§ LORD LAMINGTONMy Lords, I beg to ask His Majesty's Government why cadets under training at a school who have applied for commissions in a particular unit should be posted to another unit or units without reference to the officer commanding who approved of their applications to join his unit, and whose nomination had been sanctioned and forwarded by the Territorial Force Association to the War Office.
§ THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (THE EARL OF DERBY)I have made it my business to inquire about these cadets. I find that they were good horsemen, and that this was a moment when officers were badly wanted for the Cavalry. These cadets expressed a wish to go to the Cavalry, and therefore it was considered that in the interests of the Service they should be allowed to go. I quite sympathise with the noble Lord. I am myself chairman of a Territorial Association, and I know how very desirable it is, if possible, to keep for the Association the cadets who are sent up through the Association, but in cases like this I think the noble Lord will agree that the country must come first, and if these cadets are urgently required for Cavalry regiments, they must be allowed, if they volunteer to do so, to go to them.
§ LORD LAMINGTONI cannot see why these cadets, who had been under training and were admittedly good horsemen, should have been allowed, to go to a Cavalry regiment. There are plenty of officers, 712 good horsemen, who have been undergoing training for a year and a-half in the 2nd Line Yeomanry regiments. Almost every one of these officers wants to go to the Cavalry, but this has been refused because these regiments are short of officers. These men had been a trouble to get. They had been nominated by the Territorial Association, and I consider that they were part of our regiments although they had been sent to the school for training. I submit that there is no reason why the War Office should step in and allow them to be diverted to another unit when they properly belong to the regiment which they had originally selected. If there is a case for allowing the officers in question to go to a Cavalry regiment, every officer in the 2nd Line Yeomanry ought to be allowed to go. They all want to go, but one has to refuse them because there are no other officers. I do not consider the answer which the noble Earl has given at all satisfactory. Certainly it is very unfair on those who have been to the trouble of getting these officers to allow them, simply because they wish to go, to be diverted to another unit. Will the noble Earl represent that point to the authorities?
§ THE EARL OF DERBYI will represent it, certainly.
§ LORD LAMINGTONBut will he do something to get us officers?
§ THE EARL OF DERBYI cannot attempt for one minute to interfere with the military authorities when they take a step which they think right in the interests of the Army as a whole.