§ THE DUKE OF BEDFORDMy Lords, I rise to ask the Under-Secretary of State for War if he will lay on the Table of the House a Return showing: 1. The number of recruits enlisted in Great Britain for the Special Reserve, for the Engineer:, Artillery, and Infantry respectively, between 15th January and 15th May, 1908; 2. The number of recruits enlisted for all arms of the Militia in Great Britain between 15th January and 15th May, 1907; 3. The number of recruits enlisted respectively for the Special Reserve Artillery and Infantry in Ireland between 15th January and 15th May, 1908; 4. 16 The number of recruits enlisted for the Militia in Ireland, Artillery, and Infantry respectively, between 15th January and 15th May, 1907; 5. The number of Special Reserve recruits drilling at each depot in the United Kingdom on 1st May, 1908, and the number of separate squads at each depot into which it was necessary to divide such recruits for the purposes of instruction on that date; 6. The number of Special Reserve recruits up to Army standard now serving in the Special Reserve; 7. The number of Militia officers belonging to Militia battalions who do not train this year who have been transferred to the Special Reserve; 8. The number of men belonging to Militia battalions who do not train this year who have elected: (1) To join the Special Reserve; (2) To remain as Militiamen till time-expired; (3) To take a free discharge.
THE UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE FOR WAR (Lord Lucas)My Lords, I have no objection to giving the noble Duke most of the information he asks for. There are, however, two of the Questions on which I am afraid it is not possible to give information, Question 6, for instance, would involve the special medical examination of every Special Reserve recruit at the various depots, and I do not think it would serve any purpose to give instructions that such should be carried out. I should also like to point out that our recruiting returns are weekly—i.e., from Saturday to Saturday—and if the noble Duke, instead of asking for a return from a particular date to the corresponding date of the following mouth, would be satisfied with the four weeks nearest the dates mentioned in his Question it would enormously facilitate the preparation of the Return. There is one other point regarding Question 7. No Militia officers have yet been transferred to the Special Reserve. The conversion of the 101 Militia battalions into Reserve battalions does not take place until after the annual training this year, and the number of officers of the other twenty-three battalions who may accept the conditions of transfer to the new battalions laid down in Paragraph 72 of the Army Order of 23rd December can obviously not be estimated until after 17 individuals have notified their decisions at the termination of the annual training. I understand that all Militia officers, except lieutenant-colonels, have an opportunity of training this year even though their old battalions do not come up for training.
§ House adjourned at ten minutes before Five o'clock, till To-morrow, half-past Ten o'clock.