§ * THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEMy Lords, I have to ask your Lordships to read the first time a Bill to amend the Military Manœuvres Act, 1897, and to give further facilities for rifle and artillery practice. We desire to amend the Act of 1897 in one or two particulars 1454 where experience has shown us that the machinery of the Act is needlessly complicated and cumbrous. The Manœuvres Commission appointed under the Act of 1897 called our attention to some of these difficulties, and we think the time has come for removing them. The principal provisions of the Bill are these: Under the Act of 1897 we are not permitted to schedule the same land more than once in five years, even though it is not used. The Bill proposes that the same land may be scheduled a second time within the five years if it was not used on the first occasion. Again, the Act of 1897 requires that six months notice shall be given to the local authorities. The length of that notice has been found very inconvenient. It means giving notice for the August manœuvres at a time when the financial arrangements of the year are not very far advanced, and when you scarcely know whether or not manœuvres will be held. We propose in this Bill to substitute three for six months notice. Then we propose an increase in the numbers of the Manœuvres Commission, retaining, of course, the same proportion between the representative and the nominated members. The numbers laid down by the Act of 1897 have been found to give a body rather too small for convenience. A new power is also given with regard to the closing of roads. Under the Act of 1897 a road or footpath may be closed for forty-eight hours upon an order from two justices of the peace, and county main or parish roads may be closed for twelve hours upon an order from two justices sitting in petty sessions of the division through which the road passes; and in the case of those roads—the more important roads— seven days notice must be given in the local newspapers. Where the road to be closed is a much frequented road, and is to be closed for so long a period as twelve hours or forty-eight hours, precautions of this kind are no doubt indispensable; but we think they are excessive when they stand in the way of a comparatively brief interruption of the traffic for military purposes. We propose, therefore, that power shall be given to the officer in command of the troops to close a road for not more than two hours in any one day without the notice required for closing a road for a longer period under the Act of 1897. I 1455 believe this change will, upon the whole, be for the public convenience as well as for that of the troops. I believe it will be more for the public convenience that when troops are traversing the country the traffic should be altogether interrupted for an hour or two than that an effort should be made to pass the troops through at a time when the road is still being made use of for purposes of civil traffic. These brief interruptions of the traffic which we propose are, I think, somewhat analogous to those temporary interferences with the traffic of the streets with which we are so familiar upon great public occasions in the metropolis, when we see policemen, for a few moments together, arresting the stream in order that when it flows again it may flow with facility and without interruption. I am afraid we may be told that we are placing the officer in command of the troops in a position which might enable him to interfere with the doctor on his way to a patient, or with the clergyman on his way to the church. But in these matters I think we may safely trust to the discretion of the officers placed in charge of those military operations. The Bill contains another provision which is of considerable importance, and which is quite distinct from those provisions which have reference to ordinary military manœuvres. We propose to take power to use certain scheduled areas during twenty days in the year, and for not more than five consecutive days, for artillery and rifle fire. It is provided that suitable notice shall be given of the intention to make use of the areas, and that compensation shall be paid to those whose interests may suffer. The areas which we have scheduled—we have distinguished between areas for rifle fire, and areas both for rifle and artillery fire— are mostly moorland, and not thickly inhabited, and we believe that the use of these areas will be of very great advantage for the training of our troops. Our soldiers are sometimes reproached with a want of resource and of power to adapt their tactics to the country in which they are operating. But that is hardly matter for surprise, seeing that all their instruction and training takes place in areas and at rifle and artillery ranges with every yard and feature of which they are perfectly familiar. Maps of the scheduled areas will be exhibited, and I will take care that they are placed in a 1456 position where your Lordships can inspect them. The areas selected for rifle fire are, one at Woolmer in the Alder-shot district; one at Cannock Chase; one in the neighbourhood of Lewes; and a fourth in the New Forest. The areas which may be used both for rifle and artillery practice are Dartmoor; three places in Ireland—one in the Morne Mountains, the other at Kilworth, and a third at a place called Glen Imaal; and there is a fifth area in North Wales called Trawsfynydd in Merionethshire. I believe that if these powers are given to us they will be of very great service in the training of our troops. I trust, therefore, that the Bill will receive the favourable consideration of your Lordships.
§ Bill road la; and to be printed; (No. 104.)