§ LORD MONCREIFF rose to ask the War Office why the Scottish regiments are no longer to be provided with a tartan kilt; and whether, if for military or other reasons the tartan is no longer to be supplied, they will guarantee that the shape of the new garment will be that of a kilt and made on the traditional lines in every respect.
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, I have been asked to put this Question by one of the Scottish Societies because there is some dissatisfaction amongst certain Scottish regiments in consequence of their being deprived of their historical tartan kilt. First of all, I should like to know the reason why they cannot be supplied with the tartan. I saw it stated the other day that it was through lack of material, but I have strong reason to believe that if inquiries were made amongst Scottish manufacturers it would be found that they could supply as much cloth as is required. The other point is that the new garment is not a kilt and can under no circumstances be called a kilt. I do not wish to occupy your Lordships' time by describing the difference between a kilt as it ought to be made and the kilt as it is made in this new garment, but I believe the effect is that instead of looking like a kilt it looks much more like an abbreviated lady's hobble-skirt. As many of your Lordships doubtless know, the kilt when properly made is one of the warmest of all garments that could possibly be worn, but if you deprive a kilt of its characteristic aspect, as the War Office has clone, I should think it was the most useless garment that could be 412 worn, at any rate under modern war conditions in winter time. I believe I am right in saying that the kilt of the Gordon High-landers takes ten yards of cloth to make; this new garment is being made with about five yards. Therefore I should like to ask the Question which I have put on the Paper.
LORD LUCASMy Lords, the position about the kilts is this. The provision of these new drab-coloured kilts is a purely temporary measure, and is only being done because we cannot get the tartan made in time. I can assure the noble Lord that the War Office has done everything it could to obtain the tartan, but to get it in sufficient quantities has been impossible. Therefore they have had to resort to this drab tartan as a temporary and emergency measure to meet the situation. As to what constitutes a kilt, that is a highly technical question on which no two members of different clans will be brought to agree. I believe that in the making of a kilt every clan has a special way, and the kilts made for each regiment are properly made because they have their own regimental tailor who knows exactly how many pleats to put in, and so on. The majority of those tailors have gone to the Front, and I doubt whether there are enough of those expert kilt-makers in Scotland at the moment who know how each particular regiment should have its kilt made. Also, as they have this universal colour there is a great advantage from the point of view of maintaining stocks and having an available supply; it is a further advantage that they should have a standard pattern. I know that what has been done will not satisfy the outraged feelings of a particular Highlander who finds that he has pot enough pleats in his kilt or anything of that sort; but that is a matter on which the War Office is unable to assist him. The noble Lord's other point was that the kilt is not being made in a way sufficiently to protect a man, especially in winter. I will ask the War Office to look into that matter.