THE TERRITORIAL FORCE. (Hansard, 6 February 1913)

§ THE DUKE OF BEDFORD
My Lords, I beg to ask the noble Lord who represents the War Office the Questions standing on the Paper in my name—viz.:

LORD HERSCHELL
My Lords, may I before answering the noble Duke's Questions venture to make yet one further appeal to him. On the last occasion on which he addressed your Lordships' House he gave his reasons for not being able to accept the invitation extended to him by the noble and learned Viscount on the Woolsack to come to the War Office. He said— My reason is that wish to remain absolutely without knowledge of the secrets of mobilisation. I cannot help feeling that the noble Duke has, perhaps, painted a picture in his mind of himself decoyed into some remote portion of the War Office building and there forcibly detained while masses of mobilisation secrets are poured into his unwilling ear. I can assure him that this picture is quite imaginary, and that if he did see his way to come to the War Office all that would happen would be that he would get information of a much more complete and satisfactory character than it is possible to give across the floor of your Lordships' House. I would therefore venture once more to urge the noble Duke to reconsider his decision, in his own interests and also perhaps in the interests of your Lordships, who I feel must be rather weary of listening to the avalanches of figures which pour from time to time across the floor of your Lordships' House. And also I would appeal to him in the interests of the public, and for this reason. When a large number of Questions are asked and when the answers to those Questions contain a large number of figures, it is inevitable that the report of the proceedings in your Lordships' House which appears in the daily Press is of a very condensed and abridged description. It is equally inevitable that, in the course of condensing these questions and answers, a certain number of errors, some perhaps of a minor kind but others of serious importance, creep into the report. I think the noble Duke himself realises this, because frequently after a discussion in this House he writes a 879 letter to the Press in which he emphasises his point of view. He did so on the last occasion, and in his letter then he wrote— I would therefore ask you to publish the figures as they appear on the Paper of the House, so that the whole and not merely the half of the case may be before the public. I entirely sympathise with the noble Duke, and I also am very anxious that the whole and not merely the half of the case should be before the public. I would therefore venture once more to make this appeal to him, and if he does reconsider his decision in this matter I can only say that as far as I am concerned I shall be only too happy to render him any possible assistance.
I now turn to the Questions on the Paper, and I may say with regard to them that as the only musketry returns which we have are calculated up to the end of the musketry year, which is September 30, I shall have to give the figures to October 1, except where otherwise specified. The number of recruits who have been tested in musketry during the musketry year is 53,783, and the number not tested 6,997. I cannot give the information asked for in the next Question, because the only figures which we have are a combination of sub-paragraphs (2) and (3) of Paragraph 361 of the Territorial Force Regulations—that is to say, "qualified by attendance." The number qualified by attendance is 11,717. The number of recruits who have qualified in the whole recruit course is 40,581; the number who have failed to qualify is 13,202; the number who did not complete the course is 6,997. The recruits' course and the trained men's course are not allowed to be fired in the same musketry year. Consequently the men who are shown in my answer to paragraph (a) of this Question will be eligible to fire as trained men in the musketry year 1912–13. I will take first of all paragraph (f) before I take paragraph (e) of the noble Duke's Question. The recruits' standard test cannot be fired on a 30-yards range; it is carried out on 100, 200, and 500-yards ranges respectively. The information asked for in paragraph (e) is not available. We have no information, because unless the recruits pass the standard test the only information which we subsequently have is of the number of recruits who are sent up by the commanding officers as having qualified in accordance with sub-paragraphs (2) or (3) of Paragraph 361 of the Territorial Force Regulations. The number of trained men tested is 124,015. Of these, 112,929 qualified in the standard test, and 11,086 880 failed to qualify. 5,251 did not complete the course. Here, again, with regard to paragraphs (d) and (e) in the noble Duke's Question, the answers are really the same as to paragraphs (e) and (f) in the preceding Question. The trained men's standard test cannot be fired on a 30-yards range, but must be carried out on 100, 200, and 500 yards ranges respectively. We have no information as to paragraph (d).
Next the noble Duke asks for the number of trained men who did not fire the standard test. The number is 5,251. The number of men qualified in accordance with the Territorial Force Regulations, Paragraph 361, sub-paragraphs (2) and (3), was—Recruits, 11,717; trained men, 10,193; total, 21,910. I fear we have no information available in reply to the next Question. Indeed, it would be a very difficult Question to answer—that is to say, the information would be very difficult to get because it would necessitate an enormous amount of clerical work and sending round to all commanding officers. The reply to the next Question is—Establishment, 78,655; strength, 65,646. The establishment of officers of the Territorial Army is 11,242, and the strength 9,294. These last figures I may say are exclusive of the 717 Royal Army Medical Corps officers of general hospitals and sanitary service only available on mobilisation, and 1,087 officers of the Officers Training Corps and officers on the unattached list. Officers are included in the figures which I have given in regard to recruits and trained men respectively, and we have no return showing them separately.
The only qualifying rifle courses for the Territorial Force held at the School of Musketry, Hythe, during 1912 were advanced courses. These courses are for selected officers who have previously qualified at a local course of musketry. Qualification entitles an officer to the symbol "H" after his name in the Army List. 35 officers attended; I failed. The following numbers of officers attended qualifying maxim gun courses—Yeomanry, 4; Infantry, 15. Of these, 1 Yeomanry and 2 Infantry officers failed to qualify, whilst 1 Yeomanry officer remained for 14 days only and was not examined. The following numbers of officers attended refresher courses—Refresher rifle courses: Yeomanry, 2; Infantry, 29. Refresher maxim courses: Yeomanry, 2; Infantry, 5. In addition to the above, 256 officers attended local courses of musketry in commands; of 881 these, 12 failed to qualify. 6 Yeomanry and 30 Infantry non-commissioned officers attended the qualifying rifle course, and 4 Yeomanry and 9 infantry non-commissioned officers attended qualifying maxim gun courses. 2 non-commissioned officers of the Yeomanry and 13 of the Infantry failed to qualify at the rifle course, and 1 Yeomanry and 1 Infantry failed in the maxim gun course. The following numbers of non-commissioned officers atsended refresher courses—Refresher rifle courses; Yeomanry, 2; Infantry, 8. Refresher maxim course: Infantry, 4; Yeomanry, nil. In addition to the above 58 noncommissioned officers attended local courses of musketry in commands. Non-commissioned officers are not examined at these local courses.
The strength of the Territorial Force Reserve in non-commissioned officers and men on January 1, 1913, was 884. The dumber of officers, non-commissioned officers and men in the Territorial Force who are under obligation to serve abroad on mobilisation is—Officers, 1,152; non-commissioned officers and men, 18,903. The number who re-engaged for one year between January 1, 1912, and January 1, 1013, was 31,518. With regard to the next Question, I am afraid the number is not available. The Force was four years old on April 1 last year, and between that date and January 1 of this year 2,752 men re-engaged for a four years term. The total number re-engaged for a four years term for the whole year ended January 1, 1913, was 4,769, and as men may re-engage before the expiration of their current engagement probably many of those re-engaging between January 1, 1912, and April 1, 1912, were men who were due to complete four years after April 1, 1912. The number of officers and men in the National Reserve under fiftyfive years of age is 157,605. There is no intention of mobilising the National Reserve as such, and therefore no general percentage of men unfit on mobilisation can be calculated.

§ VISCOUNT MIDLETON
In view of the debate on Monday next I should like to ask whether the noble Lord would be able to circulate these interesting figures before that debate comes on.

LORD HERSCHELL
I am not sure whether I could undertake that the figures could be circulated before Monday morning next, but I will do my best to comply with the noble Viscount's request.