VISCOUNT ENFIELDasked the Under Secretary of State for War, Whether he can state the reasons why Latin and Greek have been withdrawn from the voluntary educational course at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich; and whether the Lieutenant Governor of the Royal Military Academy has expressed his strong dissent from this alteration?
THE EARL OF MORLEY, in reply, said, it was perfectly true that the Lieutenant Governor of the Royal Military Academy had expressed his dissent, as stated in the Question. It was necessary to explain that this change had nothing at all to do with the examination for admission to the Royal Military Academy, but only affected the course of study pursued there, and the final examination. It appeared to the Secretary of State for War that these subjects were not strictly useful professionally to the soldier. At Woolwich all the obligatory subjects of study were subjects bearing directly on the student's profession. He quite agreed 810 that it would be extremely undesirable to discourage classics at the entrance examination; but he thought it was, at the same time, undesirable that the study should be continued when once a young man was in the Academy. The course at the Academy had been reduced from two and a-half years to two years, and in these two years a great deal of technical and professional work had to be learnt; and he thought it very desirable that that time should be spent on technical subjects, or, at any rate, on subjects that would be of direct advantage to a young man in his military career.
§ In reply to Viscount HARDINGE,