§ Colonel WARDEasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether an order has been issued to the effect that all Arsenal and dockyard employés who are enrolled in the Volunteer Training Corps are to resign their membership; and, if so, whether, as all necessary drill and instruction can be carried out in the evenings, and do not therefore as a rule interfere with their work, he will explain the necessity of such an order; and whether, seeing that this force is the only one in which Government employés can obtain the necessary instruction that would enable 1160W them to give their services if required in Home defence, he will reconsider and, if possible, cancel the order referred to?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAInstructions have been issued that applications to join the Volunteer Training Corps are to be dealt with in the same manner as applications to join the Regular or Territorial Army. These instructions were issued not on the ground that drill and instruction would necessarily interfere with the discharge of official duties, but because, under the War Office rules for recognition of Volunteer Training Corps, membership of the corps involves a contingent liability for service with the Regular or Territorial Army, which only those who could really be spared for such service should be permitted to undertake. It is not considered desirable that the instructions should be cancelled.