MILITIA EQUIPMENT. (Hansard, 15 March 1900)

§ LORD BLYTHSWOOD
My Lords, I beg to call the attention of the Secretary of State for War to the fact that Militia regiments have been sent to South Africa with old belts and equipment which has proved useless; and to ask whether new equipment should not at once be served out to these regiments. I trust my noble friend will not think for a moment that I hold him responsible, for the Militia equipment has been old for a very long period. I am confident that, had he been able, the noble Marquess would have seen that the Militia battalions were equipped as well as any of the soldiers of Her Majesty the Queen. Still, it is a matter of great importance. The equipment of the battalion which I commanded was old when it was sent to us fifteen years ago, and the names of the regiments who had worn it were upon it. It was quite obsolete, for we did not get it till another equipment was served out to the British 898 Army. When this battalion got to South Africa the men proceeded to scrub the equipment in order to get of the pipe-clay, and the buckles and everything else tumbled off at the same time. They were ordered to go to the Orange River the day after landing, and had to leave with their equipment all tied up with string and falling off their backs. Since then they have had to travel considerable distances, and I am sure the noble Marquess will not consider that their condition was one in which any battalion at the front should be placed.

§ *THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE
My Lords, I was somewhat at a loss, from the terms of my noble friend's question, to know what was the character of the complaint he intended to make. He speaks of Militia regiments having been sent to South Africa with old belts and with an equipment which has proved useless. Now, if the noble Lord suggests by that that Militia battalions have been sent out with worn-out and unserviceable equipment, I beg to tell him that he has been misinformed. If, on the other hand, he suggests that their equipment has been of older design than that which is issued to the greater part of the rest of the army, then he is perfectly right. The equipment of the Militia is an equipment of older date than that which the greater part of the Army possesses. It is not, however, the case that the equipment now in the hands of the Militia is not also in the hands of part of the Army. Part of the troops in India, the garrison artillery, the Army Ordnance Corps, and the Army Service Corps have, I believe, the same equipment as that now in the hands of the Militia, and, although the Militia equipment is of older pattern than that of the Army it is by no means a prehistoric equipment, nor, to the best of my belief, an unserviceable one. The new equipment has gradually been substituted for the old one in the greater part of the Army, and I hope in due time the new equipment will be given to the Militia as well as to the rest of the Army. But I have to add this, that if at the present time any part of the Militia equipment is in an unserviceable condition, it is the commanding officers of the Militia who are to blame for its being in such condition. It is clearly laid down in the Militia regulations that it is the duty of every commanding officer to see that the equipment of his 899 battalion is in a proper and serviceable state, and if he finds that any part of it is not in such a state it is his business to apply to the proper department for the substitution of articles necessary to make good the wear and tear of the equipment. If that has not been done the fault does not lie with the War Office, but with officers who have failed to perform duties clearly imposed upon them by the Militia regulations.

§ LORD BLYTHSWOOD
I should like to tell the noble Marquess that, during the twenty years I was in command of the battalion, I reported almost every year that the equipment was unserviceable in many ways, and seldom got an answer.