§ *THE DUKE OF BEDFORDI beg to ask the noble Marquess the Secretary of State for War if it is the case that Milita recruits have been sent to South Africa 897 without having previously gone through a recruit's course of musketry.
§ *THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEMy Lords, it is the case that some Militiamen have gone to South Africa who have not gone through the recruit's course of musketry. The recruit's course of musketry can, as the noble Duke knows, be gone through at any time during a man's first year of service, and it was thought that of all the men who had not gone through the course were left behind the result would be that the Militia battalions would be deprived of the services of a number of men who, in point of age and in other respects, were quite fit to go out with their battalions. I may remind the noble Duke that these Militia battalions are intended to do duty on the lines of communication in South Africa under conditions which will, it is expected, give them ample opportunity of going through practice in musketry. It may also, perhaps, interest him to know that on board every transport which is taking out Militia battalions a certain number of rounds of ammunition are supplied for the purpose of musketry practice on board, and I am bound to say that if a man learns to hit the mark at all under such trying circumstances he probably would become a deadly shot by the time he reached his destination in South Africa.