MR. KENDAL O'BRIEN: I beg to convenience occasioned to the county of ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord- Galway by the operation of the existing Lieutenant of Ireland if he can say limitations; and at what date he hopes to whether the inspector of the Estates succeed in passing his Bill into law. Commissioners has yet reported in the case of Phillip McDonnell, evicted tenant on the property of Admiral Sir Edward Poe, in the parish of Grange, Gortnahoe, near Thurles, in the county of Tipperary; if so, what is the nature of the report; and whether the Commissioners have yet taken any steps to bring about his rein statement. MR. BIRRELL: The Estates Commissioners inform me that they have received the report of their inspector on this case and will consider it in due course. These reports are confidential documents prepared for the use of the Commissioners. River Feale Fishing Season. MR. O'SHAUGHNESSY: I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the LordLieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the fishery department of the Agricultural Board have not for some years opened the fishing season in the upper waters of the River Feale, near Abbeyfeale, in the county of Limerick, until the 1st May, thereby causing dissatisfaction amongst anglers of the district at this action in destroying sport; and whether he will take steps to see that the fishing season there is opened at an early date. MR. BIRRELL: I am not informed as to the facts of this particular case, but I am aware that it is considered that alterations of the close season are desirable in several cases. The power to hold inquiries on the question of changing close seasons is vested in the Department of Agriculture, but pending an alteration of the law, they cannot resume holding these inquiries, which have been suspended for some years. The question of introducing legislation on this subject is under my consideration, but I am not in a position to announce a decision. Galway Ferries. MR. BIRRELL: The question of introducing into the proposed Bill such a clause as the hon. Member desires is under consideration. I am aware that the Galway County Council are desirous of obtaining power to provide and work a ferry over Lough Corrib. I hope to introduce the Bill referred to at an early date, but its progress will, of course, depend upon the state of public business generally. Irish Police Reports. MR. FELL: I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will ascertain whether any instructions or suggestions, verbal or written, have been given to the Royal Irish Constabulary to the effect that they are to discontinue sending to the Chief Secretary full reports of boycotting, intimidation, and other disorders; and whether he can give an assurance that the receipt of such full reports from district inspectors and others will be welcomed by him. MR. BIRRELL: The suggestion contained in the first part of this Question is entirely without foundation. Reports of the nature referred to are made to me as of course when occasion arises; but the hon. Member can hardly expect me to say that I welcome the receipt of such reports. MR. J. MACVEAGH: Will the right hon. Gentleman suggest to the Home Secretary that he ask the Chief Constable of Great Yarmouth for a report on all cases of bribery and corruption occurring in that borough? [No Answer was returned.] Dublin Technical College. MR. C. MACVEIGH (Donegal, E.): MR. GWYNN (Galway): I beg to ask I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieu- Lord-Lieutenant of ireland whether his tenant of Ireland whether the proposed attention has been called to a resolution Bill for extending the county council's of the Donegal County Council, protestpowers of raising and expending money ing against the Technical College in will include a clause enabling them to Dublin being built with imported stone; establish and maintain ferries; whether whether proposals are being made to his attention has been called to the in- build the superstructure with Portland MR. SYDNEY BUXTON: That is Of course the opinions of any Colony on not in my Department. any question will receive attention. MR. LONSDALE asked robbery of mails at Macroom. as to a SIR EDWARD SASSOON: May I ask whether our representative at the Conference will be instructed to keep an *MR. SPEAKER: Notice should be open mind on the subject? given of the Question. † See (4) Debates, clxiv., 565. VOL. CLXX. [FOURTH SERIES.] SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN : Our representative at the Conferen.o C will, I suppose, be the Secretary of State Mr. Crombie be added.-(Sir Willim for the Colonies, and he will, no doubt, Brampton Gurdon.) be fully acquainted with the opinions and feeling of the Government on the subject. MR. R. DUNCAN (Lanarkshire, Govan) asked whether the Prime Minister was aware that it had been indicated to the House that the Government did not go into the Conference with their mind open, and whether they might take it that the door was at least ajar on this subject. SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN: I do not think there can be any doubt as to the general opinions on this subject of His Majesty's Government. Small Holdings Bill. MR. CORRIE GRANT (Warwickshire, Rugby) I beg to ask the Prime Minister when the Small Holdings Bill, promised in His Majesty's gracious Speech, will be introduced; and whether it will be first introduced in this House or elsewhere. SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN: No, Sir, it is too early for me to give my hon. friend any information about this Bill, which I expect will be introduced in this House. The Wreck of the "Berlin." MR. T. L. CORBETT (Down, N.): I beg to ask the Prime Minister whether the name of Captain Sperling will be included in the list of those whom the Government intend to recognise in connection with the "Berlin" disaster. SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN: Certainly, Sir, of course. When I used the phrase "lifeboat crews" I was quoting from a document which was written before the gallant action of Captain Sperling was known, at any rate in any detail, in this country. All who have taken part in the work of rescue will be recognised. SELECTION. Ordered, That Mr. Eugene Wason be discharged from the Committee and that NEW BILLS. PROBATION OF OFFENDERS BILL. "To permit the release of Offenders on Probation in certain cases," presented by Mr. Secretary Gladstone; to be read a second time upon Monday next, and to be printed. [Bill 75.] LICENSING (SCOTLAND) AMENDMENT "To provide for the later opening in the morning of premises licensed for the Sale of Excisable Liquors in Scotland," presented by Mr. Findlay; supported by Mr. Cameron Corbett, Mr. Robert Balfour, Mr. Cross, Mr. Gulland, Mr. McCallum, Mr. Sutherland, and Mr. Wilkie; to be read a second time upon Friday 26th April, and to be printed. [Bill 76.] CLERKS OF THE PEACE AND COUNTY "To amend the Law with regard to Clerks of the Peace and Clerks of the County Council," presented by Mr. Luttrell; supported by Sir John Kennaway, Sir Francis Channing, Colonel Kenyon-Slaney, and Sir Walter Foster; to be read a second time upon Monday next, and to be printed. [Bill 77.] JUSTICES OF THE PEACE BILL. "To amend the Law in regard to the appointment of Justices of the Peace," presented by Mr. Luttrell; supported by Sir Francis Channing, Sir Walter Foster, Mr. Corrie Grant, Sir William Brampton Gurdon, and Mr. A. Edward Dunn; to be read a second time upon Monday next, and to be printed. [Bill 78.] SPURIOUS SPORTS BILL. "To prohibit the hunting, coursing, and shooting of animals kept in confinement," presented by Mr. Luttrell; supported by Mr. Corrie Grant, Mr. George Greenwood, Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, and Mr. Cameron Corbett; to be read a second time upon Monday next, and to be printed. [Bill 79.] SUPPLY. Considered in Committee. (In the Committee.) worse army that would cost less. What we wanted was a better Army at a cheaper price. He proposed on that occasion to apply that test and ask seriatim these questions. Was the [Mr. EMMOTT (Oldham) in the Chair.] Army proposed by the right hon. Gentle ARMY ESTIMATES, 1907-S. Motion made, and Question proposed, "That a number of Land Forces, not exceeding 190,000, all ranks, be maintained for the service of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at Home and Abroad, excluding His Majesty's Indian Possessions, during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1908." was man better and was it cheaper in respect of three things? Was it better suited to meet our normal exigencies in time of peace, was it better suited to meet the exigencies in the first phase of a great war, and was it better suited to meet the exigencies of the succeeding stages of a great war? Let them deal with the normal exigencies of peace. The question he wished to ask was this: Under the right hon. Gentleman's scheme MR. WYNDHAM (Dover) said that would the regular Army of white troops hon. Members had had the best part of serving with the colours in times of two days to think over the notable speech peace-he was not talking of the delivered by the Secretary of State for Reserves, of the special contingent, but War on Monday, to read it in cold print, of the white soldiers serving with the and to study the various memoranda with colours-would they be better and which he had supplemented that ample cheaper? He thought it was hardly but not too ample statement. Those who possible that it would be better or much had devoted the interim to that purpose cheaper so long as the right hon. would agree with him that they must Gentleman retained the "truncated advance somewhat cautiously along the Cardwellian" system. It was not for road which the right hon. Gentle him to criticise that system nor man had traced out for them. They it any part of his duty to suggest must take all military precautions, and alternatives to the plan. The right hon. they must reconnoitre the ground which Gentleman had not given the Cardwellian the right hon. Gentleman had Gentleman had in system that complete trial which should vited them to occupy. He would abstain be given to any theory before any final at that stage from dealing with the opinion was pronounced upon it. The multiplicity of detail embraced in the right hon. Gentleman was having a right hon. Gentleman's proposals. He battalion at home to correspond with one doubted whether a far more prolonged abroad in theory but not in practice. period of consideration than they had had He noticed that, while retaining a full would fit the House to pronounce a system of linked battalions, the right hon. judgment upon the details of military Gentleman was driven like all his prestrategy and the economics of military decessors to expedients. He had been administration which were contained in driven to send a battalion of Guards to these vast and ample proposals. But Egypt which had nothing to do with the the House was qualified to act as the normal exigencies of peace. He had been guardians of the safety of the Empire and driven, whilst abolishing eight battalions the guardians of the public purse. It stationed abroad, so to increase the numwas in that capacity he asked hou. Mem- bers in the battalions left abroad, that the bers to approach the whole scheme. abolition did very little to relieve the They knew what was wanted. We strain upon the battalions stationed wanted an Army suited to the needs of this at home. Of the regular white Army, Empire, which were unlike the military the right hon. Gentleman had effected needs of any other country, and we a reduction of only of only some 10,000 wanted it at a price we could afford to men and a reduction of only 1,300 pay. It must be a price which would not white men serving with the colours arrest our development in peace or abroad. Therefore, under his new scheme, depress our credit in time of war. that part of this Army was not better, Many people could give us a better but a little worse off. Was that going to Army which would cost more, and any make the Army appreciably cheaper? The one could, he supposed, give us right hon. Gentleman speaking on Monday a last had said that £250,000 of his reduction was due to the reduction in the line battalions which took place last summer-less than £250,00 of the £2,000,000 of which they had heard so much. THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (Mr. HALDANE, Haddington): Less than £500,000. MR. WYNDHAM said the right hon Gentleman had stated that the rest of the surplus was due to the fact that this was a soldiers' budget. It turned out that by a "soldiers' budget" the right hon. Gentleman meant a budget in which the soldiers had discontinued a practice which they observed last year. He had said that soldiers were in the habit of loading the Estimates by putting in larger sums for particular services than, as a matter of fact, were really required, in the hope that they would eventually get whatever was necessary. That might have been the right hon. Gentleman's experience, but it was not his own. It was the practi e before the appointment of the Committee on which the late Lord Randolph Randolph Churchill played so remarkable a part, but his own experience was that the system had fallen into desuetude, and if it had come into fashion again to such an extent that it accounted for this enormous reduction he could only assume that the soldiers were a little more afraid of this Government than they were of the last. But the Army was not going to cost £2,000,000 less; as a matter of fact the service during the past year had not cost nearly so much as the right hon. Gentleman had told them it would cost. In this reduction of £2,000,000, no argu ment was to be found for believing that the new policy of the right hon. Gentle man was cheaper than the scheme which preceded it. MR. HALDANE: If the right hon. Gentleman will take the automatic increases of the last two years he will find they will just wipe out the savings of unspent money. MR. WYNDHAM said there always had been and always would be automatic increases. He could not remember Army Estimates without automatic increases. Mr. Wyndham. They could only look to the reduction and trace that reduction to its origin. When they had done this, they then found that it was not due to any change in plan with regard to this part of the Army, but to a decrease of expenditure on transports and remounts, under Vote 6; supplies, clothing, and horses under Vote 7; general stores under Vote 8, and armaments under Vote 9. A reduction of £1,601,000 could be traced to these four Votes. He was not attacking the right hon. Gentleman, but he was only trying to trace the origin of these reductions. The statement made by the right hon. Gentleman on Monday evening and repeated to-day that only less than £500,000 sterling of this reduction could by traced to the reduction of the personnel was in apparent conflict with the statement in the memorandum published with the Estimates. The right hon. Gentle man in his memorandum stated that the reduction of cost due to reducing the personnel amounted to over £1,000,000. The Estimates showed that £1,600,000 more was due to the depletion of stores, and under Votes 6, 7, 8, and 9. However reasonable the right hon. Gentleman's schemes for the future might be, the House of Commons was specially charged with looking into the Estimates and deriving its information from the Estimates. Until the right hon. Gentleman could show that the changes he proposed to make in the Regular Army would give us in this and succeeding years any real substantial reduction, it was justifiable to say that this part of the Army which provided the garrisons for India and the Colonies was not better, but rather worse, and was not appreciably cheaper. It was not much cheaper, but was it any better? Was it any better for finding reliefs for the battalions abroad? Where were we to find relief for the regiments abroad with only seventy battalions at home? The right hon. Gentleman would be faced with the old familiar difficulty of in the scheme likely to attract recruits. finding these drafts, for there was nothing Under the new scheme the right hon. Gentleman was going to knock thirty men off every battalion at home. That was directly contrary to the advice which was tendered to the late Government. MR. HALDANE: It is the establishment we have reduced-not the men. The three years system will leave us |