LORD WYNFORDI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for War if he will explain the apparent discrepancy between the statement of his predecessor on 1st April last as to the annual cost of the Territorial Field Artillery and the cost of the same as shown on page 5 of the "Approximate Estimate of the Proposed Territorial Force" [Cd. 3296.] I should explain that the annual cost, as stated in the Answer to your Lordships'. House, was £350,000, whereas the Approxmate Estimate shows it to be something over £600,000.
LORD LUCASThe reason of that is, in the first place, that since the first Estimate, contained in Command Paper 3,296, was made, the establishment of the battalions of the Territorial Army have been reduced, from 6-gun to 4-gun, and that alone accounts for a considerable reduction. In the second place, there was issued subsequently, another paper dealing with the same question, and headed "Additional Estimate of the cost of the Territorial Force," Command Paper, 3369. In that there was a Memorandum by Mr. Haldane, in which he states that the Estimate was made on the war establishments. His intention in framing that Estimate was to let Members of Parliament know quite clearly exactly what was the maximum amount of expenditure which the country might be called on to incur in regard to the Territorial Force; and he, himself, in this Memorandum says that the number of horses provided for in the original Estimate is largely in excess of any possible requirements in peace time, even on manœuvre scale. That was estimated on the war establishment of 6-gun batteries, whereas now the actual establishment for training batteries is on a lower scale altogether, and is included in the Army Order of 18th March.
§ House adjourned at five minute s before Eight o'clock, till To-morrow, half-past Ten o'clock.