§ LORD LAMINGTONMy Lords, I rise to ask His Majesty's Government why certain second line Yeomanry regiments whose members attested and signed the foreign service obligation as Yeomen have been ordered to become cyclists, presumably for home defence. This Question was put on the Notice Paper very hurriedly, otherwise I am sure there would have been a number of other colonels of Yeomanry regiments and noble Lords interested in the Yeomanry who would have wished to take part in this debate.
I think it will be generally agreed that the position of Yeomanry regiments is not satisfactory at the present time. You have in them as fine a body of men as is to be found in His Majesty's Army. The second line Yeomanry regiments to which my Question is directed have been in training now for quite a year, perhaps longer. They have been in the first place doing mounted work and are thoroughly trained in equitation; and for the most part they have been engaged lately in dismounted practice. After all this training, notice was received last week that their horses are going to be taken away and the Yeomen are to have cycles instead. No inquiry was made as to whether it was a movement which would find favour with the regiments. This is quite a different procedure from that which was adopted last year with the Cavalry Reserve. They were first approached as to whether any of the men would volunteer to join Infantry regiments. A sufficient number, I understand, was not obtained, and therefore the Government brought in legislation by which these Cavalrymen were compulsorily drafted into Infantry regiments. But in the instance of the Yeomanry nothing at all was done, as far as I am aware; certainly not in my case. I simply received a copy of this order that the horses would be taken away and the men were to ride cycles. This is a vast change, a far greater change than telling a Cavalryman that he had to go on foot, and it seriously affects both the officers and men.
462 The grievance felt is this. These men have been over a year in training, mounted and dismounted, and presumably, therefore, are fit to go abroad. They have been medically examined time after time, as though they were going to serve abroad; and now they are suddenly told that they are to have cycles. Presumably they are to be used simply for coast defence, and that is breaking the hearts of these men. They enlisted for the purpose of serving abroad, and this is therefore a very disappointing condition in which to find themselves. There may be very good reason for the change. The men recognise, of course, that they have to obey orders. But what seems to me extraordinary is this. Our first line in Egypt are so weak that they and the Ayrshire Yeomanry constitute between them only one weak regiment. Why not draft these men to fill up the ranks of their first line regiment? That, one would have thought, would be the most natural process. One hears week by week that men who have been at the Front for a long period come home and after a time are then passed as fit when they are not really fit, and those men are sent out again, in many cases unwillingly, owing to the military exigencies. Why not send these Yeomanry regiments out, and let the men who have "done their bit" at the Front guard the coasts? These Yeomen who are fully trained should relieve those who have been engaged in the strain and stress of modern warfare. That is the real object of my Question. There is in my regiment a feeling of intense disappointment at being relegated to home defence and not being able to take their share in the arduous and dangerous work that lies abroad.
LORD WOLVERTONMy Lords, as a regimental officer of the second line Yeomanry I rise to support the remarks that have been made by my noble friend who has just sat down. Yesterday I found myself in the position of having to hand over my horses to a colonel who had been sent down to take them away. I believe your Lordships think very sympathetically of the Yeomanry, and I am sure that in anything I say you will consider that I am not going too far. But what is one to think of the action which has been taken and to which my noble friend has referred when one picks up the evening paper and reads this —"Charged with a yell. How the Dorset Yeomanry routed the Senussi." 463 I do not complain, but I want to hold a brief for the men. May I therefore detain your Lordships for a moment on this very important question?
Consider what these second line regiments are. When the war broke out there were the first line regiments only. It was determined by the War Office to raise reserve regiments. Officers like myself who are commonly called "dug-outs," joined these second line regiments. My regiment was embodied on October 14, 1914. We sent out drafts for our first line regiment, which has served with great gallantry in France and has been three times thanked by Lord French. We then formed ourselves into actual regiments. We enjoyed the hospitality of the noble Marquess opposite (Lord Lansdowne), who saw us through our period of training. He will remember perfectly well that at that time it was determined to make us into a second line regiment, and that a third was to be formed behind to find drafts for the first regiment which was abroad. That gave us a great feeling of hope. We were inspected by General Campbell, who I understand reported very favourably upon us, and we became a unit. What pleased us more than anything else was the next movement the War Office took. They made us all sign on for Imperial Service, which most of us did. The men and officers who did not do so had to leave that regiment and go to provisional regiments that were formed on the coast That is the history of the second line.
The men themselves certainly joined with the idea that they were to see some active service. They have been now for over fourteen months in England, moved about from place to place. They have no idea what they are going to do now; and the crux of the Question of my noble friend is that they are to become cyclists, presumably for home defence. We should like to know if that is so, because of the disappointment among the men whom we have trained. In my opinion, in fact in the opinion of many Generals who know the second line, these men are magnificent specimens of humanity. They have been taught to ride. The actual fact of teaching them to ride takes up three months of one's time—and now they are to be turned into cyclists! The second line would serve His Majesty on crutches and they will serve him on cycles, but I hope when my noble friend opposite answers this Question he will be able to do it in a 464 sympathetic manner to the second line Yeomanry.
LORD SANDHURSTMy Lords, I am sure that every noble Lord in the House, whether he has served or serves now in the Yeomanry, shares equally with the two noble Lords who have just addressed us the feeling of admiration for the Yeomanry and the services they have rendered to the country. We have fresh in our minds that specific instance of which Lord Wolverton spoke. The value of the first line of Yeomanry has been often proved. We know the value and promise of the second line, and we all recognise the patriotism and readiness with which the older officers have retaken their places in those regiments. Every one will, of course, enter into the disinclination of the trooper to give up his horse in exchange for a cycle. The cycle is very useful, but it is a sorry exchange for the troop horse. I have always understood that owing to the trooper feeding his horse and his constant attendance on it there is a feeling between the trooper and the horse more close than between any other man and his horse. But almost from day to day we have seen changes of service made and sacrifices asked for and invariably acquiesced in with patriotic cheerfulness.
My noble friend Lord Lamington asks a specific question—namely, why certain second line Yeomanry regiments whose members attested and signed the foreign service obligation as Yeomen have been ordered to become cyclists, presumably for home defence. The change does not in any way deny foreign service to those men who have attested and signed for foreign service, if and when opportunity arises. The turning of certain second line Yeomanry regiments into cyclists is dictated by military requirements, and has been ordered with the object of using the units in question in the manner best suited to the needs of the moment.
§ LORD LAMINGTONI hope the noble Lord will make representation to the War Office that these men are fit and anxious to go abroad. It is not a question of not caring about the cycles. Their feeling is simply that they are going to be left at home and will not be able to do any real active service for their country. I do not know what the opinion of the authorities is as to a raid or an invasion of this island, but here is this fine body of men who think they are going to be left out in the 465 cold. We have our first line in Egypt dismounted. They are depleted in their ranks. Why not let these men go out to them, or even to some other depleted units nearer than Egypt? I hope that my noble friend will recommend that in the proper quarter.
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEMy Lords, my sympathies in this discussion are entirely with the two noble Lords on the other side of the House, and I am glad to bear witness to the fact that during the last summer and autumn I had the pleasure of constantly seeing the brigade to which my noble friend Lord Wolverton's regiment belongs, and any one who went week after week as I did and saw the pains which officers and men were taking to qualify themselves as Cavalry soldiers can well realise what a bitter pill it must be to them to find themselves condemned to what Lord Beaconsfield would call the "mechanical mediocrity" of a bicycle. Of course, in war these sacrifices have occasionally to be required; and we are all familiar with instances in which some of the most distinguished Cavalry regiments in the Service have been taken away from their horses and made to do duty through long weeks and months in the trenches. But these sacrifices are submitted to simply because of the general conviction that they are required, and that they would not be imposed by the military authorities if it were not for the exigences of the Service. I merely rose to assure my noble friends that what has been said by them to-night—and I am sure it expresses the general feeling amongst the Yeomanry—shall certainly be represented to the War Office by my noble friend (Lord Sandhurst) and myself.