INFANTRY OFFICERS' CHARGERS. (Hansard, 26 May 1908)

§ LORD ROSMEAD

My Lords, I rise to ask the Under-Secretary of State for War whether His Majesty's Government 912 will take into consideration the advisability of amending the present regulations with regard to forage as they apply to mounted officers of Infantry, so that an Infantry mounted officer may be enabled to draw forage for a horse his own property, provided such horse comes within the qualifications of an Infantry officer's charger, instead of procuring or hiring a horse from the Government Remount Establishment, as is the case at present. I do not wish to detract from the advantage it has been to mounted officers of all branches of the service to obtain horses from the Remount Establishment, such horses being used for general purposes on payment of so much per annum; but I ask His Majesty's Government to go one step further and allow mounted officers who have horses of their own to draw forage for those horses instead of having to procure or hire horses, as at present, from the Remount Establishment. A mounted officer in an Infantry Battalion may be in possession of a horse which is easy to get on and off, quiet under fire, and in every way qualified as a charger. Yet, according to the regulations, this officer is not allowed to draw forage for his horse, but has to obtain one from the Remount Establishment. I also understand that the horses provided by the Remount Establishment do not always give satisfaction. In the first place, a horse may not be up to the weight of the officer for whom it is provided; in the second place, the horses are not always fully broken in. This is a very small matter, and one which would involve little, if any, expense to the public. I therefore trust that I shall receive a satisfactory answer from the Under-Secretary.