages, one of which was pension after 21 years' 816 service. He had hitherto been of opinion that by this Circular the whole object of the legislation of the late and present War Office was to evade the granting of pensions, and yet young men were now invited to enlist on the prospect of a pension. If that were not the fact, he thought he should not be doing wrong if he described the Circular as vague and misleading.
THE EARL OF MORLEY, in reply, said, that the Circular had been issued by the War Office, and he did not see anything singular in it. The paragraph about pensions to which the noble and gallant Lord had referred merely laid down what had always been, and still continued to be, the regulation—namely, that soldiers who had served 21 years should be entitled to a pension.
§ LORD STRATHNAIRNsaid, that the War Office ought to state the conditions precisely. It would appear, from the isolated words of the Circular, that any soldier might obtain a pension.
THE EARL OF MORLEYsaid, that the noble and gallant Lord could not have read the Circular, which showed that only non-commissioned officers and soldiers who re-engaged under the special terms for 21 years' service would be entitled to a pension. The second paragraph gave all the information that was wanted.
§ House adjourned at a quarter past Four o'clock, till To-morrow, One o'clock.