MILITARY HANDBOOK: EDJ^D BY MAJ.- GEN, c, B. brackemdj:;. ♦.Z v^ i y.-'- ■*> •^ .;; ^^ -r/,.^- REESE LI^'RA-i^V , % ; OF THK UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Receive J' zAccessions hlo.'^^f'^^ Class No. Digitized by tine Internet Arcinive in 2007 witin funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.arcliive.org/details/elementsofmilitaOObuxtrich MILITARY HANDBOOKS FOR OFFICERS AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS VOL. IV. MILITARY ADMINISTRATION PART I. MILITARY HANDBOOKS FOR OFFICERS AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS. Volumes already puhlisJied :— I. MILITARY SKETCHING AND RECONNAISSANCE. By Colonel F. J. Hutchison and Major H. G. MacGrkgor. Fourth Edition. With 15 Plates. Small 8vo. cloth, 4^. THE ELEMENTS OP MODERN TACTICS PRACTI- CALLY APPLIED TO ENGLISH FORMATIONS. By Lieut.-Col. Wilkinson Shaw. Fourth Edition. With 25 Plates and Maps. Small crown 8vo. cloth, 9*. in. FIELD ARTILLERY: its Equipment, Organisation, and Tactics. By Major Sisson C. Pratt, R.A. With 12 Plates. Small 8vo. cloth, 6*. London : Keqan Paul, Trench, & Co., 1 Paternoster Square. THE ELEMENTS OP MILITARY ADMINISTRATION FIRST PART PERMANENT SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION BY MAJOR ,T. W. BUXTON ROYAL INNISKILLING FUSILIERS GA.RRISON INSTRUCTOR, NORTHERN DISTRICT BEING THE FOURTH VOLUME OF Plitatg|anl>to0ks fwriffims i '§m-€mmmt)i iffiars EDITED BY COLONEL C. B, BRACKENBURY, R.A. LATE SUPERINTENDING OFFICER OF GARRISON INSTRUCTION , V Of TM JL A londonXC^O?^ KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO.. 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1883 sy^'^sy {The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved) '' er rue ^ EDITOR'S PEEFACE. This volume has cost the author the labour of several years. There are few :a^ho- could have written it, and few will care to master its details completely. But its general scope, and the lesson it conveys^ will, it is to be hoped, be understood without difficulty by all who take any interest in the Army. Hitherto, there has been no comprehensive book giving the chief details of English Military Administra- tion. An attempt was once made to have such a volume prepared in a Department whose business it was to ac- quire and diffuse information. The various offices were consulted, and the answer was that it was impossible, for everything was in a ' state of transition.' Why was Military Administration in a state of transition then 1 Why has it been in that state ever since 1 And why is it so now 1 The answer is contained in the present volume. English Military Administration was, is, and will ever be in a state of transition until a new departure is taken. VI EDITOR S PREFACE. because the whole system is faulty from the root. Details may be altered, perhaps slightly improved, but well- founded complaints will never cease till we can dig up by the roots that system of centralisation, the faults of which we recognise in other countries, but cannot per- ceive in our own. We strain at our neighbour's gnat, and swallow, without winking, our own camel. It would be unfair to the author to anticipate in a Preface the ciiticisms which he utters, or the conclusions to which he comes. Suffice it to say that these latter are such as must be reached, in almost logical deduction, by any student, if he approach the subject with a fresh mind, and a desire to construct a system with the promise of work in it. In every campaign, however small, there comes a breakdown in Administration somewhere. Then arise throughout the country cries of disappointment and of wrath against those who administer the * system.' Some unfortunate official is gibbeted, usually because he has not accepted responsibility and acted for himself. That is to say, he has not, at perhaps fifty years of age, suddenly cast behind him every tradition of his department, every habit to which he has been carefully trained, and, in the midst of new and arduous tasks, constructed for himself a new theory of duty and a new set of regulations, at the risk of censure for his rashness. Is this fair 1 We tie up in tight folds, during peace, the limbs of our minor officials, heedless of their cries, and the absurdity of our doings. When war comes the bands- are suddenly cast off, and we say * Go and administer before the enemy.' It EDITOR S PREFACE. Vll is monstrous to abuse our officials afterwards if their muscles turn out to be feeble, and they hobble like Chinese women. Thus it must ever be till the management of the army is taken up as a matter of pressing business by the bulk of the nation. For what Minister of a political party, which may go out to-morrow, will ever dare to undertake so great a task, except under compulsion 1 The spirit revolts against the idea that, as has happened to other nations, we shall only be moved by a catastrophe and consequent humiliation. Yet that is the half-uttered belief of soldiers, most of whom feel that something, they know not what, is wrong, and grope about blindly for the cause of all our troubles'? Long service, short service, reserves — these are but details. We must dig deeper. Students for examinations and members of Parlia- ment will find the body of this volume a storehouse of facts and rules, also of many useless forms. The general reader will, perhaps, be content with the first and last chapters, which are admirably bold and clear. The author has in many places used the expression * corps of troops.' This is a French phrase, and means what we awkwardly call * battalions, batteries, regiments, and corps ' ; in other words, the usual smaller organised bodies as distinct from Staff and Departments. The best and heartiest wish of the Editor is that this volume may soon become obsolete, by a thorough change of Administration ; and that our grandsons, taking it down from the dustiest shelves of the library, may ex- claim, 'Was this state of things ever possible?' The Vlll EDITORS PREFACE. question is not one for party conflict. Conservatives may remind themselves that the terrible centralisation which exists is a plant of modern growth. Radicals should regard it as a Upas tree to be cut down. Moderate men will recognise that it is not * business.' C. B. BRACKENBURY, Colonel, R.A. Waltham Abbey : July 1883. CONTENTS OF THE FIEST PAET. PAGE CHAP. I. INTRODUCTORY 1 CH4P. II. THE WAR OFFICE AND CENTRAL AD- MINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT. . . 11 I. The Military Department .... 13 i. Military Secretary Division ... 14 ii. Adjutant-Grenerars Division ... 14 Reo'uiting .15 iii. Quarter-Master- General's Division . 30 iv. Inspector- General of Artillery's Division 33 V. Military Education Division ... 33 vi. Chaplain-General's Division . .35 vii. Medical Division 35 viii. Veterinary Division 36 II. The Ordnance Department .... 36 i. Directorship of Supplies and Transport . 37 ii. Directorship of Artillery and Stores 40 Manufacturing Estahlishments ... 42 The Ordnance Store Department and its various Establishments .... 43 iii. Directorship of Clothing .... 45 iv. Directorship of Works .... 46 V. Directorship of Army Contracts 53 III. The Financial Department .... 57 X CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART. PAGE CHAP. III. DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION .... 68 I. Adjutant-General's Division in the Dis- trict 76 II. Quarter-Master-General's Division in the District 76 III. Musketry in the District .... 80 IV. Garrison Instruction 81 V. Royal Artillery Department within the District 82 VI. Royal Engineer Department 'within the District 85 VII. The Commissariat and Transport Depart- ment IN the District 101 i. Commercial Duties 103 11. Manufacturing Duties .107 iii. Duties connected with Charge, Beceipt, and Issue 107 Supplies 107 Barracks 115 Expense Stores 124 Transport ....... 147 VIII. The Ordnance Store Department in the District 152 Personnel and Establishments . .152 Charge, Beceipt, and issue of Stores 153 Store Accounts, Documents, &c. 178 Bemarks 188 IX. The Pay Department in the District . 193 General Duties 193 District Paymaster's Accounts . 206 Bemarks 210 X. The Medical Department in the District 214 General Bemarks 214 i. Sanitation .218 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART. XI PAGE ii. Charge and interior Economy of Hos- pitals 220 Station Hospitals 221 Non-dieted Hospitals 233 Hospitals for Women and Children . . 234 iii. Miscellaneous Duties .235 Recruiting 235 Invaliding 237 Miscellaneous Garrison Duties . . . 238 CHAP. IV. REGIMENTAL ADMINISTRATION . . . 239 General Bemarks 239 I. Service of Soldiers 244 i. Transfer 245 ii. Passage to the Reserve .... 250 iii. Reversion to Army Service from the First Class Army Reserve . . . . 254 iv. Extension of Army Service . . .254 V. Re-engagement 257 vi. Continuance in the Service beyond 21 Years 259 vii. Compulsory Prolongation of Service . 260 viii. Continuance of Service by Special Agree- ment 261 ix. Death 261 X. Discharge 262 Ordinary Discharge 263 Special Discharge 277 II. Remounting, casting Horses, etc. . . . 283 III. Clothing and Necessaries .... 290 General Remarks 290 Demand and Supply of Clothing and Necessaries generally . . .293 Clothing 304 Necessaries 318 Books, Accounts, &c 325 General 325 Xii CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART, PAGE Accounts special to Clothing . . . 326 Accounts special to Necessaries . . , 332 Consolidated Clothing and Necessaries Ac- count ....... 334 Cash Accounts Respecting Clothing and Necessaries 338 Returns 341 IV. Equipment 342 Supply, Charge, and Return of Equip- ment Stores 342 Books, Accounts, &c 368 V. CoifSUMABLE Supplies 374 i. Provisions, Messing, and Liquor . .^74 General Remarks 374 Rations 385 Messes and extra -Messing .... 393 Liquor 405 ii. Forage 414 iii. Paillasse Straw 417 iv. Fuel and Light 420 VI. Quarters 429 General Remarks 429 Permanent Quarters 431 Temporary Quarters 450 VII. Travelling and Transport . . . .453 VIII. Regimental Finance 469 Public Disbursements . . .469 Fay 470 Deferred Pay 475 Good Conduct Pay . . • . . .477 Extra-Duty Pay 480 IVorking Pay 483 Prizes for Skill at Arms .... 486 Rewards for Valour, Meritorious Services, §*c. 487 Colonial Allowance to Officers . . . 487 Serva7its^ Allowance 487 Allowances in respect of Clothing . . . 488 CONTENTS OF THE FIKST PAET. Xlll PAGE Allowanced in respect of Subsistence . . 489 Forage Allowance 490 Allowance in lieu of Fuel and Light . . 491 Lodging Allowance 492 Allowances connected with Travelling . . 492 Indemnification for Losses .... 496 Allowances to Corps, S^c 496 Charges against Corps and Individuals . 498 Troop and Company Accounts . . . 506 Begimental Paymaster's Duties and Accounts 524 CHAP. V. CONCLUSION OF THE FIRST PART , . 586 USIVEK8IT1 THE ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION AS PRACTISED IN THE BRITISH ARMY. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. That Armies exist for the purpose of fighting the battles of States, and that an Army which should be unable to wage war would be worthless, are truths which we may pre- sume to be admitted by all. Yet, before troops can even be held together in peace time, or said to form an Army, how many things must be done ! And before this Army is fit to take the field, how many more wants must be foreseen and necessities, certain, probable, or even possible, provided for! First of all, the Army must be raised ; it must then be fed and clothed and be provided with lodging, with fuel, with light, and many other requirements ; its health must be attended to ; it must be equipped with arms and all things necessary for fighting purposes ; then means must be provided for carrying the Army from place to place ; it will also require money both in the form of pay and for many other purposes. Lastly, it is not enough that the Army should simply exist in health ; it must, if it is to be of any use, be maintained in order. 2 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. The system by which an Army is brought into existence, is supplied with all things needful for living and fighting, and is maintained in a state of discipline, is called * Military Administration.' Clearly, then, the matters with which Administration deals are quite distinct from the tactical work of the Army and from that of its technical training. The primary organization of every Army is tactical ; and, rightly enough, we determine the numbers, the size and the subdivision of the various bodies of troops by reasons drawn from the use of these troops against the enemy. But while Tactics dictates the form of the organization, which is, from its standing-point, important. Administration, which is not so particular about the form of the organization, takes up that dictated by Tactics and adapts the system by which it works to suit the organization. In short, tactical reasons decide the division of the Army into certain bodies ; the system of Administration is then fitted to suit this division. In the organization of Armies we have a series of bodies of troops ranging downwards from great to small. Such are : army-corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions, companies, &c. All these are tactical units, but they are all turned to account more or less for administrative purposes ; and, therefore, wherever they exist, they become adminis- trative as well as tactical bodies. However, in the chain of tactical units, those which are of the greatest importance tactically are sometimes those which are of the least promi- nence administratively ; and vice versa. In the fullest meaning of the term. Administration may be said to include the great question of Disciplhie. The ad- ministration of Military Law and of disciplinary regulations is, however, in itself a large subject, and is more closely connected with the duties of combatant officers than any other part of Military Administration. Therefore, we shall leave the question of Discipline out of the number of those which are here dealt with. Neither is it contemplated to discuss Military Education, which will be only very briefly touched upon. Moreover, the limits of this book will not INTRODUCTORY. 3 allow us to contemplate in detail the special Administration of the Auxiliary Forces. Thus, Administration, in the more restricted sense of the word in which it will here be discussed, may be defined as the system by which the Regular Army is kept provided with men, with horses, with all the materials and machinery for the healthy existence and housing of men and beasts, with all the articles needful for the performance of military duties, with means of transport, and with money — consequently it ranges over the following subjects : — Recruiting and service of soldiers. Remount service. Provision of barracks and buildings for the lodging of men and beasts. Construction and maintenance of defensive works, &c. Provision of food for men and beasts. Provision of fuel and light, and of various minor neces- sary domestic materials and services. Provision of barrack furniture, utensils, &c. Provision and management of transport. Provision of clothing. Provision of arms and ammunition. Provision of accoutrements, harness, &c. Provision of tools, instruments, and the immense variety of stores of all kinds for the equipment, use, in- struction, or even amusement, of the troops. Management of the sick and provision of medicines. Veterinary service. Military finance. The purposes of Administration call into existence an or- ganized personnel whose business it is to attend to the wants of the Army. A large portion of this personnel is purely administrative ; but, as will be seen hereafter, combatant ofiicers are also utilized to a considerable extent for ad- ministrative purposes. We have said that the organization for administrative purposes coincides in the main with that for tactical ends. The nearer the two can be identified, theJjNS^terjwniije^both Irx^ t>f rut '^ I UHIVEBSITl ■ 4 ELEMENTS OF MILITAEY xVDMINISTRATIOX. the administrative and the tactical efficiency. Unfortunately, this working towards both ends through a common channel is less possible in the British Army, organized as it is, than with any Continental one. Our administrative organization is hampered, not so much by the fact that our Army is raised by Voluntary Enlistment, as that Foreign Service is the peculiar characteristic of our military system and that the troops are frequently moved from one station to another ; so that we are prevented from forming any greater permanent units than battalions of Infantrj^, regiments of Cavalry and batteries of Artillery. Larger bodies than these will not fit into our system of periodical foreign reliefs. By that feature in our system we are precluded from forming the permanent brigades, divisions, and army-corps, which the principal countries of the Continent maintain, localized in time of peace in districts allotted to each. Obviously, the manufacture, the accumulation, and the general management of stores alone necessitate a local organization ; and equally clear it is that the earlier processes of supply cannot, without immense inconvenience, uncertainty, and want of economy, be conducted within our small permanent units. Moreover, certain services (such as those connected with works, build- ings, and lands) are essentially local. Hence, we are com- pelled to resort to a localized organization for administra- tive purposes distinct from, and independent of, the tactical organization of the troops. We utilize our small tactical bodies as far as possible, but the moving system keeps these bodies small : therefore but a small part of Administration can be carried on within these corps : this is the indirect effect of frequent movement of troops. Its direct effect is, that even the small amount of Administration which can be managed within our permanent units is complicated by the fact that regimental administrators are one day in relation with one set of superior administrators and the next with a totally different and previously unknown set. Under this state of things the administrative machinery of a corps may be likened to a twig perpetually being torn out of one tree to be grafted into another. INTRODUCTORY. 5 If we examine the contrary system of an Army in which the various battalions, regiments, batteries, &c. , are, even in peace time, combined into permanent localized miits of a larger size, we find that a great amount of administrative work can be performed locally in various parts of the country and within the several bodies of troops, which, with us, must be done, if done at all, by a separate organization. In Prussia, where this system has reached its highest perfection, the complete permanent organization of all tactical units, from the army-corps downwards, allows almost the whole of what may be called the routine work of Administration to be performed in a manner exactly suited to its importance. Thus, trivial matters can be dealt with within the regiment ; matters slightly more important can be managed by brigades ; more weighty matters can be dealt with within the division ; and almost everything else can be done within the army- corps ; so far as mere routine work goes, there remains little to be done by the War Office itself but to control, to audit, and to supervise, the working of the parts. It is clear that the latter system must be prolific in good, both to the State and to the troops. An immense burden of work is lifted oiF the hands of the central War Ministry, while it loses nothing of its power to interpose if aught goes wrong, of which it cannot fail to be informed. A word to a General is sufficient, where with us there must be correspon- dence and cross-correspondence on every trifling matter with a dozen difierent representatives of various departments, and an infinity of War Office arrangements. The troops are benefited in the Prussian system, because, not only what one does for oneself is always better and more economically done than that which others do for one, but also because the very existence and constant working of administrative boards and machinery at every stage of the organization produces skill and self-reliance at every stage. In short, the work is done better, more cheaply and more simply ; administrators are trained as well as soldiers, and habits are formed in peace which are of incalculable value in war. In order to form some idea of the simplicity of Prussian 6 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Administration as regards the supply of clothing and equip- ment, it may be worth mentioning that a Prussian regiment (three battalions) is supplied from above with absolutely nothing but money, arms, cooking-pots and sealed patterns : everything else is manufactured or bought by the regiment itself, even accoutrements and helmets. The result is, that the administrative board of the Prussian corps, thrown on its own resources, utilizes every scrap of part- worn cloth, of old leather and old metals, in patching, mending, and eking out its stock, and in economizing its fund of money. Every Prussian soldier has several suits of clothes, and always one that is brand new. Above all, there is no establishment an- swering to our Pimlico Depot ; no consignments or correspond- ence on clothing or equipment beyond the corps itself. And so for other matters. The permanent residence of the corps in a fixed place alone makes this state of things possible.^ Those, then, who ask why our system of supply is so expensive, so much centralized, and so cumbrous, and why our troops are so little able to shift for themselves, will find that the root of the misfortune lies in the fact that the British is an ever-shifting Army. It would be clearly impossible for a moving British corps to act as the stationary Prussian regi- ment does. "No moving corps can know the resources of a place it sojourns in for a few months ; no such corps could discover the best contractors. Contracts, if made, could only last a short and an uncertain time, and would therefore be expensive contracts. Lastly, no corps would have any place permanently at its disposal where it could bestow any accumulation of stores, and no corps could carry with it the amount of stores which are so economically gathered together in peace time in the magazines of a Prussian regi- ment. If these stores were transferred from corps to corps, no one regiment would care to exercise its thrift for the ^ The nearest approach to a system of complete Regimental Administration known to the British Army is that which prevails in the Indian regiments of Irregular Cavalry. The plan followed in those corps is, of course, very rudimentary and only suited to India. Still, it embodies some of the advantages. INTRODUCTORY. 7 benefit of others. With us, contracts are made, not with regiments, but with departments ; and the contractors care little how the regiments appreciate their wares so long as the department concerned and War Office are satisfied. As to surplus supplies, or part-worn articles, all that we care for is that there should be enough, or that an article should last its time : after that, it seems to matter little if there be waste, or if so-called * unserviceable ' stores are, irrespective of their value, sold for a song to some contractor — no one feels it : no regiment is either the richer or the poorer ; the loss falls on that which is vaguely spoken of as * the War Office.' Indeed, Administration is a more powerful moral instru- ment within the Army than those outside it seem to suspect. The mutual understanding, confidence, and good feeling be- tween officers and men, hinge far more on their intercourse in their everyday barrack and camp life than on their relations on parade. To be known and trusted is well- nigh as valuable in war as to be skilful. Great commanders have always been great administrators also ; but in the regi- ment and the company, more still than in the greater units, will Administration tell ; because there officers and men are in direct and immediate contact. The more Administration can be made a regimental business, the more the Captain can be made what the Prussians aptly call * the Company Father,' the stronger will be the organization. It is by good Adminis- tration rather than by drill and technical training that dis- cipline is begotten ; and this truth is overlooked by those careless of things military, who see little difference between the Irregular soldier, who lives at home and merely meets his officer on parade, and the Regular soldier, who is not only taught and led by his officer, but who lives at his officer's hands. In every Regular Army, our own included, much of the work of Administration must fall to the share of the regi- mental officer ; but far more is done regimentally in this way on the Continent than in England. The plan according to which the British Army is adminis- tered is so different, so much more complicated, and so much more expensive than those followed by Continental nations, 8 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. that it is necessary thus to explain the main reason for the diversity. We have chosen that our bodies of troops should be organized with a view to continual motion ; while Adminis- tration must be organized locally. Hence the divorce be- tween the two organizations in the British Army. But, further, it is to be noticed that when an Army is in the field, its Administration must perforce correspond in its organization with that of the troops for tactical purposes. The administrative system followed on active service must in every country difi"er very much from the more elaborate system proper to times of peace. When an Army takes the field, the administrative services must be cut down to those strictly necessary. These few must be done simply and done well. On the other hand, times of peace are times of preparation ; and it would be very wrong, even if it were possible, to reduce Administration in peace time to the level it must occupy in war. Not only is it impos- sible to treat the Army as if it were always campaigning, but there are many administrative services belonging to the permanent state of things which have no place in the field Administration whatever. Thus, in all countries, the system of Administration laid down for the ordinary times of peace is a very diflferent and far more elaborate one than that used during war ; but the difference between the two is enormously greater in England than in any other State. On the Continent, where they have permanently army-corps, divisions, and brigades, with an administrative mechanism adapted to each, there are, indeed, many changes before the peace system is transformed into that laid dowTi for the field ; but at least the bodies of troops are there, and the adminis- trative personnel, experienced in the wants of troops, is also present ; with us, not only have brigades, divisions, army- corps, to be themselves made up whenever a campaign is imminent, but even then we have for the first time to collect from a distinct organization, our local administrative organi- zation, a new personnel which is to be worked, not according to the only system known in peace time — the local system independent of corps^but according to the only plan which INTRODUCTORY. 9 is suitable for war, to wit, by an organization corresponding to the tactical bodies. Having said this much on the intricacy of the English system and on the difference, much greater with us than with any Continental nation, Avhich exists between the normal peace organization and that adopted for the administrative services in the field, we may proceed to explain in a sum- mary way, 1st, the permanent system of Administration followed in ordinary times of peace in the British Army, and 2nd, the system adopted for active service ; these two divi- sions of the subject will be treated respectively in the First and Second Parts of this book. FIEST PAET. PERMANENT SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION, CHAPTER II. THE WAR OFFICE AND CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENTS. All military services are centred at the War Office, the seat of fhe War Ministry. Consequently, it is there that we find, not only the chief officers of the executive or technical affairs, but also those at the head of administrative matters. At the head of the War Office, and responsible to Govern- ment for the conduct of all military business, is the Secretary of State for War. He is a Cabinet Minister and therefore is changed with the Ministry. He is not necessarily a military officer. The War Office is primarily divided into a ' Central ' and three subordinate Departments. The Central Department is, properly speaking, not a de- partment ; it is above the other three and is the link com- bining their work and connecting it with the general affairs of the country. Its personnel forms, so to speak, the ' Head Quarter Staff' of the War Office itself, the Secretary of State for War having his office in the Central Department. Moreover, a large establishment like the War Office has a considerable amount of interior business of its own, and all this business is managed in the Central Department. Thus, 12 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. all those things which are for the common use of all the War Office departments, without belonging specially to any one in particular, are regulated by the Central Department ; as, for instance, the War Office Library, the Printing Establishment of the War Office, the general supply of office requisites, the control of the subordinate office services, &c., &c. The personnel of the Central Department under the Secretary of State embraces the Parliamentary and Per- manent Under-Secretaries of State, and the Assistant-Under- Secretary of State. Obviously, the Secretary of State is not the person to be troubled with the interior economy of the War Office. He usually confines himself to supervising, harmonizing, checking and directing the work of the three great departments under him, and in devising the measures by which he means to carry out his policy. The Parliamen- tary Under-Secretary assists the Secretary of State politi- cally ; when the Secretary belongs to the House of Lords, the Under-Secretary usually belongs to the Commons, and vice versa. The Permanent Under-Secretary assists the Secretary by the transaction of all routine business and the general preparation of all work. The interior affairs of the War Office devolve on the Assistant-Under-Secretary, who manages its inner establishments and its personnel of clerks, subordinates, &c. The three great departments of the War Office which divide the whole work of the Army between them are : — I. The Military Department ; II. The Ordnance Department ; III. The Financial Department. The Military Department of the War Office (sometimes styled the ' Horse Guards ') occupies itself chiefly with exe- cutive military business, with discipline, training, and with handling the troops : nevertheless certain portions of Military Administration are conducted within this department. The other two departments are purely administrative in their functions. CENTBAL ADMINISTRATION. 13 I. The Military Department. The head of this department of the War Office is the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief. The administrative work done by it extends over the following subjects : — 1. Kecruiting and Service of Soldiers ; 2. Remount Service ; 3. Medical Service ; 4. Veterinary Service ; 5. Military Education ; 6. Military Chaplain's Service ; 7. Military Law and Discipline. To these subjects may be added certain duties of the Quarter-Master-General's Office which are partly administra- tive ; such are those connected with the movements of troops, their quartering, &c., in carrying out which the Quarter- Master-General is in close relations with administrative departments. The officers who assist the Field Marshal Commanding- in-Chief in the duties of command, and in such administra- tive work as is carried on under the Military Department, and who form his immediate surrounding at the War Office, are collectively called the Head Quarter Staff of the Army. Although only a small part of the duties of the Staff is administrative, yet Staff work being closely connected with Administration, a glance at the constitution of the Head Quarter Staff is almost necessary. Under the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief there are three principal military officers : i. The Military Secretary ; ii. The Adjutant-General ; iii. The Quarter-Master-General. These are always General Officers. To these three may be added certain other officers at the head of independent divisions of the Military Department. These are : iv. The Inspector-General of Artillery ; V. The Director-General of Military Education ; 14 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. vi. The Chaplain-General ; vii. The Director-General of the Army Medical Depart- ment ; viii. The Principal Veterinary Surgeon. We will proceed to notice in turn the several divisions presided over by each of these officers ; in so doing, we shall content ourselves with a few words only on the greater number. L The Military Secretary's Division. The Military Secretary's work is connected with appoint- ments to the Army, with promotion, exchanges and retire- ments of officers, with appointments of officers to the Staff, &c., with confidential reports : in a word, what may be called the personal military aiFairs of individual officers. Two officers of high rank second the Military Secretary as Assistant-Military Secretaries. One of them is specially ap- pointed from the Indian Army to watch over the aifairs of its officers at the Horse Guards ; he is paid by the India Office. ii. The Adjutant-General's Division. The Adjutant-General's office is a very large one and sub- divides into several branches. His principal duties are those connected with command and discipline, and through him the General Orders of the Field Marshal Commanding-in- Chief are issued. Besides the office in which these affairs are managed for the Army generally, there are two minor supplementary offices under the Adjutant-General in which the business special to the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers is trans- acted ; at the head of each of these offices is a Deputy- Adju- tant-General (usually a Colonel). A third supplementary office is that in which a Deputy- Adjutant- General superintends the afiairs of the Auxiliary Forces. In a fourth office of the same kind the ' Commissary- CENTBAL ADMINISTRATION. 15 General at Head Quarters ' (who is virtually the Deputy- Ad- jutant-General of the Commissariat Staff and Commissariat Corps, although not thus designated) presides over the disci- plinary duties of the Commissariat and Transport personnel, arranges its distribution, and advises the Adjutant-General on Commissariat questions. A fifth supplementary ofiice is that of the Inspector- General of Recruiting. In this office the chief administrative work conducted under the Adjutant-General, that connected with recruiting, is carried on. Becruiti'iig, The recruiting of the Army is a matter which may be considered as a function of the Central Administration, inas- much as, although the officers of regiments and corps are utilized in this service, it is independent of Regimental Ad- ministration, and the duties performed are directed and superintended in the name of the Adjutant-General by the Inspector-General of Recruiting. After the recruit has been posted to a corps, his service and discharge become matters of Regimental Administration and will be hereafter discussed under that heading (see p. 244). Part II. of the Army Act, 1881, lays down the law on the subject of enlistment. It gives certain main rules and conditions, which can only be altered by Act of Parliament, and further authorizes the Secretary of State to use his dis- cretion in prescribing minor rules within the limits of the law. Again, the Secretary of State, thus authorized, fixes the terms of enlistment and leaves the detailed arrangements to be prescribed and carried out by the Field Marshal Com- manding-in-Chief, who issues orders on the subject. The executive officer of the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief is the Adjutant-General, and he again is assisted in this part of his work by the Inspector-General of Recruiting. The terms for which men are now enlisted in pursuance of the laws and rules above mentioned are briefly the follow- ing :— 1. All men are enlisted for 12 years. 16 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. 2. The 12 years' enlistment may be either for * long ser- vice 'or 'short service' — i.e. 12 years' Army Service (long service) ; or 12 years divided between the Army and the 1st Class Army Reserve ' (short service). 3. In short service, 7 years are spent in Army Service and 5 in the 1st Class Army Reserve. 4. But, when abroad, a man may be detained as long as 8 years in Army Service ; subsequently passing such time in the 1st Class Army Reserve as remains of the 12 years for which he originally enlisted. 5. A soldier may be allowed to convert his short service enlistment into a long service enlistment under certain rules which apply only to non-commissioned officers and men of good character. 6. A soldier may, under certain conditions, be allowed, after 5 years' Army Service, to pass to the 1st Class Army Re- serve and there complete the 12 years' service for which he enlisted. 7. Non-commissioned officers and men of good character may be allowed to re-engage, after certain fixed periods of service in the Army (9 years in some cases, 11 in others), to complete 21 years' Army Service (Sect. XIX., para. 58, Queen's Regulations). 8. Non-commissioned officers and (in very special cases) * The Resen'-es of the British Army consist of: — 1. The 1st Class Army Reserve, consisting of men who have served not less than three years' Army Service. The men of this force are liable to be recalled to serve in the Regular Army and are liable to serve, in that case, at home or abroad, in case of national danger. They receive 4c?. a day, paid quarterly in arrear, and, at the end of each year, 2d. a day deferred pay. 2. The 2nd Class Army Reserve, consisting of pensioners and men who have served twelve years or more in the Regular Forces. The men are not liable to serve abroad. 3. The Militia Reserve. This force consists of men serving in the Militia Tvho voluntarily enlist in the Reserve for six years, after serving at least two trainings in the Militia. They are liable in case of war to be transferred to the Regular Army. They receive a yearly gratuity of 1/. after each Militia training, over and above the amount to which they are otherwise entitled as Militiamen. CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 17 men of good character may be allowed to continue their Army Service beyond the term of 21 years. 9. A soldier who has passed into the Reserve may be allowed, under special circumstances, to return to Army Service. With respect to long and short service it is laid down by para. 18, Sect. XIX., Queen's Regulations, 1881, that all original enlistments are to be for short service, except those of persons enlisting : — 1. For the Household Cavalry ; 2. As Schoolmasters ; 3. As Armourers ; 4. As Master-Tailors ; 5. As boys ; 6. For Colonial Corps ; 7. For the band of the Royal Military College ; 8. As Artificers in the Ordnance Corps. These exceptions not only may be, but must be enlist- ments for 12 years, or long service. There are other details as to the conditions under which these rules are applied, but the question is too extended for the limited view of Army Administration with which we are here concerned, and the reader is referred to Part II. of the Army Act, and to Section XIX., Queen's Regulations, 1881. Recruits must be between the ages of 19 and 25 years, excepting in the cases of — 1. Boys, who maybe enlisted as such between the ages of 14 and 16 ; 2. Army Hospital Corps recruits, who may be enlisted up to 28 years ; 3. Men whose age cannot be ascertained, who must have the physical equivalents of men of 19 years ; 4. Discharged soldiers, sailors, marines, or Irish Con- stabulary men, who may, if accepted, re-enlist up to the age of 28 years. Recruits must also satisfy the conditions of height and chest-measurement laid down in tables contained in paras. 30 to 35, Sect. XIX., Queen's Regulations, 1881. These measure- I. c 18 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. ments vary according to the age of the recruit and the service for which he enlists or is required. His physical soundness in other respects is carefully tested at his medical examination. Further, recruits must be unmarried. Special authority must be obtained by Approving Officers (for * Approving Officer,' see p. 20) before men of the follow- ing classes can be enlisted. The application is made on Army Form B 203. (a) Men whom it may seem desirable to enlist although they do not fulfil all the prescribed physical conditions ; (h) Married men ; (c) Widowers with children ; (d) Foreigners (the number of foreigners already on the strength of the corps must be stated in the application) ; (e) Men wishing to enlist specially for some corps not open for recruiting and refusing to enlist in any other ; (/) Schoolmasters ; (g) Men for the Corps of Armourers ; (h) Men for the School of Musketry Corps ; (i) Men for the Band Corps of the Royal Military College ; (k) Men for the appointment of master tailor ; (I) Boys in the proportion of 1 per cent, of the rank and file establishment (the consent of a boy's parents is neces- sary). Men may enlist either for general service or for service with some particular regiment or corps. If a man wishes to enlist for some particular regiment and he be accepted, he cannot be transferred out of that regiment against his will, save in certain special cases. ^ If he be enlisted for general 1 1. Conviction of desertion or fraudulent enlistment. 2. When sentenced by court-martial to six months* imprisonment or more for anj*^ offence. 3. If, being on service abroad, his regiment is sent home when he has still two or more years' Army Ser^ace to complete. 4. If, being on home service, his regiment is ordered abroad when he has less than two years' Army Service to complete. CENTRAL ADMINISTEATION. 19 service, he is immediately posted to a corps and, during the first three months of his service in that corps, he is liable to transfer to any other ; but after three months he can only be transferred under the same conditions as would apply if he had enlisted specially for the corps. It is to be observed that although men may be enlisted (by special authority or otherwise, as the case may be) with a view to their becoming schoolmasters, armourers, Ordnance artificers, &c., &c., these men are nevertheless to be enlisted for general service. This enables the authorities to transfer them to other duties in certain cases, should that course become advisable. Certain persons are absolutely ineligible for enlistment, apart from any physical disqualification : — 1. Men discharged by reason of their misconduct, from :^ the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Irish Constabulary. 2. Men discharged in any way from the same forces who (although not discharged because of misconduct) received a bad character on discharge. 3. Men discharged from the same forces as unfit. 4. Men who, at the time they ofier themselves for en- listment, still belong to : — any corps of the Regular Forces, the Navy, the Marines, the Naval Reserve ; 5. Pensioners ; 6. Apprentices ; 7. Ticket-of -leave men. Although the men above mentioned have no right to 5. If, under the last-mentioned circumstances, he is unfit to proceed abroad. 6. When invalided. (See also p. 245.) o2 20 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. enlist, they sometimes do so fraudulently. In this case they are dealt with as stated in Section VI., Queen's Regulations or Section 96 of the Army Act. We now come to the means by which recruiting is carried on. It will be convenient to begin by defining the terms applied to certain persons connected with the work. An Approvitig Officer is a combatant officer who finally approves recruits. The following officers act in this capa- city :— 1. Officers commanding Corps, Battalions, Batteries, Regimental districts. Regimental depots. 2. Any Field Officers who may be specially appointed Approving Officers. Approving Officers must, as a general rule, be Field Officers, but if the officer commanding a regimental depot be of lower rank, he may still act, provided he applies for and obtains special authority to that end. Approving Officers recommend certain officers serving under them for the appointment of Recndting Offix^ers. These are chosen from among Adjutants of -p. ' [ (These act for their own corps) Militia, Volunteers. Staff Officers of Pensioners may also be (and usually are) appointed Recruiting Officers. Officers of the Coast Brigade Royal Artillery are eligible. Recruiting Officers have, as will hereafter appear, the immediate management of recruiting arrangements. Recruiters are non-commissioned officers, soldiers, or pen- sioners employed under Recruiting Officers in the detail work of recruiting, such as seeking for recruits, directing them previous to and on enlistment, &c. Every Recruiter is in possession of an authority on Army Form B 208 and no per- CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 21 son who is not furnished with this authority can take the steps necessary for the enlistment of soldiers. This document is commonly called a ' beating order.' But any person, soldier or civilian, may act as Bringer ; and this entitles him to a portion of the money paid by the War Office for every recruit enlisted. A Bringer is any per- son who brings a recruit to a Recruiter. An Approving Medical Officer is the surgeon who finally examines a recruit on his attestation and previous to his final approval. As a general rule, Approving Medical Officers must be officers of the Army Medical Department, but medical officers of the Militia and Yeomanry may act in this capa- city— When their corps are embodied or out for training ; , When Militia Medical officers are specially appointed to an Army charge under paras. 323, 324 and 325 of the Royal Warrant for Pay and Promotion, 1882. But not only may all medical officers of the Auxiliary Forces examine recruits primarily on attestation when an Army sur- geon is not available and when it may be necessary to do so, but also recourse may be had (in the absence of medical officers of Auxiliary Forces) to ordinary civil practitioners. However, it must be understood that these officers can only conduct the primary examination, and that, when recruits are merely examined in this way before attestation they must afterwards be brought up again for examination before one of the medical officers mentioned in the last paragraph, who alone are em- powered to approve them medically. All corps, except those which are territorial, may on receiving authority to do so from the Adjutant-General to the Forces,^ send out its own special Recruiters to any part of the United Kingdom. The recruits thus obtained are approved by the Officer Commanding the corps and are enlisted specially for the corps. Cavalry recruits are generally obtained in this manner. ^ The duties of all the Adjutant-General's subordinates at the War Office, of whom the Inspector-Greneral of Recruiting is one, are carried out in his name and by his authority. tJNIVERSITI j 22 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. The Recruiters thus sent out are under the orders of the Officer Commanding the regimental district, and, besides working for their own corps, may be utilized for general recruiting by the Recruiting Officer, to whom they send their ' weekly diary ' (Army Form B 75). The Royal Engineers also recruit generally, and the recruits (who, to be eligible, must belong to certain trades) are all specially enlisted for the corps. A table of the Re- cruiting and Approving Officers for every station in the United Kingdom is published in the Appendix to G. O. 99 of 1882. In most cases these are the Recruiting and Ap- proving Officers of the Infantry regimental district ; but, in some places. Adjutants of Royal Engineers are the Recruiting Officers, and special Field Officers of Royal Engineers are Approving Officers at certain stations. The Royal Artillery use the personnel of the Auxiliary Artillery sub-districts as a means of recruiting. The officer commanding the Auxiliary Artillery sub-district (a Lieutenant- Colonel of the Royal Artillery) is the Approving Officer. The bulk of the Infantry recruiting is done by means of the regimental districts. Each district recruits for 1. Its own territorial regiment ; 2. Any corps indicated from time to time by the orders of the Adjutant-General ; 3. General service. In the performance of recruiting duties, the officer com- manding the regimental district attends in the first instance to the requirements of his own territorial regiment and sends, as far as he can do so, all recruits to it, so long as it is below its establishment and that he has no orders to the con- trary. It by no means follows because the recruits are sent to that regiment that they are specially enlisted for it : on the contrary, they are, as far as practicable, enlisted for general service. No eligible recruits are rejected ; so that, if a man particularly wishes to enlist for some special corps, he may be enlisted for it — at once, if the corps be open for recruiting, or otherwise hy special authority (as stated on p. 18). If the territorial regiment belonging to the regimental district be CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 23 full, recruits are raised for any other corps indicated by the Adjutant-General, and, failing this outlet, recruiting goes on in the regimental district for the Army at large, directions being taken where to send the men. But in no case is re- cruiting ever suspended in the regimental district. All recruits raised by the agency of a regimental district are approved by the officer commanding it, whatever may be the corps for which they are enlisted or to which they are sent, with the exception only of recruits enlisted for the Foot Guards, who are always reserved for the approval of their future Commanding Officer on their arrival at their corps. Unless he receives orders to the contrary, the Command- ing Officer of an Infantry battalion may always recruit at his head-quarters (but not anywhere). If his corps is closed for recruiting, he sends the recruits to the Infantry corps indi- cated to him by the Adjutant-General. The officer commanding a Cavalry regiment may recruit under the same circumstances ; but only so long as there are vacancies in his own regiment. The officer commanding a battery of Artillery may always enlist gunners to any number. [He is at liberty to enlist drivers to the extent of his own establishment. Drivers, as a rule, are enlisted from among men accustomed to the man- agement of horses. When the officer commanding a battalion of Infantry, regiment of Cavalry, &c., recruits independently, he becomes the Approving Officer for the recruits he raises in this manner, and his Adjutant acts as Recruiting Officer. Recruiting Officers, under the orders of their Approving Officers, post their Recruiters at certain stations, whence they are not to absent themselves without the Recruiting Officer's sanction. Every Recruiter establishes a rendezvous ; usually at some tavern in the town where he is recruiting, at which he can be found by young men wishing to enlist. Placards, invit- ing enlistment, are exhibited at rendezvous and in other conspicuous places, and Recruiters personally frequent markets, fairs, and similar public places. 24 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Post-offices are also utilized as a means for recruiting, and are provided with a standing advertisement setting forth that the terms of enlistment may be ascertained within, and that forms of application may be obtained and filled in there. When a man applies to enlist at a post-office, he is there provided with an application form, which he must either fill up for himself or require the postmaster to fill up for him. On this form he has to make a few preliminary statements concerning himseK. The form thus filled up is sent by post to the officer commanding the regimental district, who ac- knowledges the receipt of it and replies to the applicant in one of two ways : if, the preliminary information furnished by the intending recruit shows him clearly to be a person in- eligible for enlistment, his application is declined and the reason stated ; if, on the other hand, the information does not do so, he is directed to go to some particular Recruiter in his neighbourhood whose address is mentioned. When an apparently eligible young man accepts a Re- cruiter's invitation to enlist, or is brought to him as willing to enlist, or applies to him directly with the object of doing so, the Recruiter first satisfies himself in a general way that the man is not clearly ineligible. If he appears to be likely to pass his medical examination, the Recruiter then serves him with a notice-paper which informs him that, if he be still willing to enlist, he must appear before a magistrate at a certain time and place for attestation. The Recruiter treats men who come to him under direc- tions from the Commanding Officer of a regimental district, after application at a post-office, in the same way. The Recruiter then takes the man to the Recruiting Officer, if one be stationed in the place. This officer may use his discretion in rejecting the man at once. If, however, in the officer's judgment, he appears to be a fitting man, he explains the notice-paper to him, and inserts his name in the * return of recruits for medical inspection' (Army Form B 214). When there is no Recruiting Officer in the place, the Re- cruiter performs these formalities himself. CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 25 The officer commanding the regimental district arranges for the appointment of a medical officer to examine recruits at every station where Recruiters are posted. A military medical officer is always so appointed when one is stationed at the place ; but, if there be none there stationed, a medical practitioner is appointed, preference being given to medical officers of the Auxiliary Forces. The medical examination of recruits consists of two parts; — the primary and the final. Those medical officers before described as empowered to act in the capacity of Approving Medical Officer may conduct both parts of the examination ; but any surgeon is qualified to carry out the primary portion. A man who does not pass the primary examination is sent away at once ; while a man who does pass it must still suc- cessfully undergo the final examination before final ap- proval. When, therefore, the intending recruit can be taken straight to a medical officer qualified to approve, the two parts of the examinations can be run into one. But when no medical officer qualified to approve is at hand, the man is (except under very special circumstances) taken to the medical practitioner appointed to conduct the primary ex- amination of recruits in that place, the final examination being deferred. Therefore, whenever it is possible to bring the intending recruit at once before a medical officer quali- fied to approve, this is always done, the whole medical ex- amination got over, and the man medically approved before he is attested ; but when this is not possible, as is frequently the case, the man is always to be subjected to at least the primary previous to attestation, except in very special cases. A Recruiting Officer is empowered to use his discretion, when there are no means whatever available for the medical examination of an intending recruit, in dispensing with any medical examination before the man's attestation. This is the very special case alluded to in the preceding paragraph, and a Recruiting Officer would not be likely to allow a man to be attested without medical examination unless he felt morally sure that the man was eligible. Therefore, after the Recruiting Officer (or, in his default, 26 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. the Recruiter) has explained the notice-paper to the intending recruit, the latter is, as a general rule, sent up for medical examination, which may be primary or both primary and final. The Recruiter goes with him, taking the attestation paper and the duplicate attestation paper, which are at that time not completely filled up. If the man fails to pass the medical examination pre- viously to being attested, he is simply sent away at once ; as, not having been attested, he is not yet a soldier and does not need a regular discharge in form. If the man at this time passes the primary portion only of the medical examination, the surgeon who examines him fills up certain particulars in the attestation in pencil, leaving them, to be i^iked in or modified, and the medical certificate signed, by the Aiyproving Medical Officer. If, however, the examining surgeon is a qualified Approving Medical Officer, this portion of the attestation is completed at once, as the man passes the whole examination and is medically approved. When the medical examination has been passed (or with- out medical examination, under the special circumstance before described), the intending recruit is requested to accompany the Recruiter to a magistrate for attestation. Until a man is attested he is quite free to change his mind about becoming a soldier, and his attestation is not complete until he has signed his attestation papers. It is needless here to detail all the minutiae of attestation ; suffice it to say, that certain questions contained in the attestation form are explained and put to the recruit by the magistrate, who previously warns him of the penalties in- curred if false answers be given. The man then signs a declaration, also on the form ; after which the magistrate administers to him the oath of allegiance, and signs the two papers in token of the regularity of the proceeding. The Recruiter, who is in attendance, then takes the completed attestations back to the Recruiting Officer or, if there be no Recruiting Officer in the place, sends it to him by post. Such recruits as may not have passed the final or ap- CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 27 proving medical examination before attestation must do so as soon as possible afterwards. The Approving Medical Officer makes out a ' medical history sheet ' for each man he approves, which the Recruiter carries or sends to the Recruit- ing Officer. If any man should be rejected by the Approving Medical Officer after he has been attested, his discharge (which must now be in regular form, as he is, after attesta- tion, a soldier) is at once carried out by the Field Officer who would otherwise finally approve liim for service. The Recruiting Officer prepares a 'receipt for attesta- tion ' (Army Form B 100), for the signature of the Approv- ing Officer ; he moreover enters each recruit's name on the ' return of recruits enlisted ' (Army Form O 1723) and on the ' return of recruits approved ' (Army Form B 211). The Recruiting Officer next brings or sends the recruit up for final approval, producing or sending by post at the same time the man's attestation, duplicate-attestation, the receipt for attestation and the return of recruits enlisted. After approving a recruit, the Approving Officer signs both copies of the attestation. He also signs the receipt for attestation and the return of recruits enlisted. The Approving Officer allots the recruit a corps unless he has been already specially enlisted for one. The dupli- cate attestation is sent to the recruit's future Commanding Officer, and it always accompanies the soldier at home or abroad. The medical history sheet goes with the duplicate-attesta- tion. After the commanding officer has entered upon it the new soldier's regimental number, he hands it over to the medical officer in charge of the station hospital at which the recruit, if sick, would be treated. The original attestation is also sent by the Approving Officer to the Commanding Officer of the corps or depot which the recruit is to join. This officer enters upon it the regi- mental number allotted to the man and forwards it to one of the persons below mentioned, according to the corps. Infantry of the Line . Paymaster of the regimental depot. Foot Guards . . Acting-Paymaster of the regiment. 28 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. (Deputy -Adjutant -General, Royal Artillery, Record Office, Wool- wich. Royal Engineers. ( Officer in charge of regimental ( records, Chatham. Cavalry at home . . Paymaster of regiment. Cavalry abroad . . Paymaster of Cavalry Depot. Commissariat and) (Officer in charge of the records of Transport Corps J \ the corps. War Office. Ordnance Store Corps Acting Staff Officer, Woolwich. Army Hospital Corps . Staff Officer of the corps, London. Colonial Corps . . Paymaster of the corps. Schoolmasters . , Director-General of Military Educa- tion. These officers retain the original attestations in their custody. The receipt for attestation goes with the attestation itself. The Commanding Officer to whom it is sent signs the cer- tificate on the form that the recruit has joined and that the attestation has been received, and returns the document to the Recruiting Officer to serve as a voucher to his pay-list. The Approving Officer sends the return of recruits enlisted, after he has signed it, to the Paymaster of the regimental district. Artillery financial district, &c., where the recruit was enlisted. It becomes a voucher for this officer's pay- list. The return of recruits approved goes weekly to the Ad j utant-General. As has been seen, no man is ever brought up for final approval until he has been medically approved ; but when, in spite of the medical approval, the Approving Officer still considers the recruit unfit for final approval, he reports the case and forwards his attestation to the Adjutant-General of the Forces, at the War Office. Should this officer give in- structions to that effect, the man is brought before a medical board and retained or discharged according to its report ; but no attested recruit can be discharged on the ground of physical unfitness aj'er medical approval, except in conse- CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 29 quence of the recommendation of a medical board (see para. 583, Regulations for Medical Department, as amended by Army Circulars, 1880, clause 150). It has been seen that Foot Guards recruits are sent from the place of enlistment before final approval, straight to their corps and are there approved by their Commanding Officer. But most recruits are, as a general rule, finally approved either at the actual place of enlistment or in the neighbour- hood. After approval, they are despatched to their corps or depots. They are usually sent in parties. A non-commis- sioned officer accompanies them to the railway station, wharf, or other place of departure ; he furnishes each recruit with a pass (Army Form B 216), and sometimes a greatcoat for the journey ; he also gives him minute instructions concern- ing the journey and sees the party off. The recruits travel alone. Meanwhile, a notification has been despatched (Army Form B 206), by the officer sending the recruits to the Commanding Officer, by the previous day's post ; a non- commissioned officer awaits them at the station or other place of arrival, collects their passes, and their greatcoats, (if any have been issued), and escorts them to the quarters of the corps they are joining. If, after the recruit has arrived at his final destination, his Commanding Officer still finds any reason to believe him unfit for service, he may (albeit the recruit has been finally approved) pursue the same course with a view to the man's immediate discharge which has been described as open to the Approving Officer in the case of a recruit before final approval : i.e. the Commanding Officer may report the case to the Adjutant-General of the Forces, who may order a medical board to be assembled to report upon the man's fitness for service. 30 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. iii. The Qnarter-Master-General's Division. The Quart er-Master-General's duties turn on — (a). The quartering and distribution of the troops ; (h). The movement of troops ; (c). Certain minor administrative matters connected with the management of married soldiers' families, can- teens, Army cooking, &c. ; (d). Strategical and topographical subjects ; these involve such business as the collection of statistics and other information, the consideration of military operations, either actual or possible, &c. &c. The routine duties of the Quarter-Master-General's office are conducted under him by one Assistant-Quarter-Master- General and one Deputy- Assistant. In the movement and quartering of troops, the Quarter- Master-General is brought into close relation with the purely administrative departments. The Intelligence Branch, which is under the Deputy- Quarter-Master-General, seconded by the other Assistant- Quarter-Master-General, attends to most of the strategical and topographical affairs. Here information and precedents of all kinds are collected, registered, and indexed ; compila- tions are made embodying this information ; schemes of offensive or defensive operations are worked out to be sub- mitted for consideration ; and reports on many subjects are produced. In the British service, the Quarter-Master-General's position has, for some reason, come to be rated as secondary to that of Adjutant-General. Probably the fact that under our system so much routine work is done in the War Office itself has led to the result that more importance is attached to it than to the work of studying military problems and military operations ; also a long period of peace led to the neglect of all but routine business ; and there can be no doubt that the executive functions of the Adjutant-General's division, are, at the first glance, more attractive than the CE^TKAL ADMINISTEATION. 31 more unobtrusive planning and working of the Quarter- Master-General's division. Yet there can be no question but that the Quarter-Master-GeneraPs is, or ought to be, the more scientific division, nor can there be any doubt that the duties of the Quarter-Master-General himself come much nearer to those of the officer whom on the Continent they call ' Staff-Head' or 'Chief of the Staff '^ than do those of our Adjutant-General. In Prussia, most of what with us is Quarter-Master-General's work is part of the duty of the (xreat General Staff, while most of the business dealt with in England by the Adjutant- General (issue of orders, corre- spondence on routine, disciplinary matters, &c. ) is done by a secondary class of Staff officers, called by the Prussians 'Adjutants' ; and, if we had to invent an English title for Field Marshal von Moltke, we should call him rather the Qioarter-Master-General than the Adjutant-General of the Prussian Army. It is especially on active service that the importance of the Quarter-Master-General's duties, by the force of things, shines out upon us. He it is who plans all the operations of a campaign, who distributes the troops, reconnoitres, selects camps and positions, keepsthe journal of the operations, &c. &c. An Adjutant-General must undoubtedly unite many valuable qualities and a vast experience of military details ; but to be a good Quarter-Master-General in war a man must be little short of a genius. Moreover, in England the prominence given to executive details has gone further than merely to place the Quarter- Master-General's division after that of the Adjutant-General. Within the Quarter-Master-General's division itself, the routine duties are given pre-eminence over those connected with the collection and study of military information, and the working out of schemes, plans, and reports upon these 1 Jomini, who in his Precis de VArt de la Guerre (article 41) defines * Logistics ' as Staff Science, derives the word from the term Major General des Logis (explaining that this officer is the same as the German Quartiermeister). This term for * Staff Science ' would thus be etymologically the equivalent of ' Quarter-Master-Generalship.' 32 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. data. It is this class of work which almost entirely occupies the time of the Great General Staffs of Continental Armies. With us, the everyday routine work is considered the primary business of the Quarter-Master- General's division ; the information and deliberation is relegated to a small separate supplementary branch of the division under the Deputy-Quarter-Master-General, called the ' Intelligence Branch ' ; and even this has only existed for a few years. The Intelligence branch of the Quarter-Master-GeneraFs division has no doubt already done good work ; but when the extent of the British Empire is considered, and it is remembered that the size of Armies has nothing to do with the importance and number of military questions, which are determined rather by the interests at stake, it may well be asked how it is possible that a small office consisting of the Deputy - Quarter - Master - General, an Assistant - Quarter- Master-General, and six Deputy- Assistants at the head of sections, with some half-dozen officers temporarily attached, can deal satisfactorily with a mass of business for which Prussia considers about 100 officers, and Austria and France respectively about 70 officers, none too many. ^ That we have not yet grasped the real functions of a * Great General Staff' and that our modest equivalent (the Intelligence branch) is far too small, is manifest from the fact that whenever we require information upon an important subject we assemble a committee of officers or a Royal Com- mission. These boards begin by studying, as well as is pos- sible in a very limited time, a subject which, perhaps, has been lying fallow for years. The result is only too frequently apparent in hastily-prepared reports on ill-digested matter, often abortive, often reversed a little later by contrary reports of subsequent boards. Now the Continental General Staffs are huge permanent committees, deliberating on every possible military subject at their leisure ; and ready almost at any 1 For more complete information on this head, see a lecture given by Colonel C B. Brackenbury at the Royal United Service Institution, February 19, 1875 (vol. xix., Journal of R. U. S. I.) CENTRAL ADMTNISTEATION. 33 time with any amount of information and with reports based upon an exhaustive study of it. There is also a system and a continuity of work in the proceedings of a permanent Staif which contrasts most remarkably with the spasmodic, desul- tory, efforts of a temporary committee of officers gathered together by a sudden order. It has been often proposed to fuse the two main divisions of the British Staff and to substitute for Adjutant-General and Quarter-Master-General a single ' Staff-Head ' who would distribute the whole work under him between subordinates. This would no doubt go a long way towards settling tlie matter satisfactorily. No change has, however, yet been made in the organization of the Head Quarter Staff, and although something has been done in Districts by making the two principal Staff officers interchangeable (i.e. both of them Assistant- Adjutant-Generals and, at the same time, Assistant- Quarter-Master-Generals), still, so long as two officers of equal degree are maintained at the head of the Staff in a Dis- trict, the change can never be much more than a nominal one. iv. Inspector- General of Artillery's Division. The Inspector-General of Artillery has certain duties, in- dicated by his title, in connection with the efficiency of the corps of Royal Artillery, and also with the completeness and serviceability of all the armaments of works. The latter duty makes him a kind of departmental chief to the several Officers Commanding the Royal Artillery in Districts. His duties as concerns armament and equipment of works relate, however, to their efficiency ; the provision of the materiel, &c., is a question for the Director-General of Artillery in the Ordnance Department of the War Office. V. Military Education Division. The Director-General of Military Education carries out the system of education determined by the Field Marshal Com- manding-in-Chief's orders, so far as general knowledge and I. D 34 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. military theory go. The qualification in these respects of officers, non-commissioned officers and men are ascertained and regulated under his directions. All military instruction and examinations in such matters are arranged by him. Consequently, under the Director-General of Military Education are placed — (a) The conduct of all examinations for admission of gentlemen as officers to the Army ; ^ (h) The course of instruction and the general regulation of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and of the Staff College ; (c) The course of Garrison Instruction ; (d) The promotion examination of officers ; (e) The regulation of the Normal Schools at Chelsea and Dublin, for the training of Army Schoolmasters ; (/) The teaching and regulation of schools for soldiers' children, such as the Chelsea Asylum and the Royal Hibernian School ; (g) Regimental schools ; (h) The examination and educational qualifications of non-commissioned officers and soldiers and their classification. There are, however, certain establishments which may be called educational, but which are specially devoted to some particular branch of the Army or are purely technical : these are not under the Director-General of Military Education ; such are : The School of Artillery Studies ; under the Deputy- Adjutant-General Royal Artillery. The School of Gunnery at Shoeburyness ; under the Deputy- Adjutant-General Royal Artillery. The School of Military Engineering at Chatham ; under the Deputy- Adjutant-General Royal Engineers. 1 The preliminary examinations for admission to the Royal Military Academy and Royal Military College are conducted by the Civil Service Commissioners. CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 35 The School of Musketry at Hythe, and Musketry Instruc- tion generally ; under the Adjutant-General. Gymnasia and Gymnastic Instruction ; under the Adju- tant-General. The Army Medical School at Netley ; under the Director- General, Medical Department. The Army Veterinary School at Aldershot ; under the Principal Veterinary Surgeon. The School of Music at Kneller's Hall ; under the Adju- tant-General. Under the Director-General are two Assistant-Directors and one Deputy-Assistant-Director. The Garrison Instruc- tors in the various Districts are in direct communication with the Director-General on educational matters. The Sub- Inspectors of Army Schools locally distributed are adminis- tratively subordinated to him, as are also the officers placed at the head of the various educational establishments. vi. Chaplain-General's Division. The position of the Chaplain-General is indicated by his title. He is always a clergyman of the Anglican Church. All commissioned Chaplains belong either to the Anglican, Roman, or Presbyterian Churches. There would obviously be a difficulty in subordinating to the Chaplain-General ministers of a different faith ; and, consequently, his authority is limited to those of the State Church. Special arrangements are made as regards the discipline, distribution, &c., of Roman and Presbyterian Chaplains, vii. Medical Division. The Director-General is at the head of the Army Medical Department and is the disciplinary chief of all its personnel. He is also the commanding officer of the Army Hospital Corps. He is responsible for the regulation and working of the medical service, concerning which he is the adviser at Head Quarters of the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief. d2 36 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTKATION. His office is subdivided into two branches, over each of which a Surgeon-General or Deputy-Surgeon-General pre- sides : these are, the ' Medical, ' and the ^ Sanitary and Statis- tical,' branches. All matters connected with medical science, with the medical service at home, abroad, or in the field, and with Army hygiene and sanitation, are considered or deter- mined in this division of the Military Department. The Director-General of the Medical Department enters into contracts for the supply of medicines and surgical instru- ments for the whole Army. viii. Veterinary Division. The Principal Veterinary Surgeon stands, as concerns his department, in a somewhat analogous position to that of the Director-General towards the Medical Department. He enters into contracts for the suj^ply to the Army of horse medicines and veterinary instruments. n. The Ordnance Department. At the head of the Ordnance Department is the Surveyor- General of the Ordnance, who is usually a General Officer ex- perienced in Military Administration. The business of this department of the War Office is to furnish the Army with all its material wants, with the ex- ception only of money. Further, although the officers and other subordinates of this department do not themselves handle money, it is on certain officers among them that de- volves the business of entering into bargains, contracts, agreements, and other transactions involving money expen- diture. Thus the Ordnance Department attends to the following business : — (a) All agreements or other transactions for the acquisition or disposal of War Department property, or for hiring labour or hiring or letting property ; whether the property be raw materials, supplies, stores, lands, CEKTEAL ADMINISTRATION. 37 buildings, Szc, or in whatever form the labour or service may be supplied. (h) The manufacture of all raw materials into supplies and stores. The construction of buildings and works. The keeping in repair of all War Depart- ment property. (c) The charge or distribution of all War Department property ; together with its inspection or super- vision. The mass of business summarized above is carried out under the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance by five Directors, viz. : — i. The Director of Supplies and Transport ; ii. The Director of Artillery and Stores ; iii. The Director of Clothing ; iv. The Inspector-General of Fortifications and Director of Works ; V. The Director of Army Contracts. These five directorships will now be considered in greater detail. 1. The Directorship of Supplies and Transport. * Supplies,' as distinguished from * stores,' is the name given to such consumable articles as food, forage, fuel, lighting, &c. The Director of Supplies and Transport and the personnel under him, which is the Commissariat and Transport Staff", deal with all questions concerning supplies, transport (except railway and sea transport), and the provision of lodging accommodation for the troops ; ^ also, all contracts, except certain ones having a special bearing, are entered into (though not determined) by the Commissariat Department. The duties of the Commissariat and Transport Depart- ment (which is administratively under the Director of Supplies and Transport) may thus be classified as follows : ^ The provision of buildings or house-room only ; not the distribution of the troops, which is a Staff question under the Quarter-Master- General. 38 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. (a) The preparation of contracts for the Army for submis- sion to the Director of Army Contracts. These con- tracts may be for the supplies of the Commissariat Department itself or for certain services also con- nected with that department, or they may be for other departments, such as for stores or labour for the Ordnance Store Department, or, on behalf of the Royal Engineer Department, for the letting of land or buildings or the hire of the same for periods less than 21 years. The purchase, in certain cases, by other means than by contracts, of sundry supplies. The sale by contract or otherwise of unserviceable or surplus supplies ; or of the produce of lands, for the Royal Engineer Department. (h) Although supplies of food are usually obtained by the Commissariat Department by contracts in a manu- factured condition, the contracts are sometimes for flour or for cattle only, and the manufacture of bread and the slaughtering of meat is then done by the personnel of the department itself. (c) The Commissariat and Transport Department has charge, pending their issue to the troops, of all pro- visions, corn, hay, straw, coal, wood or other fuel, materials for lighting, materials necessary for the cleansing of barracks, disinfectants, &c. It issues these articles to the troops under cer- tain regulations. It keeps at all stations expense stores of barrack, hospital and prison furniture and utensils (which it draws from the Ordnance Store Department) and from which it equips the buildings. (d) The charge of barracks, hospitals, military prisons, and all War Department buildings, so long as they are completed and equipped, at all periods when not actually occupied by the troops, is another im- portant duty of the Commissariat Department. The business of taking over all buildings fit for occupa- CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 39 tion from the Royal Engineer Department, of equip- ping them with the necessary articles of furniture, with utensils, &c. , and of handing them over to, or receiving them over from, the troops, devolves on this department ; which also is charged with the supervision of the equipment of all buildings, even when occupied by the troops. Certain minor ser- vices (such as cleansing, gas-lighting, &c.), con- nected with barracks and other buildings, which cannot be conveniently imposed on the corps in occupation, are also performed under the Commis- sariat Department, (e) Transport (except sea or railway transport) is another matter which it is the business of the Commissariat and Transport Department to provide. The depart- ment has nothing to do with the planning of move- ments themselves, which is performed under the orders of the local heads of the Quarter-Master- General's division of the Staff in the place where troops are about to arrive and whence they are de- parting ; but the Commissariat and Transport De- partment is ordered to provide the necessary means of transport. Railway transport is provided by the Quarter- Master-GeneraPs division of the Staff, which com- municates with the railway companies directly. Sea transport is a service performed for the Army by the Navy. The Quarter-Master-General corre- sponds on this subject with the Director of Army Transports at the Admiralty. The question as to whether organized military transport (other than such as belongs to corps and regiments) should or should not be placed under the control of the Commis- sariat Department is one which has given rise to much con- troversy. The principal reason for making transport a Com- missariat service is, obviously, that on active service a large proportion, if not the bulk, of all non-regimental transport must necessarily be employed for Commissariat purposes. It 40 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. would be out of place to discuss the question in this elemen- tary hook, but the reader may enlighten himself on many of the arguments used on both sides by referring to the lectures given at the Royal United Service Institution by the follow- ing officers : Lieutenant-Colonel C. Parsons (vol. xxiii., No. 102, 'Journal'); Major Wilkinson Shaw (vol. xxiv.. No. 106); Lieutenant Dean-Pitt (vol. xxiv., No. 106); Major Salis-Schwabe (vol. xxiv., No. 108) ; Deputy-Commissary- General Shervinton (vol. xxv., No. 109). The personnel of the Commissariat and Transport Depart- ment consists of the commissioned officers of the Commis- sariat and Transport Staflf, of the warrant officers, non- commissioned officers and men of the Commissariat and Transport Corps, and of certain subordinates employed upon barrack services. It is distributed at various stations ; and the distribution is not an administrative but a disciplinary question, determined, not by the Director of Supplies (him- self a civilian), but by the Commissary-General at Head Quarters, who, as has been already stated, works in the office of the Adjutant-General to the Forces as a kind of Deputy- Adjutant-General for the Commissariat Corps. Once in their places, however, the personnel carries on its ad- ministrative duties under the Director of Supplies, subject in discipline, first, to the senior officer of the department on the spot, and, ultimately, to the combatant officer commanding the station. The Commissariat and Transport Corps furnishes the warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men for Commissariat duties and for clerks in Commissariat offices ; its men are also employed as butchers, bakers, &c. ; or in transport duties. The companies are officered by officers of the Commissariat and Transport Staff. ii. The Directorship of Artillery and Stores. The Director of Artillery and Stores is a General Officer of the Royal Artillery. Placed under the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, he advises that officer and the Secretary of State on all points concerning the armament of works, CENTRAL ADMINISTEATION. 41 Artillery materiel and warlike stores, and (himself advised by the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich Arsenal) on all matters connected with general stores. ' Stores ' is the name given to all articles for the use of the troops excepting only such as are termed ' supplies ' ; the latter are issued by the Commissariat Department as before stated (see p. 37), while almost all ' stores ' are administered by the Director of Artillery and Stores. There are, however, certain special stores with which the Director has nothing to do ; these are — Clothing and necessaries ; which are under the Director of Clothing ; Special building materials and special articles to be worked up in the construction of buildings ; which are pro- vided by the Royal Engineer Department ; Surgical instruments and medicines ; provided by the Director-General of the Army Medical Department ; Veterinary instruments and medicines ; provided by the Principal Veterinary Surgeon ; Stationery ; the provision of which is a matter arranged by the Central Department of the War OflBce (Assist- ant- Under-Secretary of State) with the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. All other stores are acquired, manufactured, kept, issued, received, or disposed of under the supervision and authority of the Director of Artillery and Stores. The term includes a vast mass of articles of the most various descriptions, such as guns and weapons of all kinds, ammunition, accoutrements, saddlery, harness, camp equipage, vehicles of all sorts, in- trenching and other tools, instruments, barrack furniture, utensils and appliances, materials for repairing, cleaning and keeping stores fit for use, &c., &c., &c. . The * Priced Voca- bulary of Stores ' gives a classified list, with the value, of all articles of which there is a regular supply ; but occasionally exceptional articles, not usually kept in stock, may be re- quired and furnished. Stores are acquired (1) ready-made by contract, which is the method followed in the acquisition of most articles ; or 42 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. (2) the materials only are contracted for and the stores them- selves manufactured in Government establishments, which is the method principally followed in the case of guns, arms, and ammunition. Trifling articles are also (3) sometimes bought locally without contract, or (4) materials may be ex- ceptionally thus purchased and worked up in Army work- shops. The means by which the Administration of stores is carried out under the Director may be said to come under two main heads: 1st. The Manufacturing Establishments. 2nd. The Ordnance Store Department and its various establishments. The Manufacturing Establishments. The Manufacturing Establishments under the Director of Artillery and Stores are — (a) The Royal Gun Factory 1 . ., -r> (6) The Royal Laboratory I "" at Woollldi (c) The Royal Carriage Factory i ' (d) The Royal Small-Arm Factory, at Enfield, (e) The Royal Gunpowder Factory, at Waltham Abbey : Each of these factories is under a Superintendent assisted by other ojBBicers, all of the Royal Artillery, one of the attri- butes of this corps being a technical knowledge of all details connected with warlike stores and carriages, whether for the use of the Artillery itself, for that of the Army generally, or for that of the Navy. The Gun Factory deals with Artillery guns only, and manu- factures them for both military and naval services. Ammunition, both artillery and small-arm, is made up in the Royal Laboratory. The Royal Carriage Factory constructs all gun-carriages for land and sea services, and vehicles of all kinds for the Army generally. The Royal Small-Arm Factory manufactures for both Army and Navy all rifles, carbines, pistols, swords, cutlasses, bayonets, scabbards, lances, &c., &c. CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 43 The Royal Gunpowder Factory manufactures the various kinds of gunpowder and gun-cotton used in the services. In addition, however, to that manufactured at Waltham Abbey, a considerable quantity is purchased by contract. Experiments upon guns and warlike stores are conducted by the * Ordnance Committee,' which is composed partly of military officers, partly of naval officers, and partly of civil engineers. The committee has, for gunnery experiments, the use of the Shoeburyness ranges, which, however, primarily belong to the School of Gunnery ; an establishment directed by the Deputy- Adjutant-General of the Royal Artillery. The several Superintendents of the factories above men- tioned demand all materials and requisites necessary for carrying out the manufacture of the stores which the factories turn out from the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich Arsenal. If, however, the articles required are of a nature not supplied by the Commissary-General, the Super- intendents send their demands to the Director of Army Con- tracts, who either enters into a contract for what is wanted or obtains authority for its local purchase by the Super- intendents. The Ordnance Store Department and its various establishments. The title of ^ Ordnance Department of the War Office ' is, as we have seen, applied to the whole department presided over by the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. This title must not be confounded with that of ' Ordnance Store De- partment,' which is merely a part of the Ordnance Depart- ment and is (with the Manufacturing Establishments above mentioned) under the Director of Artillery and Stores. The Ordnance Store Department receives all the warlike stores and carriages turned out by the factories above enu- merated and also all other stores (subject to the exceptions mentioned on p. 41) which are procured by contract. It keeps large depots and magazines of these stores and issues them to the troops or departments of the Army as required. For this important work, the Director of Artillery and Stores 44 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. has under him a large personnel, the greater part of which is employed at various stations and Districts, but a certain portion of which works under his immediate superintendence. It has been said that the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich con- tains certain Manufacturing Establishments. But besides containing the factories, the arsenal is the grand central depot for stores. The Commissary-General of Ordnance (the senior officer of the Ordnance Store Department) is stationed here in charge of vast storehouses filled, not only with the produce of the Manufacturing Establishments, but with all kinds of stores procured by contracts into which he enters. As it is inconvenient that certain stores should be accumulated in the arsenal itself, there are, moreover, some outlying estab- lishments which, though not situated at Woolwich, virtually form part of the central depot, and which are as much under the control, supervision, and authority of the Com- missary-General of Ordnance as the storehouses in the arsenal itself. These are the Upnor Castle and Purfleet magazines, the small-arm armoury at the Tower of London, and the factory for the repair of small-arms at Birmingham. The Manufacturing Establishments under the Director of Artillery and Stores never issue stores directly to the troops. The produce of these factories is at once passed on to be stored by the Commissary-General of Ordnance. Thus : Small-arms pass from Enfield to the Tower armoury direct ; Gunpowder, when made at Waltham Abbey, or when delivered by contract, is placed in the Purfleet or Upnor Castle magazines ; Guns, ammunition, carriages, accoutrements, barrack stores and ordnance stores of all other description are collected in the arsenal depot. From these places the issues to the various districts or corps of troops are made according to demands received from the Senior Ordnance Store Officers of the difierent Districts or foreign stations, or from the Navy. But, as the officers of the Ordnance Store Department cannot be expected to have an extended technical knowledge CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 45 of stores of a purely warlike nature, experienced Artillery officers are appointed, under the name of ^ Inspectors of Warlike Stores.' There are, altogether, at home and foreign stations, eleven Artillery officers employed as Inspectors, or Assistant-Inspectors, of warlike stores. Of these, two Inspec- tors only are at home stations : one at Portsmouth, the other at Devonport. Their duties are to conduct the proof of powder in the hands of the Ordnance Store Department, to examine all munitions of war, and to superintend the making and repair at out-stations of minor laboratory stores. These duties they perform on the requisition of the Ordnance Store Department. Besides these matters, the Inspectors of War- like Stores make annual inspections of gunj)owder and ammu- nition throughout the United Kingdom. iii. The Directorship of Clothing. It is a little difficult to see why it is that, while such a great variety of dissimilar stores are united for administra- tive purposes in the hands of the Ordnance Store Depart- ment and under the Director of Artillery and Stores, clothing and necessaries should be administered by a distinct autho- rity. This is the more singular that simplicity compels the charge of clothing to be added to that of all other stores in the field, and that in ordinary times of peace the clothing department is not represented in Districts. The Director of Clothing is a civilian official who has his head-quarters at the Clothing Depot in Pimlico. He has under him an Assistant-Director, and a large body of civil workmen and women engaged in tailoring and similar occu- pations. The Royal Army Clothing Depot is partly a factory and partly a central store for clothing, necessaries, and materials for their manufacture. The Director enters into contracts, either for cloth, leather, or other materials, or for ready-made articles. The bulk of the materials are made up at Pimlico itself and the produce there stored, together with the articles pur- chased ready-made, for issue. A certain amount of unmade 46 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. qloth, &c. , is, however, issued to the troops to be made up regimentally. iv. The Directorship of Works. The Inspector- General of Fortifications and Director of Works, placed at the head of this Division of the Ordnance Department, is in somewhat an ambiguous position. His duties are of a double nature : on the one hand, the business of constructing, repairing, and maintaining buildings and works may be called a duty of supply ; while on the other hand, the application of the technical military knowledge required in planning military fortifications, and the control over the Corps of Royal Engineers, are purely military duties. The first class of duties would lead to placing the Inspector-General of Fortifications under the Surveyor- General of the Ordnance ; while the second class would point out his place as being in the Military Department. As the Inspector-General cannot be placed in both depart- ments, he is, for convenience, considered as forming part of the Ordnance Department ; but it must be recollected that a large portion of his work is purely military. And, indeed, the ofiice is of such importance that the General Officer of Royal Engineers who holds it may be said to be virtually almost independent under the Secretary of State, and rather to comhhie his labours with those of the Ordnance and Military Departments than to be working wdthin either. Otherwise it would be a little difficult to understand why, for instance, the reports of the Engineer operations during a campaign or expedition — operations clearly military in their character — should be made to an officer classified in the Army List as a subordinate of the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. The Royal Engineers, considered as a military body, are organized as a corps ; but for the purpose of carrying out their duties in connection with works, lands, &c. , under the Inspector-General of Fortifications, they form part of an organization termed the * Royal Engineer Department' CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 47 The General Officer of Engineers holding the appointment of Inspector-General of Fortifications and Director of Works is the official head of both the corps and the department, but, for the sake of greater convenience, the military duties of the corps are carried out subject to tJie Inspedor-GeneraVs approval, by the Deputy-Adjutant-General of the Royal Engineers, who, as has been before stated, works under the Adjutant-General to the Forces in the Military Department. The Inspector- General is the adviser of the Secretary of State on questions of military engineering and of the Com- mander-in-Chief on military questions concerning the Royal Engineers. The Army Estimates for each year contain a vote for works. It is the duty of the Inspector- General to prepare and submit to the Secretary of State the estimate for this particular vote, and, after the money has been voted, to control its expenditure and see that it is properly applied. The Inspector-General directs the working of the Royal Engineer Department. In his office the work of the department is carried out by two subordinate Deputy-Directors of Works, both Colonels of Royal Engineers. A third Field Officer is * Inspector of Sub- marine Defences.^ Other Engineer officers, again, assist these chief officers. In the Inspector-General's office are kept all plans, &c., of fortresses, forts, or other defensive works ; and the planning of works, defensive systems, and schemes connected with military engineering give employment to a considerable number of Engineer officers, draughtsmen, clerks, &c., in this central Engineer office. The two Deputy-Directors divide the ordinary routine duties of the department — the one -taking fortifications, the other barracks. The Deputy-Director of Works for fortifications takes the business connected with estimates, expenditure, and all questions relating to — (a) Fortified works ; (b) Ordnance Store buildings, storehouses, magazines, &c. ; 48 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. (c) War Department lands (except such ground as is con- nected with barracks ; as drill-ground, rifle-ranges, recreation ground, &c. ) ; (d) Military roads, bridges, wharves, sea-walls, tele- graphs, &c. The Deputy-Director of Works for barracks takes the corresponding business connected with — (a) Barracks, hospitals, prisons, chapels, schools. Com- missariat buildings, and all buildings not before mentioned ; (h) Such grounds as ranges, drill-grounds, maneges, cricket-grounds, &c. The business of the Royal Engineer Department, which is centralized in the oflice of the Inspector-General of Fortifi- cations, ramifies and extends throughout the whole country. The head of the department in each District is the Command- ing Royal Engineer of the District, who is at one and the same time the commanding officer of such Engineer troops as may be quartered in the command and also the District head of the administrative department. The manner in which the duties of Commanding Royal Engineer are carried out will be detailed hereafter, but it is necessary to give in this place a summary of the matters with which the whole Royal Engineer Department deals. This work may be classified as follows : — (a) Business connected with Engineer contracts or ar- rangements for — The construction and maintenatice of works ; The purchase^ sale, or hire of lands or buildings ; The disposal of the produce of lands ; The purchase or sale of building materials ; The hire of labour for Engineer service. (6) Business relating to — The planning and designing of works ; The execution or construction of works ; The repair or alteration of constructed works ; The conservation of lands. CENTKAL ADMINISTRATION. 49 (c) Business connected with — The charge or custody of works ; The charge or custody of lands. (a) The Royal Engineer Department enters into its own contracts for the execution of works the construction of which has been decided upon. Usually the contracts are for both labour and materials, and the buildings are entirely executed by contractors supervised throughout by the officers of the department. Occasionally, the labour only is obtained by contract ; in this case, the department furnishes the materials, obtaining such general stores as are available from the Ordnance Store Department and itself entering into contracts for building materials and other special stores. At other times, the labour is hired, managed, and supervised by the department, the materials and stores being provided as before described. Again, sometimes military labour is available and is obtained. Engineer contracts are generally entered into locally, advertisements for tenders being issued by Commanding Royal Engineers ; but they may, in cases of importance, be initiated in the office of the Inspector-General itself. Candidates themselves forward their tenders to the Director of Contracts, the Commanding Royal Engineer of the district reporting all information concerning the candi- dates to the Inspector-General of Fortifications. Contracts for repairs to Government works are standing affairs entered into trienniaUy by Commanding Royal Engineers locally in districts. The arrangements for the purchase or sale of lands or buildings are conducted for the Secretary of State by the Royal Engineer Department, without the intervention of any other department. Whenever lands are hired by the War Department mjoerpe^mii/ or for terms of not less than twenty- one years, the contract is entered into by the Royal Engineer Department and concluded by the Secretary of State without reference to the Commissariat or any other department. But when lands are hired for shorter periods, the Royal Engineer Department merely advises the Commissariat Department, I. £ 50 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. and the latter enters into the contract. The Royal Engineer Department, in the same way, never itself enters into any contract for the lettiny of lands, but then War Department lands are never let for long terms. Lettings are actually arranged, under Engineer instructions, by the Commissariat Department ; the lettings are nominally for annual terms only, with a verbal understanding that, unless there be good reasons to the contrary, the tenant will not be disturbed for seven years. Every seven years all lettings are recon- sidered. Machinery is another kind of property for which the Royal Engineer Department contracts. Surplus or unserviceable stores in charge of the Royal Engineer Department are handed over to the Ordnance Store Department, to be disposed of according to its own rules ; if they be special Engineer stores, such as building materials, they are often sold locally by the Ordnance Store Department. But in no case does the Royal Engineer Department itself dispose of stores or materials. Engineer contracts, like all other Army contracts, are concluded by the Secretary of State after the tenders have been examined by the Director of Contracts, who would naturally consult the head of the department concerned (in this case the Inspector-General of Fortifications) before re- commending one or another tender for acceptance. (6) The planning and designing of works and the duties connected with their construction, the maintenance of the fabrics of buildings in repair, and the conservation of lands, are matters which provide the Royal Engineer Department with constant occupation. The plaiming and designing of works may be carried out in the Inspector-General's office, but is oftener done locally in District Engineer offices. All designs and plans are, however, in the latter case, sent to the Inspector-General's office, and may be there subjected to modifications. Engineer officers are directed to consider recommendations or improvements suggested by contractors' surveyors. The correspondence is dealt with, according to whether the work comes under the head of 'fortifications' or CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 51 * barracks,' by one or the other of the Deputy-Directors of Works, or perhaps by both. The vote for works before mentioned devotes a certain sum to be expended yearly on ' fortifications,^ and another on ' barracks,' and the available funds must be considered, together with the plans forwarded, by the Inspector- General before he can advise the Secretary of State on the subject of a projected work. When the definite plan has been deter- mined, instructions are given to the local Commanding Royal Engineer, either to advertise for tenders for a contract, or to put the work in hand in one of the other ways before men- tioned. Almost all works and current undertakings involv- ing expenditure which can be foreseen are projected before- hand, and the expenses involved are estimated for the coming year in the regular yearly estimates of Commanding Royal Engineers ; on which estimates the Inspector-General bases his own general estimate for the vote for works. Thus the questions concerning the expenditure for all works are brous^ht yearly beforehand and collectively to the Secretary of State. The maintenance in repair of the fabrics of all War De- partment buildings being a matter for which the Royal Engineer Department is responsible, the officers of that de- partment must make arrangements for the execution of all repairs and for the correct assessment of damages. Period- ical inspections are made to ascertain what damages have occurred and against whom they are to be charged, while the repairs may be executed either by contract, by the artificers of the Royal Engineers, or by those of the corps in occupa- tion. The Royal Engineer Department, however, is re- sponsible that the repairs have been executed, and executed satisfactorily. The conservation or maintenance in order of lands may entail repairs to boundaries, fences, drains, and work such as mowing, weeding, clipping timber, &c. (c) It has been said that the Royal Engineer Department is responsible for the maintenance in repair of all War Department buildings and lands; that statement by no means e2 52 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. implies that it is at all times in charge or custody of thi& property. In certain cases it has charge, while in others it has not ; but, in all cases, it has the duty of supervisimi over that which concerns its sphere of action. In the first case, the department is somewhat in the position of a tenant under the War Office ; in the second, it is rather in the position of a tenant who has sub-let his tenement, while answerable to his own landlord for its condition. The broad rule is, that the Royal Engineer Department is in charge (i.e., in absolute occupation and custody) of all buildings and works pending their completion and readiness for occupation. So soon as they are fit for occupation, the Koyal Engineer Department hand them over — Defensive works, to the Royal Artillery ; Special Ordnance Store buildings (magazines, storehouses,, &c.), to the Ordnance Store Department. All other buildings, to the Commissariat Department. Whenever a building requires thorough repair, rendering it temporarily unfit for occupation, it is first dismantled by the department in charge and then handed back to the Royal En- gineer Department. The same course is followed if the build- ing requires extensive alterations or re-adaptation. As soon as the work is done, the Royal Engineer Department returns the premises to the department concerned, which re-equips it for occupation. One and the same work may consist of portions to be handed over to each of the three above- named dejDartments : the defensive works of a fort would be transferred to the charge of the Royal Artillery ; any barracks situated within it would be taken over by the Commissariat ; while if the fort contained reserve magazines and storehouses independent of those appropriated to the Artillery and troops, these would pass to the charge of the Ordnance Store Department. Lands, except such grounds as are included in barrack premises, or maneges, drill-grounds, &c. , are at all times in charge of the Royal Engineer Department and never pass out of its immediate custody. The exceptions just specified follow the same rule as barracks : that is to say, that, when CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 53 ready for use by the troops, they are handed over to the Oommissariat Department, reverting at other times to the Engineers. The Royal Engineer Department, however, always retains the duty of supervision, a duty which it also exercises over lands let to tenants. v. The Directorship of Army Contracts. The head of this oflBlce is the Director of Army Contracts : a civil official of high position and extensive experience. Contracts, as will have been noticed in the perusal of the preceding pages, may be entered into, or opened, by the representatives of several departments ; but as they must all receive the signature of the Secretary of State, who accepts them, all the business relating to contracts is collected from the various departments into the office of the Director of Army Contracts, which is the fifth division or Directorship under the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. In the Director's office tenders are examined, the Director 'Consulting the War Office heads of departments concerned previous to submitting any particular tender for signature. In this way all contracts reach the Secretary of State through one channel. The departments or persons which open contracts are the ioUowing : — (a) The Commissariat and Transport Department — For Commissariat supplies and services, for transport, for the hire of buildings and lands for periods shorter than twenty-one years, for the letting of War Department buildings and lands, for letting grazing and similar rights, for the sale of the produce of lands, and (on behalf of the Ordnance Store Depart- ment exceptionally) for the local purchase of stores. (b) The Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich Arsenal — For certain manufacturing raw materials and for the regular supply of ready-made stores. ^ ^ The Ordnance Store Department elsewhere than at Woolwich never 'enters into contracts, though it exceptional!}'- purchases and occasionally sells in other ways ; see para. 28, 0. S. D. Regulations. 54 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. (c) The Royal Clothing Depot— For materials, and also for ready-made clotliing and necessaries. (d) The Royal Engineer Department — For the materials and labour necessary for the con- struction of works, or for each separately ; for special building stores which cannot be obtained from the Ordnance Store Department, for machinery ; and for the purchase of lands or buildings or their hire for periods of twenty-one years or more. (e) The Director-General of the Army Medical Depart- ment — For medicine and surgical instruments.^ (/) The Principal Veterinary Surgeon — For horse medicines and veterinary instruments. Besides the contracts entered into by the departments and persons above mentioned, others may be entered into by the Director himself. Such are the contracts (mentioned on p. 43) for manufacturing raw materials not procurable from the Commissary-General of Ordnance by the Superintendents of the Manufacturing Establishments under the Director of Artillery and Stores which the Director of Army Contracts opens on the demand of the Superintendent. As a general rule, contracts are conducted as follows. In the case of Commissariat contracts the Senior Commis- sariat Officer of a District advertises by placards or in news- papers for tenders, which are received in the District Commis- sariat office, and are opened by the Senior Commissariat Officer (or by a Commissariat officer appointed by him) in the presence of an officer appointed for the duty by the General or other officer commanding. For ordinary supplies, this officer is a Staff or a regimental officer ; but when the contract is for special supplies or services the officer is appointed (according to their nature) from the Engineers, Ordnance Store Department, or Medical Department. Each tender must be accompanied by a letter signed by ^ Hospital comforts (i.e. special articles of diet for invalids, such as- wine, &c.) are Commissariat supplies. CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 56 two persons who engage to be security for the fulfilment of the contract if the tender be accepted. (See para. 303 h, Commissariat Regulations.) The two officers initial the tender and draw up a duplicate list or schedule of them, both copies of which, duly certified and signed, are forwarded to the Secretary of State for War, with the Senior Commissariat Officer's recommendation of the tender he submits for acceptance. Unless good reasons for a contrary course be given, this tender must be the lowest. Arrived at the War Office, the packet goes straight to the Director of Army Contracts, who, when the Secretary of State has accepted a tender, prepares a letter of acceptance for that one and letters declining the remainder. One schedule is then retained in the Director's office ; the other, with the tenders and letters accepting and declining, is returned to the District office. The Senior Commissariat Officer keeps the accepted tender and a copy of the letter of acceptance in his possession, and forwards the original letter of acceptance to the contractor. The accepted tender now becomes the contract, and remains in the District Commissariat office. The contracts of the Royal Engineer Department are of several kinds. As a general rule, they are all competed for publicly ; but when there are good reasons for limiting the competition to certain firms or individuals, this course may exceptionally be followed, if it be sanctioned by the Secretary of State. When open competition is invited, advertisements are issued by the Commanding Royal Engineer of the District where the work is to be done, calling for tenders. There are what are called lump-sum contracts and tri- ennial contracts. The former are resorted to when some special work estimated to cost over 300L is to be constructed or when machinery is to be set up, repaired or altered. Triennial contracts (so called because they are entered into for periods of three years at a time) are, on the other hand, undertakings to perform current repairs at certain rates for the various kinds of work entailed by these repairs, for 56 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. materials and for labour. The triennial contractors also execute new works costing less than 300L The advertisements for tenders for lump-sum contracts are inserted in newspapers ; those for tenders for triennial contracts are moreover published by means of placards. In the case of works which are to cost bOOOl. or more, can- didates meet by appointment of the Commanding Royal Engineer made in the advertisement ; they choose a surveyor to act on their behalf collectively. This surveyor and another appointed by the Secretary of State for War make out by calculation the hills of quayitities — that is, work out the quantity of each material, of labour, &c., which will be required. The candidates, who are furnished with special forms of tenders, and with copies of the bills of quantities as cal- culated out by the surveyor, then proceed to fill up their forms. A day is appointed by the Commanding Royal Engineer as that upon which the tenders must reach the Director of Army Contracts ; he notifies this day to the Secretary of State for War, and this notification goes as a matter of routine to the Director as soon as it reaches the War Ofl&ce. With the notification he sends a list of the persons to whom tenders have been furnished, and copies of the forms of tenders and of the specification (or detailed description of the work to be undertaken). The candidates send their tenders direct to the Director of Army Contracts. The Director, after consultation with the Inspector-General of Fortifications, obtains the acceptance of one tender by the Secretary of State ; he notifies the accep- tance of the tender to the Inspector-General of Fortifications and also direct to the successful candidate. The accepted tender, which now becomes the contract, is kept by the Director of Army Contracts and a copy forwarded to the con- tractor. The acceptance of a tender is notified by the Inspector-General to the Commanding Royal Engineer. In the case of works estimated to cost less than 5000L, the course pursued is much the same, except that no surveyor CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 5j is appointed by the candidates, and consequently they do not meet to elect one. The hills of quantities are taken out by a surveyor of the Royal Engineer Department, the Secre- tary of State being responsible for their accuracy. In the case of triennial contracts, as the work chiefly turns on repairs and contingencies, the amount and the details of which cannot be worked out beforehand, there cannot be any specification. All that can be done is to state the rate at which repairs are to be executed ; and this is em- bodied in schedules which lay down what is to be charged for materials, for labour, for certain likely jobs, &c., &c. In other respects, the course followed is much the same as for contracts for works estimated to cost less than 5000^. Contracts by the other departments or persons previously enumerated resemble in their nature either Commissariat contracts or Royal Engineer contracts for lump-sums, accord- ing to whether they are made for a constant supply of articles at a certain rate, or for a single delivery of some large quantity of goods or materials. They are therefore governed by analogous rules, the knowledge of which is not of the same importance as that of the rules followed in Commis- sariat and Engineer contracts, because contracts by all other parties concern only the central Administration and are, so to speak, purely War Office afiairs. The Commissariat and Royal Engineer contracts, on the contrary, are intimately connected with local or District afiairs. III. The Financial Department. The third and last great department of the War Office is that charged with the cash transactions and accounts of the Army. It receives and disburses all sums receivable or pay- able for military services and generally superintends the movement of military funds. At the head of the department is an official of high rank termed the Financial Secretary. Like the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, he changes with the Ministry, and each political change which places a new Secretary of State at the 58 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. head of the Army also gives it a new Financial Secretary. He is generally chosen from among those members of Parlia- ment who are skilled in financial business. The politico-financial afiairs of the Army are managed by the Financial Secretary himself, as are also all main questions. He, moreover, instructs his immediate subordinates and maintains a general superintendence over his department. But the ordinary management of the routine of the military accounts and their more immediate superintendence devolves on the Financial Secretary's second — the Accountant-General. This official, who is in a very responsible position, is assisted at the War Office by a Deputy- Accountant, an Assistant- Accountant, and an establishment of Civil Service clerks. Although certain small amounts, such as rents, proceeds of sales, &c., are received and added to Army funds, it need hardly be said that the great bulk of the money devoted to military purposes is obtained from the revenue of the country. The budget annually passed by Parliament includes the Army estimates. The amount voted for the Army is placed at the disposal of the Financial Secretary and is drawn upon by him, through the Treasury, as it is required. But he is under certain restrictions in this respect : the amount to be spent on the Army in any one year is not simply voted in a single lump sum ; the Army estimates are divided into votes, wliich again are subdivided into difierent heads ; and these heads specify to what service each portion of the total is to be applied. In certain places, there are, of course, some margins allowed for unforeseen contingencies ; but still the Financial Secretary is very closely tied down as to how the whole sum voted for the Army shall be distributed in its application. The efiect of this method of voting the esti- mates is, that a Financial Secretary or a Secretary of State for War cannot starve a service in which he may feel but little interest in order to overfeed some other which may be his hobby. Parliament chooses to keep this much of the busi- ness in its own hands ; and a Secretary of State for War may have a surplus under some particular vote, at the same time CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 59 that he is sorely pressed for money, and has to economize, in some other direction. The ' Army Pay Department ' is a corps of officers which carries out the duties connected with receiving, disbursing, and accounting for Army funds under the directions of the Financial Secretary. The Paymasters who compose this corps render their accounts to the Accountant-General. The whole of the cash transactions of the Army are con- ducted by the Paymasters of the Army Pay Department. With the exceptions below specified, no other persons in the Army ever handle money, except to receive their own pay and allowances, or, vice versa, to pay in sums recoverable from them. Various departments and corps make contracts, buy, sell, hire, or let ; but all the paying and receiving con- nected with these bargains is done by the Army Pay Depart- ment. The exceptions to this rule are : first, officers com- manding companies in the Infantry, and officers of other arms or corps in a similar position (and, in a lesser degree, the Pay-Sergeants of these officers) who are virtually petty Pay- masters for their companies, &c. ; second, officers to whom, sums of Government money may be confided on imprest. Thus, for instance, an officer in command of a detachment far away from a Paymaster may be advanced a sum of money for the payment of his men ; or an officer about to proceed with a party may, in the same way, be intrusted with money for the subsistence and petty expenses of his party. And it is to be noted that no officer can refuse to receive money on imprest. Army Agents also act as Paymasters for officers of all arms, at home, and for the Household Troops, keeping an account with the Accountant-General in the same manner as Pay- masters. In every District there is a * District Paymaster,' who- conducts all the iion-regimental cash affairs of the District and also acts as regimental Paymaster for the StaiF and depart- ments serving within the District. Attached to every regiment of Infantry and Cavalry, to every Artillery financial district, and to eveiy Infantry regi- ^0 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. mental district, is a Paymaster. The last-mentioned class of Paymasters have also charge of the cash duties of the Militia belonging to the regimental district. Besides the Paymasters in charge above mentioned, every District Paymaster is usually allowed several junior officers as assistants in his office. Paymasters in charge and Army Agents, being in direct account with the War Office, are termed accountants ; while all persons with whom they may be in account are, in mili- tary financial language, termed ' sat6-accountants.' Thus a regimental Paymaster is an accountant, while the Captains, Quartermaster, &c. , of the regiment who are in account with him are among his sub-accountants. Paymasters are placed, for disciplinary purposes, under the combatant officers to whose commands they may be at- tached for duty. Therefore all letters and similar correspon- dence with the War Office are transmitted through the com- manding officer. But, as regards routine duties and the documents in connection with accounts, this business is carried on between the War Office and Paymasters directly and without reference to combatant officers in command. Agents and Paymasters forward to the Financial Secretary «ome days before the beginning of a month their estimates of the money they will require for that month. The estimates of District Paymasters include all sums required for depart- mental services, such as payments falling due to contractors, &c. These estimates are then examined in the Accountant- General's office, and, if they call for no remarks, the money is issued to the Paymasters, generally in instalments as re- quired, by means of Treasury drafts on the Banks of England or Ireland, issued by the Paymaster-General (a Treasury official) on the order of the Financial Secretary. Every District Paymaster renders his accounts to the Financial Secretary monthly before the 15th of the month following that to which the account relates. In this monthly account, the transactions are classified on Army Form N" 1477, so as to agree with the several votes and heads in the Army estimates. CENTBAL ADMINISTKATION. 61 A detailed statement of their expenditure and receipts is. rendered by regimental, and regimental district, Paymasters periodically to the War Office. This statement, which is the definite claim against the public for money disbursed, is called the pay-list and is sent in by certain corps to the War Office quarterly ; but Paymasters of Infantry battalions and Cavalry regiments and those of regimental districts send in half-yearly pay-lists only. At the end of each of those quarters when no pay-list is; rendered, a less elaborate and more summary account, called an account current, is forwarded by the Paymasters before^ mentioned. By means of these documents the Accountant-General is. able to watch the expenditure of Army funds and to see that every item is charged to the proper vote ; and, in checking claims and other charges forwarded by Paymasters for ap- proval previous to their appearing in accounts, he is able to carry out the Financial Secretary's directions on military expenditure. Having thus briefly passed in review the mechanism of the War Office and of the Central Administration of the Army, it is right to say that an opinion exists that our military ad- ministrative system is too much centralized. It" is said that a very great deal of the work done at the War Office is work which might be, certainly more expeditiously, and probably more efficiently and satisfactorily, done at the head quarters of districts or corps ; that an undue amount of time is taken up at the War Office, and an undue amount of expensive labour employed in dealing with small questions of routine detail ; that the more serious business of preparation for war during; peace time, which is the legitimate task of the War Office, isi somewhat clogged by the full occupation which, even in peace time, is given by the system of referring so many petty questions to the great central office. It is obvious that a general control must be maintained by the War Office over subordinate administrative centres, and a watchful superintendence exercised over their working ; 62 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. but the contention is that supervision and not direct manage- ment is what is required, and that the present system of doing almost everything at the War Office itself is cumbrous and unsatisfactory. The War Office at present has somewhat the appearance of a man who wishes to do all by his own hand-labour : it is held that it could do far more by ma- chinery, and if it rather resembled a man carefully watching the working of a large engine ; contenting itself with getting up the steam, relieving the pressure, easing the friction, oil- ing the parts, and remedying defects in the machine, but not touching the work itself. It is not so easy at the War Office to judge fairly of a matter as it is on the spot ; written correspondence is multiplied, delays occur, and, after all, the result is not always satisfactory. It is urged, on this side of the question, that, so far as expenditure goes, proba- bly more money is spent in the organizatior of this system of checking everything, however trifling, at the War Office itseK, than could be lost if, subject to an efficient War Office control, greater latitude were given to the officials of sub- ordinate centres, and that all matters should be thoroughly sifted at these subordinate centres and presented in their lifted form only to the great office. But, although it may be possible to work great and economical reforms in our present administrative system, and to decentralize it to a certain extent, the truth is, that the great difficulty lies in the fact that the small bodies into which our Army is divided are ever-moving. No larger units than those now existing will suit, or lit into, our system of foreign reliefs. So long as that system remains a charac- teristic of the British army, so long are we prohibited from organizing, as abroad, regiments of Infantry of several battalions, permanently working as a body under one com- mand : still less can we institute or keep together masses such as perm^inent brigades or divisions. There are two permanent organizations in the British Army, and two only : the one is, the War Office ; the other is the regiment or corps. Between these two, the District is a mere chance aggregation of troops. To-day a regiment is CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 63 in one District, to-morrow it is in another ; and it is no doubt felt that, even if a certain meed of independence were given to the District as an administrative centre, its relations 'with the regimental officials under it would not be satisfactory, inasmuch as the latter would not be permanently subordi nated to it. Hence the tendency to throw everything up to the War Office as the only centre under which, under exist- ing circumstances, regiments will always be. As an instance, relating to Administration, of the extreme courses which we are induced to adopt by our present cen- tralized system we may mention the case of the organization of the various departments under the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. Some years ago it was thought that great advan- tages would result from an amalgamation into one depart- ment of all the duties connected with stores, with supplies, with transport, with barracks and with pay. This amalgama- tion was carried out and the ' Control Department ' formed. The effect was, naturally, that, while the interior working of the department was necessarily complicated, the relations of the combatant portion of the Army with the administrative were much simplified, since on all subjects there was but one head to whom application should be made, and since the Controller was responsible for all. A matter once in his hands, the rest was an afiair of departmental detail. In theory, this would seem to be a great advantage, inasmuch as it appears to be all-important that the combatant portion of the Army should have the simplest possible relations with the administrative. It would appear to be a far less evil that an officer whose whole business is Administration should have a somewhat difficult and complicated task than that the working portion of the Army, for whose service all Adminis- tration exists, should be in any way puzzled or confused between its relations with a number of different depart- ments. But, practically, it was found that the Control system (imitated from the French Intendance) was not suited to our Army, and that the disadvantage of complication within the department outweighed the advantage of simplicity in the 64 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. relations between the combatant and administrative person- nels. We have, to a great extent, returned by degrees to the old system : first, the store duties were separated from the rest by the formation of a distinct Ordnance Store Depart- ment, leaving supply, transport, barrack and cash duties, to be performed by the Commissariat and Transport Depart- ment ; and more lately, we have, by the institution of the Army Pay Department, taken the cash duties from the Com- missariat. The last change seems both logical and wise : logical^ because it seems right that the Financial Secretary should have his own personnel to carry out the duties wliich are within his competence, instead of seeing them carried out by officers responsible, not to him, but to the Surveyor- General of the Ordnance ; ivise, because it is a wholesome and proper thing that those who make contracts and bargains or who deal in stores should have nothing to do with the paying or receiving part of these transactions, and that the handling of money should be a distinct and separate busi- ness.^ But it is not so easy to see why the union should have failed of those among these services which all depend upon the Ordnance Department of the War Office as a common head, or to account for the great difficulties which arose when the duties connected with stores, supplies, bar- racks, and transport were united in the Control Department. We shall probably find the true reason to be the absence of any common rallying-points short of the War Office itself. 1 It is right to say here that many Commissariat officers consider that a great mistake has been made in taking the control of the purse from the department, urging that in war time its officers must be in a position to purchase and expend money directly and without any communication with other departments. Nothing, however, even now prevents large imprests being made on service to Commissariat officers. To do more than this, and to give one particular department unlimited power over the money resources, might be, no doubt, an excellent system if the other work of that department was all that money was required for ; but as that is not the case, it seems better that some independent department, with no other attributions, and therefore no purpose or bias of its own, should impartially look after the cash f(»r- the whole Army. CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION. 65 It is one thing to establish a connection between two or three huge departments, ramifying all through the whole British Army, and quite another thing to unite those services District hy District. In the former case, the scheme is so vast that the practical difficulty of interior complication outweighs the theoretical advantage of simplicity in outward relations. For want of some tangible object which might take up their interest, the officers of each sub-department kept what zeal and interest they could muster for their own particular portion of the task of Administration. Generalizing their ideas so as to learn and control all administrative services involved going so far that a repugnance to it was felt. It was very difficult to form efficient Controllers. But it is diffi- cult, too, to give up the idea that great advantages to the bulk of the Army would not result in having in every District (or similar organization) a central administrative office to act as a kind of ' clearing-house ' in the outward relations of the Ordnance services with the combatant portion of the Army ; and it seems quite an open question if a union between those services on a smaller scale (say District by District), would not be attended with success. Of course, there was something like a District organization under the Control system ; but what is here alluded to is a firmer and more independent organization than existed in the days of Control. Thus, if, by the establishment of large depots in Districts, the necessity for communicating with the central stores at Woolwich and elsewhere, were very greatly reduced ; if much greater inde- pendence were conferred on the District personnel in dealing with supply questions ; if the barrack services could be sim- plified so as to be managed locally ; if a plan of periodical inspection could be substituted for the continual reference to the War Office ; then the administrative personnel of a Dis- trict would come to consider itself something like a corps ; a supply officer would think less of the supply department all over the world and more of oil services in his District in parti- cular ; a store officer would act similarly ; and so with other branches ; and the result would be that these several branches would work more harmoniously into one another's hands and I. F 66 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. the officers would gain general knowledge of all administra- tive work, because, on a smaller scale than has been yet pos- sible, the various branches would be brought in close contact with one another, would see into each other's working, and would have a common object in view close at hand. The greater latitude given to officers would yield the best training they could receive, while it is not easy to see that they would enjoy any greater freedom than that at present possessed by the lower War Office officials, who must now necessarily practi- cally examine, check, and control the District business and even suggest to their overworked chiefs decisions on that business. To take one instance of the beneficial influence a little more local independence of Administration might have, we may mention the power for good it would confer on the officers managing the business of supply. We have seen that it is impossible, with our system of moving regiments, that these can make their own contracts as regiments do in some foreign States. But, short of this, it would surely be well if the Commissariat officers had some control over local con- tractors. If an understanding be once established between an unscrupulous contractor and certain regimental subordi- nates who are frequently consulted as to the quality of supplies by credulous or inexperienced officers at the issues, the troops and horses may sufier very much. A Commissary may, as things are now, have more than a suspicion of the state of things ; but he has no direct hold on the contractor : he must either let things be or plunge into a War Office correspondence, when a decision will be come to, from afar, and weeks after an event calling for immediate action. If a Commissary, full of zeal, should daily inspect the supplies and resolutely condemn them in spite of both contractors and regimental authorities, the result probably is that he raises the price of the contract the next time it is opened, and he gets little thanks for the zeal which has, nevertheless, for a time given the soldier his due. Many things can be seen on the spot which cannot be explained fully to a power acting from a distance ; a small amount of verbal testimony places CENTRAL ADMINISTEATION. 67 nn officer in a better position to form a correct view of the state of things than volumes of correspondence. And, indeed, it is probably not overstating the case to say, that about a quarter of an hour's conversation between heads of depart- ments on the spot where some question arose would be more likely to bring them to a clear understanding and unanimous opinion than would six letters and six weeks' delay spent in correspondence with heads of departments at the War Office. It is no small advantage that that correspondence is unne- cessary, and that time is saved, while much work is taken off the shoulders of the War Office. On these and on other grounds, there is a great deal to be said in favour of a greater decentralization of the administra- tive work done at the War Office and of the greater distribu- tion of the stores at present accumulated in one central arsenal. Whether this decentralization be possible or not, there can be little doubt that, if it could be brought about, its effect could not be other than very great in training officers (not only departmental, but also combatant) in the work of Administration, and in developing an aptitude on their part for that kind of independent action which is at times so valuable in war, and yet the want of which has been so fre- quently remarked as a shortcoming in the training of British officers. As it is. War Office officials are (owing to our great centralization) surfeited with administrative details, while the talents of the great body of officers lie almost fallow and unde- veloped for want of exercise. f2 68 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. CHAPTER III. DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION. Next in order below the War Office, the unit for administra- tive purposes (if it may be called so) is the District. In the case, however, of the three Districts into which Ireland is divided, there exists an intermediate step between them and the War Office in the shape of the Head Quarter Administra- tion for Ireland in Dublin : these three Districts, therefore, do not (as do the others) communicate directly with the War Office. Each independent command abroad is treated, in many respects, in much the same way as if it were a District : but there are circumstances connected with foreign commands, such as great distance from England, relations with Colonial Governments, the variety in the extent or importance of these commands, in some cases the separation of a command into jmrts distant from one another, &c., which introduce many special features into Administration abroad. In the main, however, the administrative rules applying to Districts hold good for commands abroad with the excep- tion of India. Indian Administration is quite independent of War Office control, and the Imperial troops serving in India are, so to speak, lent to the India Office, the War Office washing its hands of almost the whole of their Administra- tion until the return of the troops to England or their passage from India to a Colony. This is not the case in the Colonies ; the troops there serving are as completely under the War Office as those serving at home ; although, as before stated, circumstances introduce certain differences DISTRICT — GENERAL STAFF. 69 between Administration at home and Administration in the C/olonies. It is not possible, in the limits of this book, to go into the large subject of Indian Administration. Some differences between the home and Colonial systems will be alluded to as the cases occur. It is well to bear in mind that the chief of these differences arise from the fact that Colonies are very far distant, and that therefore the General or the Officer Commanding, and also heads of departments, are necessarily given a much greater independence of action and freedom from immediate War Office supervision. Many questions, therefore, which a General Commanding a District at home must refer for decision to the War Office can be settled in a Colony on the spot and without such reference. The division of the United Kingdom into Districts is some- what irregular. Not only do they differ very much in extent, but hardly any two Districts exactly resemble one another in the establishments of their administrative personnels. As to size. Districts vary inversely to the accumulation of troops : there being a large number of troops in the south of England, that part of the country is divided into several Districts, some of which are of very small extent territorially ; while, as there are but few troops in the north, the ^Northern Dis- trict is of comparatively enormous extent. The Districts of Woolwich and Chatham are mere Garrisons which hardly include any territory beyond that of the garrison town giving the name. The tactical camp at Aldershot, which contains alone more troops than any other District, has a very limited territorial extent ; but it is denominated a District. The islands of Jersey and Guernsey, which cannot be conveniently joined to any other command or together, are treated as petty Districts with a very much reduced administrative personnel. The Chatham and Belfast Districts are rated as brigade commands only, and have not the full Staff given to the more important commands. The South Eastern District has within it and subordinated to its General, a brigade command at Shorncliffe, and similarly the Curragh Camp forms a brigade under the Commander of the Dublin District. 70 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. The larger Districts are subdivided into sub- districts and regimental districts for certain administrative purposes. Thus, in a District, there are Engineer sub-districts, and Com- missariat sub- districts by no means identical ; but the Infantry regimental districts in a District are generally far more numerous than the sub-districts into which it is divided for other purposes. These regimental districts correspond to the depots of the Infantry territorial regiments ; and, as these are usually fairly distributed over the kingdom, it follows that an extensive District contains a great many regimental districts ; a small District, few ; while the Woolwich, Chat- ham, Aldershot, Jersey and Guernsey Districts have none. As an example : the Northern District is, for Engineer pur- poses, divided into four sub-districts ; for Commissariat pur- poses, it consists of seven sub-districts ; it is divided, as concerns the Army Hospital Corps, in another manner into four parts; and it contains twenty-six Infantry regimental districts. As regards the Auxiliary Forces, the general District organization of the kingdom is subject to certain exceptions. There is no Auxiliary Cavalry in Ireland or in the Channel Islands ; and Great Britain is divided into two Auxiliary Cavalry Districts, each under an Inspecting Officer ; the two- Inspecting Officers having their head quarters respectively at York and Aldershot. The District of Chatham exists only as regards the Regular Forces ; the Auxiliary troops within its limits belong to the South Eastern District ; otherwise, the Auxiliary Artillery, Engineers and Infantry of each District belong to it. The Artillery is under the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery of the District who, for this purpose, has. a subordinate Field Officer of Royal Artillery (or sometimes two) in immediate charge of Auxiliary Artillery. The Engineers are under the District Commanding Royal Engineer. The Auxiliary Infantry forms an integral part of the terri- torial regiments of the District. Having thus premised that no two Districts exactly resemble one another, and that between some the difference is very great, it will be sufficient for our present purpose if DISTRICT GENERAL STAFF. 71 Tve consider the administrative working within what may be called an average District. A District is commanded by a General Officer ; usually he is a Major General ; but whatever his rank he is officially termed the ' General Officer Commanding ' the District. The General Officer Commanding always has an Aide-de-Camp : an Officer who is attached to him personally and whose rank is never higher than that of Major. He attends to the military household of the General, travels with him, assists him in his correspondence and carries his orders in the field. Under the General Officer Commanding, the actual work of the Command and Administration of the District is carried out by the General Staff and the departmental officers attached to it. The Staff Officers are: {Assistant- Adjutant-General (a Field Officer, usu- ally a Colonel). Deputy- Assistant- Adjutant-General (a Major or Captain). / Assistant-Quarter-Master-General (a Field Officer, £1 usually a Colonel). ' Deputy - Assistant - Quarter - Master - General (a Major or Captain), iii. Deputy-Assistant-Adjutant-General for Musketry (a Major or Captain). iv. Garrison Instructor (a Major or Captain). V. Officer Commanding Royal Artillery (a Colonel), vi. Commanding Royal Engineer (a Colonel). The departmental chiefs are : vii. The Senior Commissariat Officer, viii. The Senior Ordnance Store Officer, ix. The District Paymaster. X. The Principal Medical Officer. There is also, in the District, an Inspector or Sub-In- spector of Military Schools. There is no District head to the Veterinary Department. In most Districts, there is, at the Head Quarter station, a 72 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTEATION. Veterinary Surgeon whose duties include the charge of the horses belonging to the Staff and departmental officers and of such detachments as may not be specially provided for. But there is no officer in whose hands the veterinary duties of a District are centralized. The various Chaplains who may be stationed in the District have no recognized departmental superior in that District ; all those of the Anglican Church correspond di- rectly with the Chaplain-General. The General Officer Commanding the District is supreme in his command ; the discipline of all officers and troops within it is in his hands ; and this rule applies quite as much to the officers of administrative departments as to others. He is entitled to the services of all, and they must, in all cases, obey him. But here comes a rather delicate point in connection with administrative services. It has been seen that the head of each department in the District is not only the chief of his particular service as regards the General, but also a sub- ordinate of the War Office chief of that service. Thus, the Senior Commissariat Officer is the subordinate of the General and also of the Director of Supplies ; the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, of the General and also of the Director of Artillery and Stores ; &c. That this complication should exist is clearly an effect of the direct centralization of all administrative services at the War Office. If all questions of mere routine could be finally settled on the General's responsibility in the District, there would remain only for transmission to the War Office tha class of administrative business which, as will be described, already passes thither from heads of departments through the General. However, to diminish the inconvenience arising from these double relations, and to prevent any evils generating from a sense of a divided allegiance on the part of heads of services, it is obvious that certain rules must be laid down ; accordingly this has been done, and the general rules are, broadly, as follows : — DISTKICT — GENEEAL STAFF. 715 On matters connected with the regular routine duties of his department the District head of that department receives instructions directly from his War Office superior, with whom on these subjects he also corresponds directly. Most of these matters are simply the working out of predetermined and pub- lished regulations. The greater number of the returns rendered from departments are included in this class of work. This is a simple matter of con- venience which saves time and circumlocution, and it cannot be supposed that the General Officer Com- manding can have any wish to burden himself with the transmission of such documents or questions. But any special matter or application, even if it be in- tended to reach the War Office head of the appli- cant's own department, must go to the General for transmission ; as must also any subject concerning another department within the District which he may require to have settled at the War Office. And every administrative officer is, within the Regula- tions published for his guidance, completely at the ditsposal of the General Officer Commanding. Even if the - General's orders should entail a departure from the departmental Regulations, it is the duty of the administrative officer, after having submitted the difficulty to the General, to obey his order should he persist in it. Only, in this case, he must report the occurrence, through the General himself, to the War Office. General, or other Officers Com- manding, have, in certain emergencies requiring immediate action, a discretionary power to dispense with the course which is essential under ordinary circumstances. Although much routine duty is transacted by direct correspondence between the War Office and District administrative officers, there is, of course, a con- siderable amount which never goes beyond the District, and, as regards this portion of his work, 74 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. the administrative officer is, clearly, altogether in relations with the General Officer Commanding and no one else. Administrative officers, in common with all others serving in a command, obtain their leave of absence from the Officer Commanding. But, inasmuch as their absence may entail inconvenience departmentally, especially if it were not known at the War Office, heads of departments must, in this matter of their private convenience, obtain the sanction of their War Office departmental chief previous to making an application for leave to the Officer Commanding. We have now to consider the administrative work done in the District by the personnel above enumerated. The General Officer Commanding a District, independently of the executive and disciplinary duties belonging to the command, makes himself acquainted with the resources and military condition of his District. In particular, he keeps himself informed as to the com- pleteness and serviceability of all the equipment within his command, which includes the armaments of defensive works, the stock of ammunition in magazines and the equipment of troops and barracks. He is responsible for the distribution, quartering, and movement of troops within his District. No soldier can be discharged without reference to the General Officer Commanding. In most cases he has power to carry out discharges without obtaining the sanction of higher authority, but certain special cases must be submitted by him to the Adjutant-General of the Forces or, in Ireland, to the Deputy- Adjutant-General at Dublin. Every General Commanding a District at home forwards every Saturday to one or the other of the offices above-mentioned, as the case may be, a nominal list of the discharges he has carried out during the preceding week (Army Form C. 380) accompanied by the discharge documents. The discharges which must be referred to superior authority for approval are mentioned hereafter under the head of Regimental Administration. DISTKICT— GENERAL STAFF. 75 The course followed by General Officers Commanding as regards men brought forward for invaliding is described later under the head of the Medical Department. No horse may be cast without having been seen by a General Officer (Queen's Regulations, Sect. XI. para. 16). Usually the General Officer is the Inspector-General of Cavalry as far as Cavalry horses are concerned ; but the duty may devolve on the General Officer Commanding the District. At home stations, no horse can be definitely cast without the approval of the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, ob- tained through the Adjutant-General ; abroad, the sanction of the General or other Officer Commanding is sufficient. Exceptionally, however, where immediate action is necessary on the spot, the Officer Commanding the corps may, after certain formalities, order the destruction of a horse. This, case will be alluded to in treating of Regimental Adminis- tration. The General Officer Commanding has, within certain limits, discretionary power in emergencies to order issues of supplies or stores not provided for by standing regulations and to order the Commanding Royal Engineer to undertake work which, in the ordinary course of things, would require War Office authority. But whenever the General uses this discretionary power he is at once to report the circumstances to the proper authority at the War Office. The two Staff Colonels who are the direct assistants of the General Officer Commanding in his functions of command also assist him in administrative duties. These Officers are both styled ' Assistant- Adjutant-General ' and ' Assistant- Quarter-Master-General ' so that they may be interchange- able ; but, practically, they divide the work between them ; one taking the duty of Assistant- Adjutant-General and the other that of Assistant-Quarter-Master-General. As regards these Officers, the double relation to two distinct authorities which exists as regards the heads of departmental adminis- trative services does not exist. They have no communication with the War Office, except through, or in the name of, the- General Officer Commanding. 76 ELEMENTS OF MILITAHY ADMINISTRATION. The business of the Adjutant-GeneraPs and Quarter- Master-GeneraPs divisions in the District being, of course, less in amount and less elaborate than it is at the War Office, the distribution of this business between the two divisions, although in the main the same, is in some particulars subject to slight modification. Thus the Assistant-Quarter-Master- General of a District may in some cases take the duties corresponding to those performed at the War Office by the Deputy- Adjutant-General for Auxiliary Forces ; while the class of work done at the War Office by the Military Secre- tary falls to the Assistant- Adjutant-General. I. THE adjutant-general's DIVISION IN THE DISTRICT. The Assistant- Adjutant-General of a District is fully occu- pied in attending to the executive duties of the command, to disciplinary afiairs, to the preparation of returns, &c. He has little to do with administrative matters except that, being the channel through which all orders are communicated and the General's mouthpiece, he finds himself in relation with the heads of all services. But the heads of departments have the right reserved to them, by the various books of regulations, of direct personal communication with the General Officer Commanding. The Deputy- Assistant- Adjutant-General is simply an assistant to the Assistant-Adjutant-General. The duties are, in most Districts, combined with those of Deputy- Assistant-Quarter-Master-General ; the same Major or Cap- tain acting as assistant to both the Staff Colonels. II. THE quarter-master-general's DIVISION IN THE DISTRICT. The duties of the Assistant-Quarter-Master-General are more closely connected with Administration than are those of the Assistant- Adjutant-General. He superintends the distribution and quartering of tlie troops. These duties throw him into relation with the Oommissariat Department. He ascertains from the head of DISTHICT — GENERAL STAFF. 77 that department and from the Commanding Royal Engineer the amount and the condition of all buildings and barracks in the District. He receives all communications from corps or officers on the question of quarters or accommodation of any kind. Questions as to re-appropriation of quarters or buildings are considered by him and submitted by him to the General. The Assistant-Quarter-Master-General has among other things to provide prison accommodation for soldiers under sentence by courts martial. In some Districts, there are military prisons ; in this case the question is simple ; for the man is without more ado committed to one of these gaols. But many Districts are wholly dependent for prison room on certain civil gaols, in each of which a certain number of cells are set apart by order of the Government for the imprisonment of soldiers. The Assistant-Quarter-Master- General distributes the prisoners among these gaols with a due regard to the neighbourhood of each to the stations from which the prisoners are to be moved and to the amount of unoccupied cells in each. To do this a prison-hook is kept in his office which shows him how all his cells are allotted^ the date at which each prisoner's sentence will expire, and consequently a cell become vacant. For the purpose of conducting prisoners to gaol, there are, at the Head Quarters of every District, two or three Uscort Warders. These men are selected pensioners and are under Military Law. When a prisoner or prisoners have to be conveyed to a gaol at any distance, an Escort Warder is provided with a route and directed to take over the man or men from their corps. He attends with suits of prison clothing and handcuffs at the guard-room and escorts the prisoner or prisoners to their destination. The prisoners travel in prison clothing, the Escort Warder taking with him the prisoners' regimental clothing if the men are not to be discharged after their release. He deposits the regimental clothing in the hands of the Governor of the prison for the use of the men on release. When no Escort Warders are available, escorts of the troops must do the duty. In this. 78 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. case, the prisoners travel in uniform, which is brought back to the corps by the commander of the escort if the men are to be discharged after their imprisonment, or, if not, is left, pending the prisoners' release, in charge of the prison Governor. When men are released from prison, their corps is directed to send a non-commissioned ofl&cer for them. The movement of troops is another important duty of the Assistant-Quarter-Master-General. He makes all necessary Staff arrangements for the reception, rationing, transport &c. of bodies of men. This work throws him into relation with various services. If troops have to be disembarked an officer of the Quarter-Master-General's division must await the arrival of the troop-ship, go on board and concert with the Naval Officer Commanding the best manner, time, &c. for putting the troops ashore. The officer receives from the Commanding Officer of the troops onboard his * disembarkation return ' (Army Form B 135 for regiments, B 125 for drafts). Meanwhile, the necessary transport will be awaiting at the landing-place, having been requisitioned by the Assistant- Quarter-Master-General from the Senior Commissariat Officer. The same officer will also have been ordered to prepare the necessary amount of rations. Converse operations are per- formed (always watched by an officer of the Quarter-Master- General's division) on the embarkation of troops. When troops are moved by rail, the Assistant-Quarter- Master-General apprizes and makes all needful arrangements with the railway companies concerned, without the inter- vention of the Commissariat Department, which has nothing to do with railway transport. When considerable bodies of troops are moved by rail, special trains are usually secured beforehand by the Assistant- Quarter-Master-General ; or arrangements may be made for attaching to ordinary trains a sufficient number of carriages, trucks and horse-boxes. But small parties are almost always despatched by means of the ordinary trains and steamboats. When a body of troops is ordered to move, the Com- manding Officer is furnished by the Assistant-Quarter-Master- General with a route. If the movement is wholly within the DISTKICT — GENERAL STAFF. 79 District the route is a District route, and emanates from the Assistant-Quarter-Master-General under the General's au- thority. If the movement is to extend beyond the District, a route signed by the Quarter-Master-General at the Horse Guards, and called a General route, is sent down to the General Officer Commanding the District in which the troops are stationed and is forwarded by his Assistant-Quarter- Master-General to the Officer Commanding the corps. A route is the authority under which a movement of troops is carried out. It differs from a simple order by the fact that the orders of military officers are binding only on the Army, whereas the route is a legal instrument, issuing originally from the Secretary of State for War, in virtue of powers conferred on him by Section 103 of the Army Act. It is, therefore, binding on all persons with whom the troops may come in contact during the movement. Thus, a mere order would not entitle troops to billets or compel civilians to furnish transport, &c. The form of a route (Army Form O 1736) begins with a short printed paragraph, signed by the Secretary of State, authorizing, in general terms, the movement to be filled in by order of the military officer. Then follows the direction of this officer (Field Marshal Commanding-in-Cliief or General, as the case may be) de- scribing the movement, the itinerary to be followed, the means of travelling (by march, by rail, by steam, &c.) and specifying the corps, body of troops, party, or men to proceed. The officer or non-commissioned officer in command of the troops keeps this document in his possession ; he has to fill in the exact strength of the body of troops ; if billets or transport are required on the march, he not only uses this route as his authority, but he must obtain the necessary entries from the proper civil authorities. At the end of the journey, he signs it and sends it to the Paymaster of the corps or District. When bodies of troops travel by ordinary trains or steam- packet, the commander, before starting, produces his route to the Paymaster of his corps and obtains from him warrants for the railway or other companies. These are virtually 80 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. orders on the companies for tickets to travel for the party. - They specify the number and composition of the party and are given out instead of payment by the commander as he proceeds on his journey. The company concerned issues a ticket in exchange for each warrant, and can then, by means of the latter document, recover the amount due by Govern- ment according to regulated rates for the conveyance furn- ished ; wliile the route itself, when it finds its way back to the Pay Department, shows that the warrants were properly issued. Information on all points connected with the topography the statistics, the resources, the communications, &c. of the District is a Quarter-Master- General's question. He is ex- pected to keep his General completely informed on all such matters and on such as have a strategical or tactical bearing. Consequently, all reconnaissances are conducted under his direction. Instruction in Army signalling is another matter under the Assistant-Quarter-Master-General. The superintendence of canteens, and recreation rooms, and of the system of cooking carried out in the District, are minor matters of Administration to which the Assistant- Quarter-Master-General attends. III. MUSKETRY IN THE DISTRICT. The Deputy- Assistant- Adjutant-General for Musketry has no administrative functions. The appointment is held by a Captain or Major who has qualified at the Hythe School of Musketry : it is not necessary that he should have qualified himself at the Staff College as in the case of other officers holding Staff employment. His duties are to supervise the musketry instruction of all corps within the District and compile the returns con- nected with it for transmission to the Inspector-General of Musketry at Hythe. It is necessary to say that this officer does not exist on the establishment of every District : certain Districts are. DISTKICT GENERAL STAFF. 81 for musketry purposes, grouped together : others, however, are independent in this respect. IV. GARRISON INSTRUCTION. The Garrison Instructor of the District is all officer of the rank of Captain or Major who has passed through the Staff College. He is departmentally under the Director- General of Military Education and is charged with the instruction of officers in professional subjects which enables them to pass their examinations for promotion. He is expected to afford instruction, in addition to the regulaJr courses held twice a year, to all officers requiring it and to assist those who are preparing for entrance to the Staff College. He moreover superintends the short regimental courses of instruction in field sketching and reconnaissance for non-commissioned officers throughout the District. He is available generally for Staff duty under the General Officer Commanding and is expected to give him all information that he may require on the matters above mentioned. His duties are administrative so far that he is the channel through which (by Army Circular 187 of 1880) Officers Com- manding corps obtain instruments and materials on loan for the instruction of non-commissioned officers before men- tioned, and that he is in charge of a small Reference Library of military works from which all officers in the District can borrow books for their instruction in professional subjects. The great dearth of technical military libraries in this country makes it a matter of desire that these little collections should be greatly expanded so as to form a valuable military library for the District, accessible to all the officers serving therein. As the title of Garrison Instructor is somewhat misleading, it becomes necessary to explain that he is in no way connected with one more than with another garrison in the District, but that his duties extend to the whole command. 82 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. V. THE ROYAL ARTILLERY DEPARTMENT WITHIN THE DISTRICT. The Artillery service has a double aspect : in the first place, the Royal Artillery is a corps of troops ; in the second place, there are duties in connection with defensive works and their armaments which fall to the Artillery in the exer- cise of which it must be looked upon as an administrative department, albeit the term of * Royal Artillery Department ' is not one officially recognized, as is that of * Royal Engineer Department.' In every District there is a Colonel of Artillery termed the * Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery,' who is, at one and the same time, the Commanding Officer of all the Artillery troops which may be stationed within the District and the head of all the administrative services to which allu- sion has just been made. He also acts with respect to the Assistant- Adjutant-General of the District somewhat as does the Deputy- Adjutant-General of Royal Artillery at the War Office to the Adjutant-General as regards the District afikirs of the Artillery. He commands the Royal Artillery directly, and the Auxiliary Artillery through the medium of the Lieutenant- Colonel or Lieutenant-Colonels of Royal Artillery specially appointed to the commands of Auxiliary Artillery sub-districts within the District. The Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery has a Captain of his own corps to assist him in his duties : this officer is the Brigade-Major of Royal Artillery. As Commanding Officer of the Artillery troops of the District, the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery stands in the same relation to the General Officer Commanding as does every other Commanding Officer ; corresponding through the General on special questions peculiar to the Royal Artillery with the Deputy- Adjutant-General of that Corps at the Horse Guards, to whom also he sends his periodical returns directly. The administrative work of the Officer Commanding the DISTRICT — ROYAL ARTILLERY. 83 Royal Artillery is that connected with the charge of defensive ^^orks and their equipment. It has been said that as soon as the Royal Engineer Department has completed the construction of a defensive work, the Commanding Royal Engineer hands it over to the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery in the same way as he hands over barracks to the custody of the Commissariat Department. The equipment of a work depends on its armament ; and its armament is predetermined when the work is planned. The details of this equipment are given in the ' Regulations for the Equipment of the Army,' and include the guns, carriages (with all their subsidiary stores), stores for the conduct of the Artillery service of the work, and ammunition in regulated proportions. The stores forming the equipment of a new work are despatched by the Commissary-General of Ordnance at the Royal Arsenal to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer of the District. The Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery draws the stores from the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, equips the work and fills the expense magazines. The Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery forwards an annual estimate of the stores and ammunition he will require for maintaining his equipment to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer. This estimate is examined by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer to ascertain that the regulated proportions of stores are not exceeded. If necessary, it is returned for amend- ment or explanation, and when it is ultimately satisfactorily made out it is, along with those from other services, em- bodied in the Senior Ordnance Store Officer's annual demand. Being in charge of fortified works, the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery calls upon the Commanding Royal En- gineer to execute any repairs or alterations which he may think necessary. But although works are in the custody of the Artillery, the Commanding Royal Engineer remains responsible for the preservation of the fabric of all works and buildings, and therefore he must periodically inspect them and must himself note any repair which may have g2 84 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. become necessary, even if the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery should not have drawn attention to it. Similarly, as the Senior Ordnance Store Officer is in- terested in the condition of all the stores and equipment in fortified works, and in the state of the expense magazines and ammunition, he also must have access to them periodically to make his inspection. Consequently, it is ordered that, at least once a year, the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery, the Commanding Royal Engineer, and the Senior Ordnance Store Officer shall hold a, joint inspection oi all works, magazines, stores, &c., of all their Departments. They do not do so as a board ; but their doing so conjointly expedites business, as they are able to settle most questions on the spot amongst themselves by verbal intercommunication and discussion. A report is made to the General that this joint inspection has been held before that officer makes his annual inspection report to the War Office. An officer of Royal Artillery is detailed to form part of the haK-yearly board of survey which assembles at every station where there may be a reserve depot of stores for the examination of all stores in charge of the Ordnance Store Department. This is because many articles are of the character of warlike stores, and of these an Artillery officer is presumed to have a better technical knowledge than that possessed by others. The Inspector-General of Royal Artillery periodically inspects every Artillery command : this inspection extends to the efficiency of all Artilleiy troops in the District and of tjie equipment in their possession, and also of the equipment of all defensive works. The reports and returns connected with the Artillery troops are sent direct to the Deputy- Adjutant-General of Royal Artillery at the War Office. Those connected with the materiel and armaments of works go to the Director of Artillery and Stores, a duplicate being sent to the Deputy- Adj utant-General. There is, in the' Royal Artillery, a special body of men DISTKICT — EOYAL AKTILLERY. 85 called the * Coast Brigade of Royal Artillery.' The men of this body, which is distributed in detachments all over the country, are utilized as custodians of fortified works and of their equipment and expense magazines. Certain works have no permanent Artillery garrison, in which case the Royal Artillery Department is represented altogether by a party of these men. In other works, there may be quartered a greater or less number of Garrison Artillery, and these troops will take charge of the guns, &c. , which form the armament ; but, even in these cases, there always remains a great deal of miscellaneous duty connected with the charge of the work which cannot conveniently be handed over to the ordinary Artillery garrison, and therefore there is still present a party of the Coast Brigade. Even the ordinary well-known sea-side martello towers, when they have not been dismantled, are generally occupied by two or three gunners ; or it may be that the presence of a solitary soldier of the Coast Brigade represents that the building is in the charge of the Royal Artillery. A fortified work may contain within it ordinary barracks, and generally does contain reserve magazines from which the expense magazines are filled. It is to be understood that only the fortified portions of the works and the expense magazines are in charge of the Royal Artillery. The custody of barracks is a function of the Commissariat Department, while reserve magazines and storehouses are in the charge of the Ordnance Store Department. VI. THE ROYAL ENGINEER DEPARTMENT IN THE DISTRICT. The position of the Commanding Royal Engineer of a Dis- trict is somewhat similar to that of the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery, the Royal Engineers being at one and the same time a corps and a department. The military duties of the Royal Engineers, however, are, in peace time, very light when compared with the important administrative duties which fall to their share. The Commanding Royal Engineer of a District is a {( TTWTVF.T}»TTT 1 86 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Colonel under the command of the General Officer Command- ing the District ; but he is also departmentally the subordi- nate of the Inspector-General of Fortifications at the War Office. The administrative duties of the Royal Engineer Depart- ment have already been generally described while speaking of the Directorship of Works (see p. 48) ; the Commanding Royal Engineer is at the head of those services in the District ; it will therefore be convenient to recapitulate the items of this business, and to add, in rather greater detail, the manner in which they are transacted in the District. (a) Business connected with Engineer contracts or ar- rangements for : — The construction and maintenance of works ; The purchase, sale, or hire of lands or buildings ; The disposal of the produce of lands ; The purchase or sale of building materials ; The hire of labour for Engineer services. (h) Business relating to : The planning and designing of works ; The execution or construction of works ; The repair or alteration of constructed works ; The conservation of lands. (c) Business connected with : The charge or custody of works ; The charge or custody of lands. In addition to these principal matters may be mentioned the minor administrative duty of furnishing the troops with such tools and appliances as may be necessary for their, instruction in Field Fortification. Business included under head (a) above. ' The manner in which the class of business described above- under head (a) is conducted has been fully described, so far as contracts are concerned, in speaking of the Director of DISTRICT ROYAL ENGINEER DEPARTMENT. 87 Army Contracts (see p. 55). The actual contracts are kept by this official at the War Office, and not in the District Royal Engineer office. The purchase and sale of land and buildings in a District is managed, on behalf of the War Office, by the Commanding Royal Engineer. If the initiative in the matter has not already been taken by the Secretary of State through the Inspector-General of Fortifications, any proposals for buying or selling land or buildings must, of course, be referred through the Inspector-General to the Secretary of State. The title deeds are kept by the War Office ; but they are sent to the office of the Commanding Royal Engineer of the District to be noted, after which they are returned. An accurate plan of the property is then forwarded to the Inspector-General of Fortifications. Lands or buildings may not be hired without the special sanction of the Secretary of State for War. When such property is to be acquired for periods of 21 years or more^ the Commanding Royal Engineer conducts the transac- tion under the authority of the Inspector-General of Forti- fications. Proposals for hiring for shorter periods emanate from the Senior Commissariat Officer, who makes his application to the General Officer Commanding. The General refers the proposals to the Commanding Royal Engineer, who may propose that instead of hiring, some work may be constructed, or may suggest the resumption by the War Department of other property which may have been let. Before a building is finally hired, the Commanding Royal Engineer inspects it ; which he also does before it is surrendered. Leases or agreements for short hirings are sent by the Senior Commissariat Officer to the Royal Engineer office for record and returned by the Commanding Royal Engineer ; those for long hirings are kept in the Royal Engineer office. Lands or buildings not required for military purposes may be let to tenants, but only with the special sanction of the Secretary of State for War. The Commanding Royal Engineer submits the proposals to the War Office, after 88 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. having satisfied himself that the property is not required for the purposes of any department and after obtaining the sig- nature of the General Officer Commanding to the report which he makes on this occasion. In this report he gives a full account of the property and estimates the sum for which it will probably let. If the Secretary of State sanc- tions the proceeding, the Inspector-General of Fortifications informs the Commanding Royal Engineer, who then forwards to the Senior Commissariat Officer an agreement form con- taining the conditions. The Senior Commissariat Officer then takes steps to find a tenant. The letting is nominally on annual tenure, but the intending tenant is informed that he will not be disturbed for seven years if all conditions be observed by him, unless there be urgent reasons to the con- trary. After seven years, the letting is reconsidered. Tenders for lettings are sent to the Director of Army Contracts. The letting of the right of grazing over War Department property is treated as a letting of land. The sale of produce from War Department lands is treated locally. The Com- manding Royal Engineer communicates with the Senior Commissariat Officer. The latter advertizes the intended sale in the same way as he does Commissariat contracts. The tenders are opened in the presence of the Commanding Royal Engineer or of some officer representing him. When special stores or materials which cannot be furnished by the Ordnance Store Department are required for any work to be undertaken, they are separately demanded by the Commanding Royal Engineer, and in certain cases he may be ordered to purchase them himself.- Surplus building materials or unserviceable stores are handed over to the Ordnance Store Department for sale. The Commanding Royal Engineer makes any necessary arrangement for the hire of such civil labour as may be sanctioned for the execution of Engineer works in the District. DISTRICT ROYAL ENGINEER DEPARTMENT. 89 Business included under head (b) above. Whenever it is proposed to construct buildings for the use of the troops or for a department, &c. , at a station, the Oommanding Royal Engineer suggests a site to the General Officer Commanding the District. The General assembles a board of officers to consider the matter and report upon it to him. The board is composed of 1. The head of the department concerned, the Command- ing Officer of a regiment which is to occupy the building, or other officer immediately interested. 2. An officer not under the rank of Captain. 3. The Commanding Royal Engineer or some other Engineer officer. 4. A Medical officer attends. 5. In the case of stables, a Veterinary Surgeon is also a member of the board. The General Officer Commanding transmits the report of the board, with his own and the Commanding Royal Engineer's opinions attached, to the Secretary of State for War. Works, when not designed in the Inspector-General of Fortifications' office, are jDlanned on the spot, either by the Commanding Royal Engineer of the District or by some officer under his orders. In the latter case, they are sub- mitted to the Inspector-General, and in both cases the approval of the Secretary of State of the designs is obtained by the Inspector-General of Fortifications before they are transmitted to the Commanding Royal Engineer to be acted upon. Works of all kinds, be they defensible works, barracks, or other military buildings, or such works as military roads, bridges, &c., are executed in one of four ways or partly by these four ways in combination, viz. : — 1. By contract, 2. By hired civil labour, 3. By military labour, 4. By convict labour. 90 ELEMEiNTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. When works are constructed by contract, the duty of the Royal Engineer Department is limited to a constant super- vision that the designs are followed, that the quality of the work done is satisfactory, and that the conditions of the contract generally, as regards time and all other points, are adhered to. When civil labour is hired, the whole direction of the work to be done falls on the Royal Engineer Department. It is to be understood that, whenever a work is executed by a contractor, he as a general rule provides his own materials ; and contractors' workmen or labourers, and also labourers directly hired, provide their own tools and ap- pliances. Military labour is to be used when it is available. The instructions of the General Officer Commanding the District on the employment of troops are taken by the Commanding Royal Engineer, and the men so employed receive working pay, the issue of which is regulated by paragraphs 528 and 52^ of the Royal Engineer Regulations. On the completion of any work chargeable to the vote for ' fortifications ' (see p. 47), the Commanding Royal Engineer reports the fact to the Inspector-General of Fortifications through the General Officer Commanding the District and receives the authority to hand it over : if it be a fortified work, to the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery ; if it be an Ordnance Store building, to the Senior Officer of that department. When a work chargeable to the vote for * barracks ' is completed, the Commanding Royal Engineer reports the fact through the General Officer Commanding to the In- spector-General of Fortifications and also applies to the General Officer Commanding the District for a board of officers to inspect it and report upon its fitness for the purpose it is intended to fulfil. This board is (except in the case of stables) composed of a Field Officer as president, with a Captain and an officer of Royal Engineers as members ; a Medical officer also attends the board. In the case of stables, a Veterinary Surgeon replaces the Captain, and no DISTRICT — KOYAL ENGINEER DEPARTMENT. 91 Medical oflSicer attends. This board is appointed by the General without reference to the War Office. It may at once pass the work, or it may report in favour of certain additions or alterations. The report of the board is forwarded by the General to the Inspector-General of Fortifications ; in the event of any additions or alterations having been suggested in it, the General, before forwarding the report, obtains and appends the report and the estimate of the Commanding Royal Engineer on the additions or alterations recommended. When these matters have been finally settled, the Com- manding Royal Engineer awaits the instructions of the Secretary of State, conveyed to him by the Inspector-General of Fortifications, to hand over the charge to the Commissariat- Department. Although, as a general rule, no works are undertaken save those previously sanctioned by the Secretary of State, there are special rules by which, in great emergencies (such as war or rebellion), the General Officer Commanding uislj call on the Commanding Royal Engineer to construct works of defence, &c., vnthout immediate reference to the War Office, postponing, if it be necessary, any other work. The repair and general maintenance of the fabric of works, including all fixtures, is a duty of the Royal Engineer Department. Most of these repairs are executed by the triennial contractor (concerning whom see ' Directorship of Contracts ') ; but troops occupying barracks may be allowed to execute their own repairs. In all cases, however, the Royal Engineer Department being responsible for the proper execution of the work done, inspects it, either on completion or at the next periodical inspection. The external painting connected with barracks, &c., is done every 4 years ; and internal painting and papering every 8 years. Whitewashing is executed by the troops. Every month, the Commanding Royal Engineer receives from Officers Commanding corps their requisitions on Army Form K 1307 for the repairs they wish executed ; unless the troops execute their own repairs, when he receives a monthly return of those repairs on Army Form K 1278,, "92 ELEMENTS OF MILITAEY ADMINISTRATION. so that at the next quarterly inspection they may be examined. The departmental workshops of the Royal Engineer Department are available for the repair, conversion or manu- facture of articles, not only for its own purposes, but also for the Ordnance Store Department. The Senior Officer of the Ordnance Store Department informs the Commanding Royal Engineer yearly in September concerning the articles he wishes made for the ensuing year. In order that the expense of such work may be adjusted between the depart- ments, and charged to the vote for stores, the Commanding Royal Engineer returns it in his estimates. Repairs connected with lands are executed by the triennial contractor as for barracks. To obtain the money to cover the expenditure on works and Engineer services in a District, it is necessary that estimates of the probable cost should be sent in to the War Office for sanction. It has been stated that the Army Estimates include a vote for ' Works and Buildings.' This vote divides into 3 heads : — 1. Fortifications and Ordnance Store buildings. 2. Barracks. 3. Manufacturing Establishments. The general estimate of the Inspector-General of Fortifi- cations and Director of Works is based on the estimates of District Commanding Royal Engineers. The case of Manu- facturing Establishments is evidently exceptional, and District Commanding Royal Engineer's estimates refer to the first two headings given above. The estimate under each of these headings subdivides into three parts : — 1. New works, additions, alterations, or improvements to cost 1,000^. or more. 2. Works of the same kind to cost less than 1,000^. 3. Current repairs. The course adopted in preparing estimates for the work to be done in a District is the following. DISTRICT ROYAL ENGINEER DEPARTMENT. 93 The Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery (who is in charge of all fortified works) yearly sends in requisitions for such work to be done as he judges to be necessary to the General Officer Commanding. The latter officer consults the Commanding Royal Engineer and inserts his own and that officer's remarks on the requisitions which he then forwards in duplicate to the Quarter-Master-General at the War Office in duplicate, not later than the 1st July, The Quarter-Master-General next submits the requisi- tions to the Field Marshal Commanding-in- Chief, who ap- proves or revises them, and sends them on with his remarks to the Secretary of State. On this, the Secretary of State decides on what instruc- tions he shall give to the Commanding Royal Engineer, and he returns the requisitions to him with these instructions as to framing an approximate estimate for defensive works and buildings of that description. But besides works of that class just mentioned, Ordnance Store buildings are also included in the portion of the vote for fortifications. The Senior Ordnance Store Officer, there- fore, also makes out requisitions on Army Form M 1424 which he sends to the Commanding Royal Engineer, who remarks upon them and forwards them thus noted to the General Officer Commanding not later than the 1st July. The General Officer Commanding enters on these requi- sitions his own remarks and his opinion on the relative importance of the items and forwards them, by the 1st July, to the Secretary of State, who decides in this case, as in that of defensive works, how much the Commanding Royal Engineers is to include in his approximate estimate. Thus the Commanding Royal Engineer is in a position to frame his approximate estimate for that portion of the vote relating to fortifications and Ordnance Store buildings, which he then prepares in duplicate on Army Form M 1421, and forwards one copy to the Inspector-General of Fortifications so as to reach him by the 1st September. This copy is returned revised by the Inspector-General to the Commanding Royal Engineer, who alters the other copy^ 94 ELEMENTS OF MILITAEY ADMINISTRATION. sconformably and sends it in its turn to the Inspector-General of Fortifications. With regard to the portion of the vote relating to ' bar- racks,' the General Officer Commanding compiles a list of all the services the cost of which he wishes charged in the Army Estimates for the year beginning on the following 1st April from information or reports derived from the various Com- manding Officers and heads of departments serving under him, and the approximate estimate for barracks is thus arrived at. The General calls on the Commanding Royal Engineer to insert his remarks and make approximate estimates of the cost of each item ; he then inserts his own observations and transmits the list so as to reach the Quarter-Master-General ^t the War Office by the 30th June. The Quarter-Master-General submits the lists thus re- ceived to the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, and then returns it with his remarks to the General Officer Commanding the District. The General reconsiders the list thus remarked upon by the Commander-in-Chief, strikes out any items which he may no longer recommend or which he considers may be postponed to another year, and then instructs the Com- manding Royal Engineer what services he is to estimate for, in doing which the total required under part 2 (new works, j&c, costing less than 1,000^ each) is, save in urgent cases, not to exceed the average of the preceding three years. The list thus revised is made out and includes the * approximate barrack annual estimate.' It is again sent to the War Office by the Commanding Royal Engineer as early as possible and not later than the 15th August. In subsequently preparing detailed estimates, officers are not strictly bound down by the approximate estimates, but it is desirable that the detailed sums should not exceed those in the approximation, and thus in estimating services ap- proximately, officers are careful not to understate the cost. The next process is to make out and forward detailed ^ft^stimates. These are made out, that for fortifications, &c., DISTKICT ROYAL ENGINEER DEPARTMENT. 95 on Army Form M 1421 (as for approximate estimate), that for barracks on Army Form M 1418. They are sent in to the Secretary of State as soon as possible after the Command- ing Royal Engineer has received his instructions (as before detailed) on the two approximate estimates, but always before the 1st November of each year. An office copy of each is kept by the Commanding Royal Engineer. The details which Commanding Royal Engineer of Dis- tricts and Commands abroad must attend to in framing these estimates will be found in Section XI. of the Regulations for the Royal Engineer Department, 1882. The barrack estimates contain a report in which the Commanding Royal Engineer explains the necessity for each service, his opinions and proposals on them, the reasons for adopting any particular course, &c. The estimate is also accompanied by a separate abstract on foolscap paper, and by a separate ' detail form ' (Army Form M 1417) for each item, giving the originally proposed details with the modifi- cations subsequently introduced. Each of these forms is illustrated when necessary by plans or sketches, either in the margin or appended to them. The detailed estimates, having been revised under the instructions of the Secretary of State, are returned, with all the documents except the abstract, to the Commanding Royal Engineer, who alters his office copy so as to conform in every respect and then returns the original estimates to the Inspector-General of Fortifications accompanied by any observations he may have to make. Thus ultimately, the sum to be spent on Engineer services during the ensuing year in each District is definitely fixed before the date by which the Army Estimates are passed, which always takes place before the 1st April, the day on which the financial year begins. The course followed in sending estimates from foreign commands differs a little from that laid down for Districts, but it does not seem needful to go into the details of these differences in this elementary book. It may occur that unforeseen circumstances of importance may render necessary further demands for money. In this 96 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION, case (which is always a rare one) special estimates are made out at once in detail at any period as for a single item of the annual estimate, and are forwarded to the War Office in the form of a letter. Business included under head (c) above. All buildings or defensive works, while in progress of execution, are in the direct charge of the Royal Engineer Department ; and they remain so, even after their completion, if it be thought not advisable to equip them. But as soon as the Secretary of State thinks it right they should be equipped or armed (as the case may be), he sends the autho- rity down, through the Inspector-General of Fortifications, to the Commanding Royal Engineer to hand them over to the proper department (as stated on p. 52). Also, when buildings are required by the Royal Engineer Department for thorough repair or for important alteration, they are dismantled by the department in charge and handed over to the Royal Engineers until the work is done. All fixtiires are considered as part and parcel of the buildings, although their nature may be that of furniture. Thus a fire-grate, a wall cupboard, a fixed shelf, or a guard-bed, are Engineer fixtures ; while a fender, a movable press, a hanging shelf, or a barrack bed,, are barrack furniture. As regards lands, those portions which are considered as forming part of barrack premises follow the rule for barracks, and pass to the Commissariat Department with the barracks- to which they belong or are attached. Drill grounds, maneges, soldiers' gardens, &c., follow the same rule, al- though they may not be attached to any particular barrack. Rifle ranges, when not in use, are in charge of the Royal Engineer Department together with the targets and other necessary equipment. When required by the troops, they are handed over to the Commissariat Department, which makes its arrangements with regiments. The converse operation takes place when the troops no longer need the ranges ; and they remain in charge of the Royal Engineer Department until they are again wanted. DISTRICT — ROYAL ENGINEER DEPARTMENT. 97 All other lands and miscellaneous works, such as bridges, telegraphs, sea-walls, &c. , are permanently in the custody of the Royal Engineer Department. But, apart from the charge or custody of works and lands, the Royal Engineer Department has the duty of their super- vision. Thus, in order to ascertain that buildings are in a proper condition of repair, the Commanding Royal Engineer periodically inspects them all, whether they be in his own immediate custody or in that of some other department or corps. The Commanding Royal Engineer, who keeps in his office a ' terrier,' or detailed statement, of all the War Department property and rights within the District, makes a yearly inspection of all buildings and works in the command and also a yearly perambulation of all the boundaries of War Department lands. Dismantled barracks (in charge of the Royal Engineer Department) and barracks equipped but unoccupied (in charge of the Commissariat Department) are not necessarily in- spected oftener. But all other property, is further inspected by an officer of the Royal Engineer Department quarterly. At this quarterly inspection, the repairs and other work done during the past quarter are examined and such barrack damages as are recoverable from departments or corps are assessed. The annual inspection of the Commanding Royal Engineer is undertaken, so far as defensible works, magazines, storehouses, workshops, &c. are concerned, simultaneously with those of the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery and of the Senior Ordnance Store Officer ; so that these officers, acting conjointly (but not as a board) are able to discuss the questions affecting their various departments on the spot where they arise, or immediately afterwards ; and thus any unnecessary correspondence is avoided. After this inspection, the Commanding Royal Engineer sends his annual report in to the Inspector-General of Fortifications. This report specifies the work which he •estimates it will be necessary to undertake during the I. H 98 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. ensuing year. It must reach the Inspector-General not later than the 1st November, so as to allow time for correspondence and consideration before the work he has recommended can be passed and the expense to be incurred included in the votes for works in the next year's Army Estimates. At the quarterly inspections, the officer who, with the approval of the General Officer Commanding, is appointed by the Commanding Royal Engineer to inspect the property at a station, sends in his report to the last-named officer. Besides the regular periodical inspections just noticed, a member of the Royal Engineer Department must attend all marching-in or marching-out inspections when a corps of troops takes over any barrack or building on arrival or finally leaves it. When troops are about to arrive or' leave, the Commanding Royal Engineer receives a notification from the General to that efiect and forthwith details an officer or sub- ordinate to attend the inspection and verify the condition of the buildings and fixtures which the troops have to take or to give over. The heads of the Royal Engineer and Commissariat Departments at a station usually arrange so that the marching- in and the marching-out inspections held by both depart- ments shall take place simultaneously as a matter of con- venience (see p. 434). The correspondence and documents connected with the assessing and payment of Engineer barrack or hospital dam- ages are described in Section V. of the Regulations for the Royal Engineer Department and in paragraphs 229 to 235 of the Financial Instructions. The supply of gas and water to barracks, &c. is a Com- missariat service ; but the Royal Engineer Department is answerable for the condition of all pipes, meters, lamps, pmnps or machinery connected with these supplies. The working of all machinery (whether connected with these services or not) is inspected once a week. The watering of sliding gas-pendents is an Engineer service to be performed at least every four months. The Engineer services of a District involve the use of a DISTRICT — ROYAL ENQINEER DEPARTMENT. 99 considerable amount of stores and materials, either as the means of carrying out current routine services or to be worked up in the construction of buildings or other works. These stores are of two kinds : 1st. Ordinary stores in general use throughout the service ; such as intrenching or other tools, instruments, and articles of equipment generally : 2nd. Special Engineer stores ; such as building materials. The first kind are obtained by the Commanding Royal Engineer from the reserve depots of the Ordnance Store Department. The second kind are demanded by the Com- manding Royal Engineer when he sends in his annual esti>- mate for works and buildings ; and they are either forwarded to him through the Ordnance Store Department as required, or the Commanding Royal Engineer is authorized to purchase them locally, the bills being paid in this case by the District Paymaster. As regards ordinary stores of the first kind above-men- tioned, their supply through the Ordnance Store Department is provided for by the following rules. The Senior Ordnance Store Officer of the District sends in an annual consolidated demand for all stores which will be required to be issued by him during the ensuing year for the use of all the dej)art- ments and corps in the District. Those for the Royal Engineer Department are, of course, included among them. Previously, therefore, to making out this demand, the Senior Officer of the Ordnance Store Department calls on the heads of other departments to furnish him with their estimates of what each of them will require. This annual estimate is, in the case of the Commanding Royal Engineer, made out on Army Form G 991. After the annual store demands have been complied with, the Ordnance Store depots ought to be in a position to fulfil the requisitions for stores which the Commanding Royal Engineer makes upon them from time to time. The stores in charge of the Royal Engineer Department are stowed in the several expense storehouses in custody of the department at the different stations of the District. h2 100 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. A store ledger, accounting for all the articles on charge, is kept in the District Royal Engineer office. The Commanding Royal Engineer furnishes regiments with such intrenching tools and materials as they require for the instruction of the troops in Field Fortification, and these are held by the Commanding Officer of the corps on inventory. Each of the larger Districts is subdivided into sub-districts, and each of the latter has its own Commanding Royal Engineer subordinate to the Commanding Royal Engineer of the District. The subordinate Commanding Royal Engineers are Field Officers. The sub-districts are again portioned out into divisions, a Divisional Officer being placed at the head of each, and Captains and Lieutenants of the corps may be told off to assist Divisional or other officers in charge. When large works are in progress their execution is generally supervised by the Divisional Officer of the division in which they are situated, or they may be made the special charge of some particular officer. Under these officers, a certain number of non-commis- sioned officers and sappers of the Corps of Royal Engineers are employed departmentally as Military Foremen of Works, draughtsmen, military clerks in Royal Engineer Offices, and telegraphists. The Military Foremen of Works (who, except while on probation, are always Staff Sergeants), con- duct the detailed business connected with the charge of works, buildings, lands, and expense stores. They maintain a constant supervision of the property in charge, see to the actual execution of repairs, measure the work done by contract, and actually direct work done by hired or military labour. Civil clerks, office-keepers, and messengers are also allowed in Royal Engineer offices. There is, further, a regular civil sub-department belong- ing to the Royal Engineer Department. The officials of which it is composed are termed ' Surveyors ' and ' Assistant- Surveyors.' They are employed, under the officers, in keeping up the office books, in preparing estimates and details of services, in superintending contractors, in attending at DISTEICT — EOYAL ENGINEEK DEPARTMENT. 101 quarterly and other inspections, in the preparation of plans, designs and specifications. These officials are employed as little as possible in ordinary clerical duties, which are per- formed by the civil or military clerks. One or more of these officials is employed at each Engineer station in a position which has specific office duties attached to it given in Section XIY., Regulations for the Royal Engineer Department. VII. The Commissariat and Transport Department IN THE District. The officer at the head of the Commissariat and Transport Department in a District usually holds the rank of Deputy- Commissary-General, except in some of the smaller Districts, where the position is sometimes given to an Assistant-Com- missary-General. However, whatever may be the rank of this officer he is officially styled the ' Senior Commissariat Officer.' Subordinate officers may be employed in the District Commissariat office, directly under the Senior Com- missariat Officer. The District is divided, for Commissariat purposes, into sub-districts, not necessarily identical with the sub-districts of other departments. At the head-quarters of each sub- district, an officer (usually an Assistant-Commissary-General) is posted in charge. These officers again may have the assistance of junior officers. The companies of the Commissariat and Transport Corps are officered by Commissariat officers. At those stations, therefore, where any organized transport may be quartered, the senior officer in command of it will usually be in special charge of the transport business of the department. Govern- ment bakeries or abattoirs may also be made the special charges of particular officers, either in addition to other duties or otherwise, as may be most convenient. But, most frequently, in ordinary cases, the senior officer of a sub-district administers all Commissariat and Transport services. The warrant officers (Conductors of Supplies and Serjeant- 102 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Majors), non-commissioned ofl&cers and men of the Commis- sariat and Transport Corps furnish assistance in offices, perform all duties in bakeries, and abattoirs, and also form the personnel of the organized military transport. Barrack subordinates, comprising Barrack-Serjeants and Barrack-Labourers, are men who have been pensioned from the Army. They are under military law. The duties of Barrack-Serjeants are to take immediate charge of store- houses containing supplies or of expense stores ; to carry out issues, receipts, and barrack services ; and generally to keep a continual superintendence over barrack or other premises either in charge of the department or occupied by troops. Within the general responsibility of the Commissariat officer in charge under whom they may be serving, they have a limited responsibility of their own. Barrack-Labourers per- form such barrack services as are not carried out by con- tractors, and assist the Barrack-Serjeants, under whom they are placed, in minor details. In describing the Central Administration of the War Office, the duties of the Commissariat and Transport Depart- ment of the Army were given in a general manner. Those duties may be said to be of three chief kinds as follows, (a) Duties ivhich may he called commercial. Opening contracts for supplies, for barrack services, for the sale of surplus supplies, or for other departments of the Army ; Making agreements and sales without contract ; Purchasing directly, under certain circum- stances, supplies without contract or agreement. ' (6) Manufacturing duties. The only duties of this kind performed by the Commissariat Department are the manufacture of bread from flour and the conversion of live animals into meat. Even this is only done at certain stations. (c) Duties connected with charge, receipt and issue. Under this head we have the most important portion of the work of the department. DISTRICT COMMISSARIAT. 103 The charge and issue of supplies^ and accounts connected with supplies. The business of receiving over from the Royal Engineer Department, barracks, drill-grounds, maneges, ranges, &c. The custody of barracks, Barracks. It has been stated that the Commissariat and Transport Department have the charge of barracks and other military buildings which are completed and equipped, except when such barracks are occupied by troops, when the charge passes to the Commanding Officer of the corps in occupa- tion. Such buildings as are purely defensive works are never in Commissariat charge ; nor are buildings appropriated to the Ordnance Store Department. All the ground forming part of the barrack, hospital, prison, or other premises is naturally included in the charge. Even outlying pieces of ground appropriated to the ordinary i2 116 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION, use of the troops, such as drill-fields, maneges, soldiers' gardens, etc., are treated as barracks and pass from the Royal Engineer Department to the troops through the Commissariat Department ; while other military lands remain per- manently in the charge of the Royal Engineers. Rifle ranges form an independent charge ; when not in use, their custody is, like that of lands, vested in the Royal Engineer Department ; but when required by the troops, the Commissariat Department takes over the ranges, equips them with the necessary targets and other stores, and imme- diately hands them over to the troops for use. Wlien the troops no longer require the ranges, they hand over charge to the Commissariat Department, which again hands the ranges over to the Royal Engineer Department after having dismantled them of all the equipment stores Avith the excep- tion of those which it may be very inconvenient to remove (such as mantlets, or, in some cases, targets, etc.). These may be left temporarily in charge of the Royal Engineer Department. The Commissariat Department washes its hands, so to speak, of all responsibility for the fabric and fixtures of any building as soon as it hands it over to the troops ; and the Commanding Oflicer of the troops is directly responsible for these things to the Royal Engineer Department. The Com- missariat Department is responsible only for vacant buildings or for the portions not specially allotted to any one corps. This explains the necessity for the presence of a member of the Royal Engineer Department at the marching-in and subsequent inspections. In discussing the Royal Engineer Department, the course pursued by the Commanding Royal Engineer on the comple- tion of any barrack, hospital, or similar building was described (see p. 52). As soon as the Inspector-General of Fortifica- tions (also Director of Works) is apprized by the Commanding Royal Engineer, through the General Officer Commanding the District, that the building is ready for occupation, he reports the fact to the Secretary of State, who informs the Surveyor- General of the Ordnance. Therefore, at the same time that DISTRICT COMMISSARIAT. 117 the Commanding Royal Engineer is directed to hand over the building, the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance directs the Senior Commissariat Officer, through the General, to take over the charge. The Commanding Royal Engineer and the Senior Com- missariat Officer then respectively instruct their subordinate officers having authority in the sub-district in which the buildings are situated, and they are thereupon taken over by the Commissariat officer who is to remain in charge. This officer signs both copies of the several * inventories of fixtures ' previously made out and signed by the Engineer officer handing over. One copy of each inventory is retained by each of the two departments concerned. All the buildings and rooms composing a barrack, hospital, &c., are appropriated each to a particular purpose, and are lettered over the door accordingly. The ' schedules of barrack furniture ' (see Army Circulars, 1880, Clause 174^) lay down the proportions of barrack furniture to which the Commissariat officer is to adhere in equipping each building. The equipping is proceeded with as soon as the premises are taken over, the necessary stores having been previously drawn (see p. 128) and stowed in the expense stores. At the marching-in inspection, when troops take over buildings, the Commissariat officer and the officer taking over on behalf of the Commanding Officer compare previously prepared inventory boards hung in each room detailing the barrack stores in the room with the quantities actually forth- coming there. The inventory boards, thus verified, are then signed by the Commissariat officer and the officer detailed to take over the barracks. Duplicate sheets of the room inventories in each barrack are kept in a guard-book by the Commissariat officer. As these duplicate inventory sheets are referred to in the event of an original being lost or defaced, it is essential that the corps or officer in occupation ^ Amended by the following Clauses of Armj^ Circulars : — 25, 192 and 280 of 1881 ;*28, 74, 105 and 175 of 1882. 118 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. of the room or building, as well as the Commissariat De- partment, should be satisfied that they are correct copies. Therefore they are produced at marching-in inspections and are dated and initialed as correct by the oflScer taking over barracks, by the officer commanding the troop or company, by the Quartermaster of the corps taking over, or by the officer who is to remain in immediate charge. The Commissariat officer in charge, also, for greater con- venience of reference, keeps an 'abstract' of the room inventories (on Army Form G 1042) ; further, the figures forming the total of this abstract are carried into Army Book 126 and after them are inserted all stores in miscel- laneous buildings in the barracks. This form thus con- stitutes a general abstract for the whole barrack. At the marching-in inspection of barracks, the officer sent to take over ascertains that the furniture, &c., in each room or building agrees with that enumerated on the inven- tory board. Any discrepancies are either set right by re- placing deficient articles or withdrawing those not on the board, or else the inventory board is itself altered and initialed by the Commissariat officer. No other person may alter an inventory. Any alterations are noted and copied on the duplicates. The Commanding Officer of the regiment is not now provided with a general inventory of all stores ; but he signs a certificate to the efiect that he acknowledges himself to be in possession of certain buildings and rooms enumerated. If he subsequently receives additional rooms or hands any back to the Commissariat Department, the fact is noted on the certificate and initialed by both the Com- manding Officer and the Commissariat officer. Being in possession of certain rooms involves being in charge of the stores on the inventory boards of those rooms. The occupation of barracks and similar buildings by troops relieves the Commissariat officer temporarily of all responsibility concerning the inventories of fixtures which he has signed. Each room contains (in addition to the inventory board of stores) an inventory board of fixtures signed by an officer of the Royal Engineer Department. All these in- DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT. 119 ventory boards are verified on taking over and on handing over. The Royal Engineer Department, when it hands over any military building to the Commissariat Department, informs the latter department as to the numbers which each room is to accommodate and as to the dimensions and construction of each room. Each Commissariat ofiicer in charge of a sub- district keeps a record of these facts on Army Form K 1251, for each barrack and hospital in his sub-district, and sends a copy of this record to the senior Medical officer at each station. When he hands over a barrack or a portion of it to a Commanding Ofticer or a hospital to a Medical ofiicer, he must inform the officer concerned on these points by furnishing him with a copy of his record, so far as it applies to the buildings handed over. A Commanding Officer, in making use of the barrack accommodation allotted to him, may not depart from the authorized appropriation. As a temporary measure, however, the General Officer commanding may authorize the use for some other purpose of buildings or rooms not required for their original purpose. The authorization is passed to the Commissariat officer in charge through the Senior Commis- sariat Officer. Strictly speaking, no corps, department, &c., ought to keep in its charge any unoccupied or unused quarters, offices or other buildings. As soon as any room becomes vacant, it should be handed back to the Commissariat officer in charge at the station, the troops retaining at all times exactly what they require and no more. It is the common duty of the officers of the Commissariat and Royal Engineer Departments to bring to the notice of the General or other Officer Commanding any permanent re- appropriation which may seem to them advantageous to the service ; and either they or other officers may draw the atten- tion to re-appropriations which they may consider to be a matter of convenience* All suggestions on this subject, how- ever, must be passed up to the General through the Senior Commissariat Officer, and consequently must be addressed to 120 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. the latter officer. When the General wishes to consider or to make such a re-appropriation, he may, if the matter is an important one, refer it to a board consisting of a Staff officer or regimental Field Officer as president and of two officers, one from the Eoyal Engineer, the other from the Commis- sariat Departments. The observations and estimates of expense of the Commanding Royal Engineer are attached to the proceedings of the board which are returned by him to the Senior Commissariat Officer. The latter then adds his own remarks and forwards the documents to the General Officer- Commanding. The General transmits the documents, with a statement of his own opinion, to the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, who decides the course to be pursued. When- ever a proposal affecting offices or buildings api^ropriated to- departments is before such a board, the opinion of the head of the office or department must be taken and forwarded. Proposals for trivial re-appropriations need not come before a board ; but may be decided by the Surveyor-General on a. report framed by the Senior Commissariat Officer and in- closed in a proposal from the General Officer Commanding,, including the opinions and estimate before mentioned. Commissariat officers in charge of barracks and similar buildings are, equally with the officers of the Royal Engin- eer Department, bound to bring to the notice of the General any irregularities as to the occupation or allotment of these buildings by the troops which may come under their observa- tion at their quarterly or other inspections. A monthly ' occupation return ' of all barracks fit for the occupation of troops (Army Form K 1253) is made out in triplicate by each Commissariat officer in charge and for- warded to the Senior Commissariat Officer of the district. This officer forwards one copy direct to the Surveyor- General of the Ordnance and the other two to the General Officer Commanding. The latter passes on one of these two copies to the Quarter-Master-General at the War Office and retains the other. The return shows the available barrack- accommodation, the portion of each barrack vacant and th& distribution of troops in the portion occupied. DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT. 121 On the 1st April of each year, the copy of the monthly return usually sent to the Surveyor-General is replaced by a more complete ' annual occupation return ' (Army Form K 1252). In order that they may compile these returns, Com- missariat officers in charge receive from heads of departments and Officers Commanding troops the necessary monthly information, which is made out on Army Form B 101 (' barrack occupation and lodging allowance return '). When there is no accommodation available in barracks for officers or others who may be entitled to it, they receive a money allowance instead of quarters. The quarters to which officers of the several ranks are entitled, and the money allowances which both they and non-commissioned officers and soldiers are to receive when these quarters cannot be provided are laid down in Sections YII., VIII. and IX. of the Regulations on Allowances (Army Regulations, vol. i. part 3). As regards officers, those of the Staff and depart- ments receive higher rates than those belonging to regiments. In the case of Staff or departmental officers, the head of each department or branch of the Staff fills up and signs a claim for himself and subordinate officers on Army Form P 1936. This claim is then forwarded to the Commissariat officer in charge of the station, who certifies upon it that the officers have not been supplied with quarters, and returns it to the head of the department or branch (see also p. 437). This officer then despatches the claim to the Army Agent who acts as Paymaster for the department or Staff, and it be- comes his voucher for drawing and issuing the allowance. A check on these claims is the return (on Army Form C 346) which heads of departments transmit monthly to Agents and which details the number of officers entitled to pay and allowances during that month. Staff and departmental subordinates are paid this allowance by the District Pay- master. Regimental claims (which must agree with the entries in the monthly barrack occupation and lodging allow- ance return) are made out on Army Form P 1906, which must be certified by the Commissariat officer in charge of the station. 122 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. A corps occupying part of a barrack may be made to provide general external security for the whole, even although a large portion may still remain in the charge of the Com- missariat Department. To this end, the senior Com- missariat officer at the station may apply for such guards or sentries to the Officer Commanding the troops at the station as he may think necessary for the safety of his charge. He will also apply for needful guards or sentries over any expense stores even if they be situated away from barracks. The troops are required to keep such portions of barrack as they occupy in a state of cleanliness and good order. Any disinfectants (for deodorizing, &c.) or other materials which they require for this purpose are obtained from the Commissariat Department. Lime is generally used, and is requisitioned by the Officer Commanding on Army Form F 732. The Commissariat officer procures the lime locally (if possible from the Royal Engineer triennial contractor), and the requisition, certified by the Commissariat officer serves as a voucher to the District Paymaster's accounts when the contractor's bill has been presented to him and paid. If any other description of disinfectant should be required, it is purchased locally by order of the Senior Commissariat Officer on the requisition of the Officer Commanding in the barrack countersigned by the Medical officer as to the necessity of the supply, and the charge is included in the monthly schedule of local purchases. But besides what is done by the troops in occupation themselves, a variety of services in connection with the charge of barracks devolve on the Commissariat Department. These are the following : — Removal of refuse. Sweeping chimneys. Washing bedding ; hospital, prison, and miscellaneous clothing. Supervision of the water supply. Supervision of the gas supply. Lamp-lighting. Sundry similar miscellaneous services. DISTRICT COMMISSARIAT. 123 Removal of refuse, chimney-sweeping and lamp-lighting •are carried out under local contracts, entered into by the Senior Commissariat Officer. Barrack-Serjeants see that these services are punctually and regularly performed by the contractors. Ash-pits are usually emptied daily. The washing of bedding and similar articles, together with the provision of laundry materials and the execution of . any necessary repairs, is often also done by contract ; but whenever there exists at the station a War Department laundry, it is utilized for this purpose under the direct con- trol of the Commissariat Department. Sometimes the two systems are combined. The water and gas supplies in military buildings are watched and checked by the department. Barrack-Labourers are employed in turning on or off the supplies and in ex- amining the water-meters and gas-meters so as to prevent waste. The result of the examination of each meter is entered in Army Book 171, and examined by the Commis- sariat officer in charge, who initials the entries as soon as possible after they are made. Gas-meters are themselves tested every three years. Annual returns are furnished to the War Office, on 31st March, of the gas and water consumed in each barrack and hospital (Army Form F 724 for gas, and F 760 for water). Petty expeiises in connection with necessary barrack services may be defrayed on the spot and the cost accounted for by the Senior Commissariat Officer in his monthly schedule of local special purchases, before mentioned (p. 106). The rents of canteens let to civilians are collected weekly by the Commissariat officer in charge of the barrack . and paid in by him to the District Paymaster. Canteens managed on the regimental system also pay a monthly rent to the District Paymaster. It is the business of the Com- missariat officer in charge to send in each month, both to canteen tenants and, through Commanding Officers, to ]24 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. officers who are presidents of regimental canteen committees^ a claim for rent on Army Form P 1909, as before stated on page 105. Contributions to garrison libraries are paid in to the Commissariat officer in charge and disbursed by him in accord- ance with the Queen's Regulations, as before stated (see page 105). Expense Stores. The duties of the Commissariat Department in connection with the charge of barracks and with other services entail the charge, maintenance, and issue of a considerable quantity of stores. With the exception of clothing, all the stores held by the Commissariat Department are obtained from the Ordnance Store Department. Such stores as the dej^artment requires for the equipment of the Commissariat and Transport Corps are, however, to be distinguished from those it holds for the use of the Army at large. The former class (including transport vehicles, harness, &c. , for the transport troops) it draws and holds in the same way as any other corps or as a regiment, and accounts for by an equipment ledger (see Regimental Ad- ministration). In order that the Senior Ordnance Store Officer may be in a position to supply the wants of all departments for stores, he every year calls upon the head of each department to furnish him with an estimate of what each will require during the coming year, so that he may include these anticipated wants in his ' consolidated annual demand ' for stores, which will be described hereafter (see p. 158). The Senior Commissariat Officer then calls on the officers of his department, who are in charge of the sub-districts into which the District is usually divided, to furnish him with their sub- estimates of the stores they will probably require during the coming year. The quantity of stores to be maintained in charge by the Commissariat Department is laid down and regulated DISTRICT— COMMISSARIAT. 125 ■according to the proportion required for use (para, 518, Oommissariat Regulations). Before preparing his sub-estimate, each Commissariat • officer in charge, at the close of the financial year, takes stock of all the stores for which he is responsible. The sub-estimate is then made out in duplicate on the following forms : — Barrack stores . . . Army Form G 963 ; Hospital ,, . . . ,, ,, G 1014 ; Prison ,, . . . ,, ,, G 1030 ; Boats and boat equipment ,, ,, G 999. In making out his sub-estimates, the Commissariat officer in charge must observe the regulated allowances, such as the schedules of barrack furniture, &c. All surplus stores must be specially brought under the notice of the Senior Commis- sariat Officer with a view to their return to the Ordnance Store Department, and any good reason for demanding a larger quantity of stores than would otherwise seem warranted must be stated. The sub-estimates of the several sub-districts are forwarded in duplicate to the Senior Commissariat Officer not later than the 30th June each year. An office copy is also kept. Meanwhile, the Senior Commissariat Officer ascertains from the Commanding Royal Engineer if any new barracks or buildings are likely to require equipping during the coming year so that he may include the stores which will be required for their equipment in his estimate. When the sub-estimates come in, explanations may be required and correspondence follow between the Senior Com- missariat Officer and the several Commissariat officers in charge ; but at length all is decided, and the sub-estimates, corrected if necessary, are incorporated in the Senior Com- missariat Officer's * consolidated estimates' for the whole District. The consolidated estimates for each service are made out on the same forms as the sub-estimates and are forwarded in original only (an office copy being retained), together with the sub-estimates in duplicate, to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, not later than the 31st August (at ^certain foreign stations, the 31st July). 126 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. The consolidated estimates are incorporated in the Senior^ Ordnance Store Officer's consolidated annual demand for storea for all services. Here again correspondence may ensue with the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich ; but ultimately, modified or not by the War Office, the demand is approved, whereupon the Senior Ordnance Store Officer re- turns the Senior Commissariat Officer his approved estimates. The ordinary stores required by the Commissariat from the Ordnance Store Department usually comprise : — Barrack furniture, proper ; Bedding (paillasse and bolster cases, blankets, sheets ;. but not the straw) ; Crockery and earthenware ; Furniture special to schools, libraries, offices, canteens, hospitals, &c. ; Utensils for the domestic use of the troops, such as- cooking utensils, brooms, and similar articles ; Stable movable articles ; Articles for general barrack service, such as handcarts, wheelbarrows, shovels, picks, rollers, &c. ; Miscellaneous stores, such as fire-engines, hydrants, boats, boat equipment, &c. The miscellaneous clothing which is held by the Com- missariat Department for use by the troops for certain special purposes is, of course, of quite a distinct class to that re- quired for the ordinary wear of the men of the Commissariat and Transport Corps or of Barrack subordinates. The latter class is obtained in much the same way as that of regiments and other corps, as will be hereafter described under the head of Regimental Administration ; and is not included in the expense stores of the department. But a special rule applies to miscellaneous clothing and necessaries. The Ordnance Store Department may happen to have a certain stock of Uiese articles in reserve. At foreign stations, this is usually the case. At home it is seldom so ; although, occasionally, accidental circumstances (such as a return to store of articles previously issued) may throw some of these stores into a reserve depot. The several DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT. 127 Commissariat officers in charge send in, every year, sub-esti- mates, in duplicate, of their expected requirements in this respect to the Senior Commissariat Officer. The latter for- wards both copies to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, in order that he may enter upon them the quantities of each kind of article which remain in the reserve depot. Having done so, the Senior Ordnance Store Officer returns both copies of the demands to the Senior Commissariat Officer, who forwards them on to the Director of Clothing at Pimlico so as to reach him by the 1st October (other dates are fixed for certain foreign stations). The forms used for the demands are the following : — Hospital clothing . . . Army Form H 1131. Prison necessaries . . . ,, ?> H 1149. Prison clothing . . * * ^ Gymnasium clothing . • * Magazine and laboratory clothing [ »» " ^ H^b. Clothing for boats' crews . . J Shoemaker's tools and grindery . ] tt ii /< q for use in prisons and cells . j " " Watch-coats . . . . ,, j, H 1101. Manuscript form ruled so as to cerre- "spond with Army Form H 1149. Water-proof coats and leggings for' orderlies, &c. . . . , Working suits of duck or lasting Any articles not before mentioned The Director of Clothing acknowledges the demands and, if they are found correct, issues the quantities demanded, less those shown as in reserve, to the several Commissariat officers in charge as requested, sending the vouchers to the same person as the stores. The Commissariat officers check the consignment, store it in their expense stores and send back the signed receipt vouchers to the Director of Clothing. They then apprize the Senior Commissariat Officer that the demands have been complied with. To return to ordinary expense stores. After the com- mencement of the financial year on the 1st April, the Ordnance Store Department, having received the stores demanded and 128 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. approved for all services, is in position to issue them from its reserve depots. The Commissariat stores are drawn on the requisitions of Commissariat officers in charge (Army Form G 1035) from time to time, at periods settled locally, from the reserve depots, and placed in the * expense stores ' which the Commissariat Department maintains at its several stations and in barracks or hospitals. When circumstances necessitate the demand of stores not included in the annual estimates or which have been struck out of it, a special requisition giving an explanation of the necessity will be sent in on Army Form G 1000. The Ordnance Store officer in charge, when he issues stores on the requisitions of Commissariat officers in charge, sends a ' receipt ' and a ' delivery voucher ' by post or other- wise to the Commissariat officer receiving the stores which describe the consignment. He signs the delivery voucher before sending it, and it is kept by the Commissariat officer as a voucher to his accounts. The receipt voucher is sent unsigned to the Commissary officer so that the latter may sign it in acknowledgment of having received the stores and return it to the Ordnance Store officer. If a Commissariat officer in charge should not draw from the Ordnance Store Department all the stores he has de- manded for the year ending the 31st March by the 15th March, they cannot be issued, but remain in the hands of the Ordnance Store Department to meet the authorized re- quirements of the next financial year. Therefore no requi- sitions on account of the current year's demands are to be made by the Commissariat, or complied with by the Ordnance Store Department, after the 15th March. Office copies of all requisitions made are kept by Com- missariat officers in charge. The charge and account of stores held by the Commis- sariat Department entail the keeping up of a certain number of books and documents, which it will be convenient to enumerate in this place. These, then, are : — District ledger . . Army Book 29 ; Transcript ledger . ,, ,, 29 or 29a (as may be found suitable) ; DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT. 129 Receipt journal Army Book 195 Issue journal . . ,, ,, 196 Furniture and utensil repairing book . ,, ,, 53 barrack - Serjeant's ledger . . . ,, ,,29 Bedding account book . . . ,, ,,54 Barrack washing account book Hospital account book . , One copy of each kept by every Commissariat officer in charge : One copy kept by each Barrack- Serjeant ; One copy kept 174 [by each Commis- ( sariat officer in 175 J charge ; Vouchers ) Of various forms, kept by each Commis- Bequisitions \ sariat officer in charge. It has been said that, when stores are received from the 'Ordnance Store Department or from the Clothing Depot, receipt and delivery vouchers are sent to the Commissariat officer in charge who receives them. As soon as both vouchers and stores have reached this officer, the delivery voucher is at once numbered and copied into the receipt journal, and the voucher is then passed over to that parti- cular Barrack-Serjeant who is to store and hold the articles under the Commissariat officer. The Barrack-Serjeant opens the parcels and compares the stores with the voucher. The descriptions of all stores on vouchers or elsewhere agree with those officially given in the * Priced Vocabulary of Stores.' The Barrack-Serjeant enters in his own ledger the articles actually forthcoming when he unpacks a consignment. The quantities ought to agree with that on the voucher ; but, whether they do so or not, he marks the voucher ' checked and entered in ledger,' noting upon it, however, any discre- pancies at the same time. He then returns the voucher to the Commissariat officer in charge, reporting to him at the same time any discrepancies he may have found. When the Commissariat officer in charge receives back from a Barrack-Serjeant a delivery voucher which has been checked and found correct, he attaches to the corresponding receipt voucher his signature, the date when the stores were I. K 130 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. received, and the number he has allotted to the delivery voucher. He then returns the receipt voucher to the officer who sent the stores. In the case of a delivery voucher which is found not to agree with the consignment, correspondence takes place be- tween the consignor and the consignee until the matter is settled. The vouchers, if necessary, are returned to the consignor to be corrected (the corrections being initialed by the consignor) and then they are exchanged as in the case of correct vouchers. These vouchers are on Army Form G 1033. Each party to the transaction keeps his voucher to support the entries in his district and transcript ledgers. The receipt journal is a summary of all the receipts of the Commissariat officer in charge, and includes all the stores received by the several Barrack- Serjeants under him. The articles appear in the order of date in which they are received. If stores should at any time be found surplus, a voucher is made out bringing them on charge as though they had been received ; an explanation, however, is entered upon the voucher. Barrack -Serjeants take the immediate charge of the stores and attend to their bestowal, their preservation, their order, &c. , in the expense stores and their issues thence to the troops, or return to the Ordnance Store Department. In these duties, as in those connected with supplies and barrack services, they are assisted by Barrack-Labourers. The Barrack-Serjeant is responsible for the stores in his charge to the Commissariat officer, who is himself responsible to the War Office. In the expense stores, the various articles are kept con- veniently sorted and arranged, so as to facilitate inspection. Bedding must be provided with a dry store, and a separate store-room is reserved for dirty bedding. Hospital bedding and clothing are always kept separate from other articles. Tubs and cooper's ware generally are stowed in places not too- dry. DISTRICT COMMISSARIAT. 131 When expense stores require repair, they are handed over for that purpose to the Ordnance Store Department, when- ever Ordnance Store workshops are available. But when, as most frequently happens, this is not the case, the Senior Commissariat Officer arranges for the work to be done by contract, by special tender, or in regimental workshops. Bedsteads are, whenever they require it, scraped and painted. Urine-tubs are coated inside with tar every four months. Every precaution is taken to keep the stores clear of wood-ants, moths and other vermin, and to that end the stores must be frequently examined by the Barrack- Serjeant and moved under his directions. With a view to ascertaining the condition of the expense stores and of condemning such as may have become un- serviceable, either inspections or boards of survey are held at every station yearly or half-yearly, as may be directed by the Senior Commissariat Officer. But if the Commissariat officer in charge considers it desirable that the stores should be examined more frequently, he reports the necessity to the Senior Commissariat Officer, who, if he concurs, takes the proper steps to have the stores inspected or surveyed. An inspection only is held at those stations which are near to some Ordnance Store reserve depot. For, in that case, any stores which appear to be unserviceable can be passed to the Ordnance Store Department to be surveyed and con- demned under the rules for that department which will be given hereafter. But when the station is distant from a reserve depot, it is necessary to hold a survey, and then any stores found unserviceable may be condemned at once by the board of survey and disposed of. Unless the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance should hi^iself appoint an officer to make an inspection, an experi- enced Commissariat officer is detailed by the Senior Com- missariat Officer to do so. He is never the officer in charge of the stores inspected, nor one of his subordinates. It is found desirable that the same officer should inspect the several sub-districts of the District. 132 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. At an inspection, the stores which an inspecting officer considers unserviceable are set aside to be returned to the Ordnance Store Department, which, as before stated, takes any further necessary steps. Vouchers are made out on which the inspecting officer notes that he considers the stores enumerated * are unfit for the use of the troops,' and the stores are despatched to the reserve depot. The books and working of the department at the station are also looked into and reported upon by the inspecting officer. The Barrack- Serjeants' ledgers are checked by counting a few articles in the stores indiscriminately and examining if the quantities entered in the Barrack- Serjeants' ledgers tally with those found in the store-house (see para. 614 to 625, Regulations for the Commissariat and Transport Staflf). The inspecting officer sends his report to the Senior Commissariat Officer, who forwards it, with his observations, to the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. From stations abroad, reports of inspections are not sent immediately to the Surveyor-General, but accompany the transcript ledger which is sent to the War Office yearly. Surveys are more elaborate affairs than inspections. When :a survey is to be held an inspecting officer is appointed as in the case of an inspection ; but, in addition to this appoint- ment, the Senior Commissariat Officer applies to the General or other Officer Commanding to appoint a commissioned officer, if possible not lower in rank than Captain, to serve on the board of survey ; and the board is completed by the Commissariat officer in charge of the stores to be surveyed. The Commissariat officer in charge, previously to the assembly of the board, prepares a return of the articles brought forward for condemnation on Army Form G 1057. On this return, which is furnished to the board when it Assembles, no articles must appear which have been rendered unserviceable by the troops or by persons holding them from the Commissariat Department, as in this case the value is recoverable from the persons in fault. Only those which have become unserviceable through fair wear and tear may be returned. The inspecting officer representing the Surveyor-General . DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT. 1 33 of the Ordnance takes possession of the key or keys of the ex- pense store-houses containing the stores in question. On no account is he to hand one of these keys over to any other person until the conclusion of the survey ; but it may be placed under seal in some accessible place in case of a fire occurring in the barracks. The board reports in duplicate on Army Form G 1057. Articles condemned are entered in the ' unserviceable ' column. Such as are found fit for further use are entered in the * serviceable ' or * repairable ' columns, according to their condition. Both copies of the report are sent in to the Senior Commissariat Officer, but the board does not wait for its approval or return to dispose of the condemned articles. Condemned articles are disposed of as follows : — Bedding is neither marked nor torn up, but is forwarded to the Ordnance Store Department to be re-examined by the next half-yearly board of survey held by that department, and by it finally disposed of. Clothing is torn up in presence of the board. Utensils are broken up in the presence of the board, so as to prevent the possibility of their again being issued for use. Wooden articles are broken up in the presence of the board. The produce of condemned stores broken up or torn up as above is disposed of as follows : — Copper, brass, lead and mop-nails are forwarded to the Ordnance Store Department. Wooden articles are converted into firewood. Broom-heads and brush-heads are burnt. are separated into lots and weighed, the pro- duce being entered on the board's report - before it is forwarded. The lots are then dis- posed of by public sale or otherwise as the board may recommend. Tom-up clothing {not bedding), Ironwork, Tin, Any other produce, 134 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. When produce is sold, the sale is, if possible, to be carried out in the presence of the board of survey. But if the witnessing of the sale should entail detaining the board at the station for more than one day, the stores may be sold after the board is dissolved. In this case, if the military member of the board is quartered at the station, he witnesses the sale. If not, some other military officer (if possible, not under the rank of Captain) is detailed by the Officer Commanding at the station to do the duty. If the sale is by public auction, a Barrack- Serjeant or competent subordinate acts as auctioneer. Purchasers may not remove anything they have bought until they have paid the auctioneer or Commissariat officer in charge for the articles. An account of the sale on Army Form P 1957 (* return of stores written ojff charge and sold by auction ') is made out in duplicate by the Commissariat officer in charge and is signed by him and by the military officer who witnessed the sale. Both copies are then sent to the Senior Commissariat Officer for his countersignature. He returns them to the Commissariat officer in charge, who then forwards them, with the money proceeds of the sale, to the District Paymaster. The District Paymaster keeps one copy as a debit voucher to his accounts and, having inserted on the other copy the period in his accounts in which the sum will be found credited, he returns it to the Commissariat officer in charge to serve as a sub-voucher to the report of the board of survey. When the two copies of the board's report reach the Senior Commissariat Officer, he passes them for approval to the General or other Officer Commanding. The General transmits it through the Senior Ordnance Store Officer to the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich for any remarks he may have to make. One copy of the report is then returned through the same channels to the Commis- sariat officer in charge. This copy of the board of survey's report (Army Form G 1057) serves as the Commissariat officer's voucher for striking the stores off charge. It is supported by sub- vouchers DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT. 1 35 showing how all the stores which were submitted to survey were disposed of. Thus, if they were all sold, as just described, the return of stores written off charge and sold by auction (Army Form P 1957) is the only necessary sub- voucher. If the stores were all sent to Woolwich or to a reserve depot, the only sub-voucher would be the receipt voucher signed by the Ordnance Store ojficer who had received them. If the produce of the condemned stores were all retained for future disposal, the sub-voucher would be a * conversion voucher,' signed by the Commissariat officer in charge himself, showing how the stores had been struck off charge and out of the district ledger as complete articles, and explaining the simultaneous taking on charge and appearing in the ledger of this or that weight of metals, wood, &c. &c. Obviously, oftener than not, after a survey, some stores will be disposed of in one way and some in another, in which case there will be several sub-vouchers to Army Form G 1057. The method according to which the stores forming the equipment of barracks and buildings pass from the charge of the Commissariat Department to that of the troops has been already described. A converse operation takes place when troops give up a barrack or building which they have occupied. The inspections of stores which take place when troops take or give over barracks are called respectively the * march- ing-in ' and ' marching-out ' inspections. Commissariat officers in charge make arrangements (after communicating with the Officer Commanding the troops .at the station) with the senior Engineer officer, in order that the marching-in inspection may be fixed so that both departments may be represented and that the room inven- tories of stores and those of fixtures may be simultaneously checked and signed by the officer taking over for the troops. Practically, however, a strict observance of this course rather delays than hastens the business of taking over for all parties concerned. At small stations where the Royal Engineer Department 136 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. is not represented, the representative of the Commissariat Department may have orders to act for both the departments concerned. Also, when one corps is relieving another in a barrack, the Commissariat and Royal Engineer Departments arrange, if possible, that the same inspection shall answer as marching- out inspection for one corps and as marching-in inspection for the other. Obviously, this arrangement saves checking the inventories and duplicates twice over. Of course, officers representing both out-going and in-coming corps must in that case be present. The Commissariat officer and the regimental officer taking or giving over, each keep a note-book in which deficiencies, damages, &c., are put down as chargeable to the troops, to fair wear and tear, or otherwise. Clearly, the remarks in the note-books should agree ; and they always will do so, except when a difference of opinion may occur as to who should pay for damages or deficiencies. If a regi- mental officer objects to any assessment of damages by the Commissariat officer, he notifies his objection on the spot. The Commissariat and regimental officers each initial the other's note-book. It is not convenient to enter articles of bedding on the inventory boards of rooms, because such articles are continu- ally changing hands between the troops and the Commissariat Department for the purpose of being washed. Moreover, an exact apportionment of bedding is made to a corps accord- ing to its strength as laid down in the * schedules of barrack furniture,' and a corps never has any surplus articles of this kind in its charge ; while it may have a trifling amount more barrack furniture than it exactly requires, because it must occupy a certain number of rooms complete. Therefore, on arrival at a station the Commanding Officer of a corps requi- sitions in duplicate, on Army Form F 704, the exact quantity of bedding to which he is entitled. The Commis- sariat officer in charge, on finding the requisition correct, orders the proper Barrack -Serjeant to issue the articles. The issue is entered both in the bedding book of the DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT. 1 37 Barrack- Serjeant and in that kept by the Quartermaster of each corps, each party signing the other's book. Each Barrack-Serjeant keeps a separate folio in his bedding book for each corps, hospital, &c. Subsequent exchanges take place on similar requisitions, and a similar formality is observed, receipts going in on one side of the account and issues (or returns) on the other. Miscellaneous barrack or hospital stores and miscellaneous or hospital clothing, not entered on inventory boards and not belonging to any particular room or building, are held from the Commissariat Department on inventories made out on various Army Forms. Articles of bedding and of miscellaneous clothing in charge of the Commissariat Department require to be periodi- cally washed ; and therefore such articles must be periodi- cally exchanged when dirty for similar articles which have been washed. The washing is done at Government expense, except in such cases when articles may have met with improper usage, in which case the cost of washing is charged against the individual in fault. The washing is carried out in Army laundries at stations where any may have been established, and so far as such laundries may be in a position to do the work. In stations where there are no laundries,, the work is done by contract ; and at those where the laundries can only do part of it, a contractor must do the rest. Barrack bedding and miscellaneous clothing are, as has been seen, kept apart from similar articles for hospital service, separate accounts are also kept of washing done for barracks and hospitals respectively. Regiments, hospitals, &c., send in to the Commissariat Department periodical requisitions for exchanging dirty against clean bedding and miscellaneous clothing (Army Form F 702 and F 704, for hospital and barrack bedding respec- tively ; Army Form F 762, for clothing). These requisitions are technically termed * certificates of exchange.' The periods for exchanging vary according to the articles. Thus sheets are exchanged every month, while blankets which have been in use are replaced by clean ones at intervals of a year only. 138 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Exchanges of bedding carried out in compliance with these requisitions are entered in the ' bedding books ' of the corps or hospital and of the Barrack- Serjeant receiving or issuing the bedding. The * washing account books ' (Army Book 174, for barrack washing ; 175, for hospitals) are kept by the Com- missariat ofl&cer in charge. Every time articles are issued to a Government laundry to be washed, the numbers of each article sent out are entered in one of these books, according to whether the washing is for barracks or for hospitals. A Barrack subordinate then is required to check the articles over, sign the washing account book or books, and take the linen to the laundry. Two check-hooks are also kept : one for hospital, and one for barrack washing : — For hospitals . . . Army Book 200 For barracks . . . . ,, ,, 200 a. When the Barrack subordinate takes both barrack and hospital linen to the laundry, he is given duplicate checks out of each book. These checks agree with the entries in the washing account books which he has signed as correct. One copy of each pair of checks is signed by the Commissariat officer in charge, or other expense store accountant, and is kept by the subordinate ; the other is signed in receipt of the articles, when they have been delivered, by the Sui^erintend- ent of the laundry and brought back to the accountant. When, however, it is inconvenient to employ a Barrack subordinate, as for instance when the laundry is far away, the linen may be put in charge of a non-commissioned officer of the Commissariat and Transport Corps who, instead of checks, receives regular ' convoy notes ' (Anriy Form F 754). He deals with these as will appear further on in speaking of the Ordnance Store Department. When the washing is done by a contractor, the person he sends for the linen simply signs the entries in the two washing account books, in acknowledgment of their being correct, and takes away the articles. At the end of each quarter the washing account books are DISTRICT COMMISSARIAT. 1 39 balanced and the dates of the bills in which the washing of the articles has been included are entered in red ink. At every quarterly inspection the Commissariat officer in charge at the station initials the balance after satisfying himself that it is correct. The Commissariat officer in charge makes out every quarter in duplicate, * abstracts' (or summaries) of the requisitions before mentioned as being sent in by corps and hospitals for the exchange of bedding and clothing : For bedding, one abstract (in duplicate) on Army Form F703; For clothing, one abstract (in duplicate) on Army Form F 763. The columns of articles in the abstracts having been totaled, the corresponding total numbers returned by the contractor after washing are entered under them and deducted. The balance, if any, shows the number of each article out- standing in the contractor's hands. In the quarters ending with March and September, all articles in the contractor's hands are returned or the value charged to the contractor. The abstracts for those quarters should, therefore, show no balance. At the end of the other two quarters of the year a balance may be shown of articles still in the contractor's hands, but, even then, every effort is made to prevent any balance being necessarily shown. The numbers of the articles shown by the abstracts as having been returned, properly washed, by contractors, are carried on to the * claim for washing bedding ' (Army Form P 1908) and on to the ' claim for washing clothing ' (Army Form P 1961). These claims become the contractor's bills. They are sent in for payment supported by the abstracts and requisitions as sub-vouchers. If a bill for washing does not exceed 100^., it is paid by the District Paymaster: if it exceeds that amount, it must be sent to the Accountant- General at the War Office for settlement, or, in Ireland, to the Chief Paymaster at Dublin. The contract for washing is generally also that for repair- ing bedding and miscellaneous clothing ; but sometimes there 140 ELEMENTS OF MILITAEY ADMINISTRATION. is a distinct contractor for repairs. This entails a double set of accounts ; but the method followed in regulating the- issue to, and receipt from, the contractor, in making out his claims, &c., is the same, separate * washing account books,' abstracts, claims, &c., identical in form with those used for washing, being used in the transactions, except that the abstracts used for repairs are made out, for bedding and clothing respectively on separate copies, of Army Form G 961. Washing and repairs not chargeable to fair wear and tear must be paid for by the troops. A statement of the numbers of any articles the washing or repair of which is thus charge- able is entered on the back of the claim on Army Form P 1908 or P 1961, as the case may be. The amount charge- able in this way is then recovered from the corps which, or person who, has soiled or damaged the articles. All barracks, hospitals, and other premises occupied by corps, departments, cSrc, holding stores from the Commissariat Department are inspected during the first month of every quarter in the year for the purpose of verifying the condition of the stores. In performing this duty the Commissariat ofiicer is invariably accompanied by an officer representing the corps or department in occupation. These quarterly inspections are conducted in the same way as marching-in or marching-out inspections, except that, in addition to verifying the ordinary stores, the bedding hooks are balanced and compared ; the Commissariat officer being careful that stores have not been shifted from one room to another. Every room (except those appropriated to officers) is visited. Officers' quarters are only inspected at marching- in and marching-out inspections and, in regimental depot barracks, once a year. At these inspections, as at marching-out inspections, any articles found to be unserviceable through bad usage by the troops, &c., and not worn out fairly, are charged against the troops. If an article thus charged be worn, less than the full price, but never less than half that amount, may be charged. When charges of this kind are not disputed, the articles are DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT, 141 •destroyed on the spot ; otherwise, they are set aside until the question is decided. After each inspection, a certificate is sent by the Com- missariat ojfficer in charge to the Senior Commissariat Officer that he has carried out his duty. * Inspections reports of stores lost, damaged or destroyed ' are then made out, in triplicate, on Army Form P 1956, by the Commissariat officer. The three copies are sent to the Commanding Officer of the corps or head of the department in occupation. He signs them, keeps a copy and sends back the two others to the Commissariat officer, who transmits them to the District Paymaster. This officer collects the money value of the damages from Officers Commanding corps, &c., or credits his account with the sums by adjustment with regimental Paymasters. Damages, &c. , chargeable to soldiers when in hospital are noted by the Quartermaster of the Army Hospital Corps in his * personal charge book.' An abstract of these charges is furnished by the Quartermaster at every quarterly inspection of the hospital to the Commissariat officer, who adds the a,mount chargeable to each corps to that chargeable on account of damages done in barracks. When the District Paymaster has received or credited the money, he signs the certificates to this effect on both the forms, specifying where the sum will be found credited in his accounts, and returns one copy to the Commissariat officer in <;harge. The copy of the inspection report retained by the District Paymaster serves him as a debit voucher for his accounts ; while that returned to the Commissariat officer serves him as a credit voucher in rendering his store accounts, by account- ing for the disappearance of the stores or their deterioration. As will be stated later in discussing Regimental Adminis- tration, the barracks occupied by corps of troops, &c., are inspected monthly by order of the Commanding Officer. Any damages or deficiencies assessed at these inspections are reported to the Commissariat officer in charge. Whenever any objection is made by a Commanding 142 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Officer (or on his behalf by an officer deputed to take over or hand over barracks) to the condition of an article taken over or to a charge for a deficiency or damage, the question, if it cannot be settled with the Commissariat officer on the spot, must, as before stated, be raised at the time of taking over or handing over. The Commanding Officer then sends a written notice of appeal against any charge to the Commis- sariat officer, who must send it on with his observations to the Senior Commissariat Officer. The latter officer refers the matter to the General, who may, if he wishes, appoint a garrison board to inquire into the circumstances. If the General finds himself unable to settle the question, he refers it on to the War Office, the troops paying any charge pending the decision. Stock is taken of all the stores in charge of each Commis- sariat officer (that is, they are actually counted over or weighed) every three years, and also whenever the Com- missariat officer in charge is relieved. Stock-takings after a transfer follow one another at intervals of three years from that transfer. These stock-takings are superintended either by an officer deputed by the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance (to whom reference is always made), or (in the event of the Surveyor- General not appointing an officer) by one suggested to the General Officer Commanding by the Senior Commissariat Officer. When the stock-taking is necessary by reason of the relief of one Commissariat officer by another, the following rules are observed. The officer about to be relieved prepares fresh certificates (see p. 118), showing what rooms are in possession of each corps on the first day of the transfer, and obtains the signature, up to date, of each Commanding Officer. Fresh copies are also made of those duplicate inventories of rooms which may have been altered. These will also require the Commanding Officer's signature, and, if he wishes it, all the room inventories are previously verified. The Commissariat officer about to be relieved makes out fresh inventories in duplicate of any stores held from him DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT. 143^ on inventory by Officers Commanding regiments, by heads of departments, &c. He verifies each of those inventories with the officer concerned, and they both sign it. Also the amount of the bedding held by regiments, as shown by the bedding books, is verified and the bedding book accounts closed. An abstract of the ' stores in possession of troops ' is then made out on Army Book 126 for each barrack, hospital, &c. This document is a summary of all the stores held by each regiment, hospital, department, &c. , from the Commissariat officer on various kinds of inventories. A * District abstract of stores on inventory ' is made out. This is an abstract of all the several abstracts just mentioned of stores in possession of the troops, departments, &c., so as to bring them together on one paper. The Commissariat officer then clears his expense stores as far as possible of all articles which are superfluous, and causes all bedding, miscellaneous clothing, &c., to be washed and brought in from contractors. Certificates that all articles in contractors' hands for the purpose of being washed have been returned to store, are sent from each station to the Senior Commissariat Officer and by him forwarded to the officer superintending the transfer. All receipt and issue transactions are for the time suspended as far as they can be so. The Commissariat officer then balances his district ledger up to the date of the first day appointed for the stock- taking. He also prepares three ' transfer returns ' on Army Form G 922 ; one of these serves as the ' day book ' of the officer representing the Surveyor-General, the others as transfer returns for himself and the Commissariat officer about to relieve him. In these papers all the articles on charge are enumerated, but the columns for the numbers of each are left blank. The officer superintending the transfer and the two Com- missariat officers concerned having then met, the transfer operations commence with the first day's stock-taking. The stock-taking continues day by day with no intermission 144 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. except on Sundays. As the stock-taking goes forward, the blank columns of the day book and of the two other transfer returns are filled in with the numbers of the articles actually ascertained to be in the expense store. The day book and transfer returns are then all signed by all three officers. The district abstract of stores on inventory is then com- pared with the totals of all the abstracts of stores in posses- sion of troops for each barrack, &c., and the certificates of officers holding stores with the abstracts of stores in posses- sion. When these documents are found to agree, the three officers sign the district abstract. The truth of the abstracts •of stores in possession or of the inventories themselves is not verified by the superintending officer or by the Commissariat officer taking over charge, inasmuch as they are acknow- ledged to be correct by the signatures to the certificates of the Commanding Officers of regiments or others who are responsible for the stores. The quantity of stores on charge, as shown by the stock- taking, when added to the total shown by the abstract of stores on inventory, ought, evidently, if there be no mistakes, to correspond exactly with the numbers shown by the * remain ' of the ledger ; but there may, j^ractically, be dis- <;repancies. These will, if they exist, be shown by the * col- lected account,' which is the final document of the transfer operations. It is prepared in a few lines thus : — In store Abstract of inventories . Total on charge (according to remain) Total on charge (according to ledger) Stores found surplus Stores found deficient . The collected account is made out in duplicate and signS by the three officers. One copy is retained in the local Commissariat office ; the other is transmitted by the superin- tending officer, with liis day book and the abstract of stores -on inventory, to the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance at War Office. fli ned Ml Dcal f I rin- 3res the 11 J DISTRICT— COMMISSARIAT. 145 The Commissariat officer giving over charge of the stores is furnished with a list of those found surplus or deficient, and with instructions to account for the discrepancies through the Senior Commissariat Officer to the Surveyor- General of the Ordnance. In the case of a triennial stock-taking, the proceedings for taking the remain are the same, except that, as the expense stores are not to change hands, the Commissariat officer in charge acts in the capacities both of officer handing over and officer taking over, as above detailed. When a Barrack- Serjeant is transferred, stock is taken of the amount of stores in his immediate charge according to the same ^e^iera? rules as above described. The Commissariat officer in charge, or other expense store accountant, acts as witnessing officer to the transfer. Any irregularities dis- covered are dealt with locally, as no shortcomings of a Barrack- Serjeant are allowed to absolve the Commissariat officer from responsibility towards the War Office, and, con- sequently, no documents are forwarded to the Surveyor- General. The receipt journal kept by each Commissariat officer in charge contains records of all articles of expense stores re- ceived and taken on charge by any among the several Barrack- Serjeants subordinate to the Commissariat officer, whether these articles are new ones received from the reserve depots of the Ordnance Store Department or miscellaneous clothing received from the Director of Clothing, or articles which, having been previously issued to the troops, are sub- sequently returned. So, also, the issue journal contains records of all articles issued. The entries in these books are supported by the delivery vouchers (in the case of the receipt journal) and the receipt vouchers (in the case of the issue journal) of the persons from whom the stores have been received or to whom they have been issued. The journals are posted up daily, the entries being made as they occur. The arrangement here, then, is according to I. L 146 ELEMENTS OP MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. dates and not according to articles of store, the various articles in one receipt or issue being entered together. The vouchers are all numbered and the journals and vouchers bear cross-references to one another. The district ledger is, so to call it, a digest of the receipt and issue journals. It is daily posted from those journals in the form of a debit and credit account, the left-hand page of each folio (or opening in the book) showing receipts, while the right-hand page shows issues. But, in this account, the transactions are arranged according to articles of store ; so that, for instance, a consignment of various articles received will entail but a single entry (with various items) in the receipt journal ; while the same transaction, posted in the district ledger, will appear, split up, according to the number of articles received, in different parts of the book ; and so also for issues. The stores entered in each Barrack- Serjeant's ledger are all included in the district ledger as though the Commissariat officer in charge had them under his own personal superin- tendence. The district ledger is balanced at the end (31st March) of every financial year and also at every transfer or triennial stock-taking. Its balance ought always to show what amount of stores is held on charge by the Commissariat officer concerned. The transcript ledger is an exact copy of the district ledger, from which it is compiled and not from vouchers. It is posted as soon as possible after the district ledger and is never allowed to fall more than seven days in arrear. The last page of each ledger (district and transcript) bears a certificate that it has been carefully checked, which is signed by the Commissariat officer in charge. The transcript ledger is sent yearly by the 31st March to the War Office together with all the vouchers, there to be checked in the Surveyor-General's office. The Barrack- Serjeants' ledgers are sub-accounts of the Commissariat officer's. These books are balanced at the end of every financial year or after every transfer or triennial DISTRICT COMMISSARIAT. 1 47 stock-taking. Although not included in the account, the amount of stores in charge of the troops, &c., always appears in these books, under the balance in store, in red ink, every time a balance is struck. It may be noted that a Barrack- Serjeant need not enter, in keeping his ledger, exchanges of articles with the troops when the exchanges are for equal numbers of certain articles. But when a certain number of articles are exchanged for a different number, the transaction must be entered on both sides of the account. Transport, The charge of all the organized military transport in the District, excepting such as may be organized within regiments, is in the hands of the Commissariat and Transport Depart- ment, which provides this and also any other kind of trans- port required for land or for inland- water purposes, except railway conveyance. Sea transport (which includes that by H. M. ships and t'hat by hired transport vessels) is a service performed by the Royal Navy, and is provided by the Director of Army Transports at the Admiralty, on the requisition of the Quarter-Master-General at the War Office. At foreign stations, if sea transport be needed, the Senior Commissariat Officer applies for it to the Senior Naval Officer at the station, if there is one. But if there is no naval officer at the station, the General or other Officer Command- ing orders the Senior Commissariat Officer to engage vessels, freight in vessels, or passages for individuals, or to authorize the issue of passage money to such persons as may be entitled to passages. Whether there be a naval officer at the station or not, a return on Army Form O 1678 is sent in every quarter from foreign stations of all passages provided or passage allowances issued. Further rules on this subject will be found in Sect. VII. of the Regulations for the Commissariat and Transport Staff. Railway transport is a matter arranged between the officers of the Quarter-Master-General's division of the Staff l2 148 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. in a District, on the one hand, and the railway companies^ concerned, on the other. All railway companies are obliged, by the Railways Act of 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 85), to convey^ troops and their baggage, &c., at fixed rates. The loading and unloading of the baggage must be done by the troops. For short distances (such as to and from railway stations,, wharves, &c.), regiments use their own organized transport if they have any ; or they make their own arrangements for hiring wagons, &c., recovering the cost ; or, again, if there be organized Commissariat transport on the spot, they may be provided with it. All transport, however, which does not come under one of the above-mentioned exceptions is provided by the Com- missariat Department. The organized means of transport at the disposal of the- department consists of the transport companies of the Com- missariat and Transport Corps ; companies having a regular- establishment of officers, men and horses, and an equipment of military vehicles of various kinds. Boats permanently maintained by the War Department (such as military ferry boats, garrison boats, &c.) are in the- custody of the Commissariat Department or are held from that department by the troops. An exception to this rule exists in the case of certain boats and larger vessels set apart specially for the use of the Ordnance Store Department at the gun-wharves and certain other places. These vessels are naturally under the department for the exclusive use of which they are maintained. The term * transport ' does not necessarily extend to all the means used for the conveyance of §tores and goods. When it is said that the Commissariat Department provides land and inland-water transport, that does not mean that recourse is had to this department whenever it is needful to convey goods from one place to another. As a rule, con- tractors and others furnishing stores or supplies dehver them. at the specified place at their own cost. The Ordnance Store Department, in its receipt and issue transactions, may (and generally does) consign stores from one depot to another by-^ 1 DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT. 149 the ordinary means of conveyance, such as railway or steam packet companies, or ordinary carriers, or even by the post ■office. But sometimes it is found convenient to utilize Com- missariat transport for the conveyance of stores, or to requi- sition that department for the same purpose. At some stations the Ordnance Store Department has its own wagons for the special conveyance of ammunition, and requisitions the Commissariat Department for the necessary horses and drivers. The equipment of all organized transport involves the charge of a large quantity of stores, such as harness, vehicles, &c. These articles are obviously held for the use of the department itself, and are quite distinct in nature from expense stores, which the Commissariat Department keeps for the use of the Army at large. The equipment of the Commissariat and Transport Corps is therefore accounted for, as that of a regiment, by an 'equipment ledger,' and is not entered in any Commissariat officer's ' district ledger. ' Boats, barges, &c., and their equipment, are accounted for separately in Army Book 204, at those stations where they are on -charge. A return (giving descriptions of all boats, &c., at such stations) is forwarded to the War Office on Army Form G 967, by the Senior Commissariat Officer on or before the 31st October of each year. Boats are originally supplied to the Commissariat Depart- ■ment by the Navy. Whenever naval means are available, the Navy is also required to repair them or arrange for the work to be done. Whenever practicable, organized transport is that sup- plied by the Commissariat Department ; but it does not exist at all stations ; and, indeed, there is very little of it maintained in peace time. Even where it is forthcoming, it is often overtaxed with work and insufficient to meet demands. Therefore, when the Commissariat Department has to provide land transport, it must frequently resort to that which can be furnished by civilians. At some stations, there is a running contract in force with some person to provide transport when needed at certain 150 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. rates. But very often it is necessary to hire by special agreement without contract. Similarly, boats for inland- water transport are contracted for or hired by the Commissariat Department. Under the Army Act, vehicles, animals and vessels belong- ing to the civil inhabitants of the country may, under certain circumstances, be impressed for Army transport. The local civil authorities must raise the transport from the inhabit- ants ; but they do so on a requisition, legally authorized, issued by the military authorities. Whenever it is foreseen that it will be necessary to resort to this means of procuring transport, the requisition is issued, under the orders of the General or other Officer Commanding, by the officers of the Commissariat Department. Practically, however, the occa- sion on which this means of transport is used must be very rare in ordinary times. At those stations where transport companies of the Com- missariat and Transport Corps are quartered, there is a Com- missariat officer specially in charge of transport who deals with all questions relating to the subject under the authority of the Senior Commissariat Officer. In many places, how- ever, transport questions, in common with all other Com- missariat business, are managed by the Commissariat officer in charge of all Commissariat business. When a regiment or other body of troops is about to move, the Quarter-Master-GeneraFs division of the Staff makes the necessary arrangements and communicates with the Adjutant-General's division, which issues an order to the Commissariat and Transport Department, in general terms, to provide the necessary amount of transport. The Commanding Officer of the troops about to move sends his requisition for the eocact amount of transport he will require _ to the Commissariat officer in charge of transport, who, ITfl the amount required be in accordance with regulations, furnishes it accordingly. If the amount requisitioned seems to the Commissariat officer to be excessive, he submits the matter to the Senior Commissariat Officer. In cases of great- emergency, the latter directs his subordinate according to his ^isJ\ DISTRICT — COMMISSARIAT. 151 own discretion ; but as a general rule, it is his duty to take the orders of the General or other Officer Commanding as to whether the requisition is or is not to be complied with to the full or any extent. If the General, overruling the doubts of the Senior Commissariat Officer, should order the requisition to be complied with, his order is at once carried out ; but the proceedings are reported by the Senior Com- missariat Officer, through the General, to the Secretary of State and a note is made on the voucher for the cost of the transport of any items which may have been considered as a doubtful charge. When transport is hired or requisitioned, the person furnishing it must provide the animals and drivers or boat- men necessary for the vehicles or boats. At stations where boats can be obtained from the Navy for transport purposes, application is made for them by the General or other Officer Commanding to the Senior Naval Officer. The Senior Commissariat Officer prepares the re- quisition, which he either submits to the Officer Commanding for signature, or, if so directed, signs himself * by order ' of the General or other Officer Commanding. During the performance of the service, the direction of transport furnished or provided by the Commissariat Depart- ment remains with that department ; convoys of the Com- missariat and Transport Corps therefore act under their own officers or non-commissioned officers ; and some officerr or non-commissioned officer of the corps accompanies and takes charge of hired or requisitioned transport. Obviously, however, the officer or non-commissioned officer in charge of the convoy moving with a column of troops is under the authority of the officer commanding the column. The transport requisitioned by an officer having been provided by the Commissariat Department, parades at the place and hour ordered. The personnel of the department have not to load the wagons or other conveyances ; this is a service to be performed by the troops themselves. Similarly, on arrival at the specified place, the troops must unload the wagons. ^^r— 152 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Unless some other stipulation exists in the contract or agreement for civil transport, it must be paid for at the time and place at which the service terminates. When, at home stations, officers travel on any duty not provided for by regulation, their claims for expenses must be sent for examination to the Senior Commissariat Officer with a full report of the circumstances, so that he may decide whether the amount is one which ought to be paid by the public before the claim can go in for payment to the proper Paymaster. Abroad, all travelling claims are sent for examination to the Senior Commissariat Officer. Money paid on account of transport, if not provided by contract, is accounted for in the monthly schedule of local expenses before referred to. YIII. The Okdnance Store Department in the District. Fersoniiel and Establishmeiits. The officer at the head of the Ordnance Store Depart- ment in a District is termed the * Senior Ordnance Store Officer,' and usually holds in his own department the rank either of Deputy-Commissary-General or of Assistant- C ommissary-General . The Ordnance Store Department has in its charge at stations in the District certain reserve depots or storehouses, magazines, and workshops. These are in charge of officers of the department subordinate to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer. They are directly responsible for the presence and the condition of the stores in their charge to the Commissary- General of Ordnance at Woolwich, who, again, is under the Director of Artillery and Stores at the War Office. The Ordnance Store Department takes charge of such buildings as it occupies for departmental purposes directly from the Royal Engineer Department. These buildings, consisting of reserve depots, storehouses, magazines, work- DISTRICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 153 ^shops, &c., are estimated for under the vote for 'fortifications and Ordnance Store buildings/ and not under that for * barracks.' The Commissariat Department never has any- thing to do with them. Such stores as are required for the furnishing and equipping of these buildings are provided by the Ordnance Store Department itself directly from the reserve depots and returned as * articles in use.' In addition to the officers of the department, the per- ;:5onnel in a District includes : — Warrant officers (Conductors and Serjeant-Majors), non- commissioned officers, and men of the Ordnance Store Corps ; Armourers ; Civilian clerks ; Artificers ; Labourers. The head-quarters of the Corps of Armourers is at the E/Oyal Small Arms Factory at Birmingham. Charge, Receipt and Issue of Stores. The definition of the term ' stores, ' as distinguished from that of * supplies,' has already been given (pp. 37 and 41). All stores required for military purposes in the District, including all those for equipment of barracks, are, with the exception of the articles in the following list, demanded or otherwise procured, received, stored, issued and accounted for, by the Ordnance Store Department. The classes of stores with which the department has nothing to do are the following : — 1. Ordinary clothing and necessaries ; 2. Special building materials and special articles to be worked up in the construction of works (provided independently by the Royal Engineer Department) ; 3. Surgical instruments, appliances, and medicines ; 4. Veterinary instruments, appliances, and horse medi- cines ; 5. Stationery. As regards clothing, although the Ordnance Store Depart- 154 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. ment does not (except in the field or abroad) administer the ordinary provision of that class of stores, yet it keeps the reserve stock of miscellaneous clothing, such as hospital, prison, and working clothing, clothing for boats' crews, &c. Also, both at home and abroad, condemned clothing is usually sold by this department. The stores forming the permanent equipment of corps of troops are not borne on the books of the Ordnance Store Department in any District or accounted for by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer. But the department is used as a medium through which fresh supplies of such stores are transmitted to corps quartered for the time in the District, and for receiving back any stores which a corps may be authorized to return. All expense stores issued for the use of the troops by the Commissariat Department are drawn by it from the Ordnance Store Department reserve depots. The Royal Engineer Department, in common with all other departments and corps, gets all articles of general stores from the Ordnance Store Department. But, in addition to these, it sometimes requires special stores, not kept in stock in the reserve depots, for purposes of construction. Even these stores, however, although not demanded by the Ord- nance Store Department, are sometimes consigned to it to be passed on locally to the Royal Engineer Department, just as stores intended to form part of the ordinary equipment of a regiment may be passed to it through the medium of the Ordnance Store Department. The Ordnance Store Department in a District enters into no contracts. Whenever these may be necessary for Ordnance Store services (which is but rarely) they are opened by the Commissariat Department on application from the Senior Ordnance Store Officer. Neither does the Ordnance Store Department perform any other kind of buying or sell- ing, save that (as will be hereafter mentioned) it may be authorized exceptionally to make certain small local purchases, and that it also occasionally disposes by sale of condemned or obsolete stores. DISTRICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 155 The fact that, in the British service, regiments and corps have no permanent connection with any particular District or station affects the Administration of stores in a District and adds considerably to the complication of the system. The stores which form part of the permanent equipment of a regiment and which move with it must be necessarily treated differently and accounted for in a different way to those which are issued for the local services and which never move. Not only is the Ordnance Store officer directly accountable for his charge to the War Office, but the Commanding Officers of regiments are also in direct account with the War Office for their permanent equipment, while they are sub- accountants of the local departments for local stores. Owing, therefore, to the moving character of our regiments, a Com- manding Officer has not only to keep up his own equipment ledger, but he also holds stores on inventories from several departments, which inventories again are lists of stores forming ' detachments ' (so to call them) from the stock accounted for on other store ledgers. But a further com- plication arises from the fact that stores for other depart- ments are usually passed to them through the local Ordnance Store officers ; and this practice consequently entails a set of regulations concerning ^ stores in transit ' through the Ordnance Store Department which are not to be permanently accounted for by that department ; and separate accounts, vouchers, and books also become necessary. Thus, the War Office not only undertakes the task of itself keeping up a separate account with every regiment in the country, but it also maintains a separate local account, and further it must examine the transactions between the local and the moving accountants, without which the accounts of neither can be checked. The stock of ordinary articles of stores required for local use in the District by the various departments and also for the local use of the troops is kept, preparatory to issue, in the reserve depots of the Ordnance Store Department at certain stations. Such ammunition as is not issued to the troops (or to the expense magazines of the Boyal Artillery) is also kept in charge of the department in its own magazines. 156 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. The amount ordinarily required in each place is roughly known beforehand, partly by absolutely regulated propor- tions, partly by experience ; and every Ordnance Store officer in charge keeps in reserve six months' supply of ordinary stores. As regards ammunition, besides the large reserves kept according to special rules in certain magazines, a pro- portion to be used in practice and for exercise is held also by the Ordnance Store Department for current consumption ; from this latter proportion the Artillery expense magazines and the Infantry and Cavalry regimental magazines are fed, also in regulated proportions. The course pursued by the Ordnance Store Department in a District in obtaining the stores which are kept for issue in the reserve depots is briefly as follows. The Senior Ordnance Store Officer of the District calls on the heads of corps and departments who are entitled to draw stores, to furnish him with detailed estimates of their probable requirements during the next financial year. Ordnance Store officers in charge of sub-stations also send in estimates to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer. Estimates are made out and forwarded in duplicate, the officers making them also keeping office copies. The forms used for the several services are : Barrack stores . Commissariat stores . Hospital stores . Prison stores / Stores and ammunition Royal for existing armaments ,, ,, G 800 ; Artillery -l Stores and ammunition other than for existing I armaments . . ,, ,, G 801; Royal Engineer general stores . ,, ,, G 991. In enumerating the stores on the estimates, they must be described exactly as in the * Priced Vocabulary of Stores.' The quantities estimated for are either fixed ones laid down by regulation or are to be regulated according to the average Army Form G 963 5> 5> G 999 5) J5 5 J G1014 G1030 1 DISTRICT ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 157 consumption of previous years. All the estimates, except those for expense stores, show the data on which the estimate is arrived at, the average annual consumption, the purposes for which the stores are required, the quantities still in possession, the cost of the stores. An estimate may propose that certain articles shall be- made by regimental Artificers or shall be procured locally ; in this case, the cost of the proposed transaction must be in- serted. The several estimates must be so forwarded as to be in the hands of the Senior Ordnance Store Officer by the follow- ing dates : Home stations . .] /Preceding Malta and Gibraltar . L . a x x. ^^^ ^^^^" Halifax .... 1«^ S^Pt^^^ber Li^i y,^r West Indies and Bermuda j ^^ which All other stations abroad . 1st August \ they refer.. If the Senior Ordnance Store Officer should consider that an estimate is excessive, or that it in any way needs revision,, he communicates with the officer who sent it in. If the officer in question wishes to adhere to his original estimate,, the matter is referred to the General or other Officer Com- manding, whose decision is forwarded to the War Office with the estimate. When the Senior Ordnance Store Officer has satisfied himself as to the estimates he has received, he is in a position to decide what articles, out of the number estimated for by the District at large, he would wish to have made for him locally in the Royal Engineer workshops. He makes out a statement in duplicate of these stores on Army Form M 1410, and sends one copy, some time in the month of Sep- tember, to the Commanding Royal Engineer ; the other copy he keeps to send to the War Office with his * consolidated annual demand.' The next business of the Senior Ordnance Store Depart- ment is the preparation of the ' consolidated annual demand.'' 158 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. This document, as its name implies, is the grand total of all the estimated requirements of the District for such stores as are provided by the Ordnance Store Department. The stores not provided by this department have already been . mentioned. The ' consolidated annual demand ' is made out in dupli- cate on Army Form G 983, an office copy being also made. It is framed on the estimates above mentioned, and it more- over incorporates the Senior Ordnance Store Officer's estimates of the stores which will be required to maintain regimental equipments, and any demands which may be made by the Royal Navy on the Senior Ordnance Store Officer (made on Army Form G 853). The quantities demanded are such as will leave the Senior Ordnance Store Officer six months' consumption in hand over and above the require- ments of the financial year. The Senior Ordnance Store Officer, having obtained the approval of the General or other Officer Commanding to his consolidated annual demand, forwards both copies, together with the estimates, any naval demands, and the statement of work proposed to be done in Engineer workshops, to the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich, so as to reach that officer by the 31st October. Correspondence may or may not ensue ; but, as soon as the Commissary-General at Woolwich has obtained the Secre- tary of State's approval of the demand, he returns the dupli- cate copy to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer of the District. This approved demand then becomes the authority on which the Senior Ordnance Store Officer complies with tlie ^ requisitions ' sent in to him from time to time by officers entitled to draw stores in the District. At Portsmouth, Devonport, and Chatham, there are im- portant establishments under Ordnance Store officers termed ' gun-wharves. ' It has been stated before that the Ordnance Store Department supplies the Navy as well as the Army with arms and warlike stores, and it is at these establishments that stores of this description for the use of the Navy are placed on board Her Majesty's Ships. Situated at the three DISTRICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 159 seaports above-mentioned, the gun- wharves are close at hand to the Royal Dockyards and other naval establishments. The Ordnance Store officer at each gun- wharf is periodically informed by the Admiralty of the number and description of vessels which will be equipped at that gun-wharf during the ensuing year. This enables the Ordnance Store officer to make due provision for the expected draughts of stores, which he accordingly does by sending in an ' annual demand ' in the same form as the consolidated annual demand forwarded by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer of a District. To the gun-wharves are also attached War Department vessels, completely under the orders of the Ordnance Store Department, and used for the conveyance of stores, ammuni- tion, &c. The stores required to maintain the equipment of a vessel of this class are demanded annually by its master on Army Form G 1051 from the Senior Ordnance Store Officer of the station to which the vessel belongs, who for- wards the demand to the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich by the 31st October. After the approved demands have been returned to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer of a District, the stores are despatched from Woolwich, consigned to the Ordnance Store officer in charge of the reserve depot where the stores are required. In certain cases, contractors themselves may be directed to deliver articles provided by them. In other cases, the Senior Ordnance Store Officer may receive orders to purchase the articles locally or to sanction their being supplied by regimental Artificers. Accidental or unforeseen reasons may oblige the Senior Ordnance Store Officer to make an intermediate demand. Such demands are, however, avoided as much as possible. Stores despatched from Woolwich to an Ordnance Store officer are sent either by carrier, by a War Department vessel, or by convoy, according to rules which will be pre- sently detailed. Special regulations apply to the conveyance of ammunition and similar combustibles which are given in paragraphs 622 to 730 of the Regulations for the Ordnance Store Department. 160 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. In this way, the reserve depots and the magazines in- charge of the Ordnance Store Department in a District are filled and kept supplied with a stock of stores and ammuni- tion estimated to be sufficient for the requirements of the District for the financial year and, over and above those requirements, with a reserve to serve as a margin, which, in the case of stores, and small-arm ammunition, represents an estimated consumption for six months ; while, in the case of gun ammunition, a stock estimated to be sufficient for two years' consumption is kept up. It has already been stated that certain special stores are received by the Ordnance Store Department *in transit *■ for other departments or corps. These stores are not entered in the departmental * station ledgers ' in the same way as other articles ; a note is simply made in the ledger of the number and description of the packages. But all stores which are intended to be placed in a depot to await issue as required are entered in detail in the reserve depot * receipt journal ' and in the * station ledger ' after each consignment has been carefully checked and compared with the voucher. The rules to oe followed in the arrangement of stores in depots and of ammunition in magazines and those relating ta the charge of storehouses and magazines, with the precautions to be taken in the latter, are detailed in Sections Y and X of the Regulations for the Ordnance Store Department. Stores received in transit to be passed on to other de- partments or corps are kept, during the time they may necessarily remain in the hands of the Ordnance Store Department, separate from stores to be taken on charge permanently. All parcels, bales, &c. , containing stores sent from Wool- wich to a reserve depot are marked with a number, with a description of their contents, and with their gross weight. Each package also contains an inventory of its own contents,, or 'packing note,' on Army Form G 1028. Before any document is signed by an Ordnance Stor& officer receiving stores which absolves the person or company conveying them from responsibility, the paper must be care- DISTKICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 161 fully compared with the stores and the latter weighed, counted, and otherwise checked. If the packing appears to have been tampered with, the parcel is opened and the stores are checked over by the packing note. Parcels con- taining stores received in transit are not opened; but the correctness of the number and the weight of the parcels is verified and the packing examined to ascertain that it has not been tampered with. The Senior Ordnance- Store Officer or the Ordnance Store officer in charge of any reserve depot makes application to the General or other Officer Commanding the troops at the station for the detail of any guards or the posting of any sentries he may require for the security of storehouses or magazines, and for any escorts to accompany convoys of stores. He also applies to the same officer for transport when it is required. In this case the Ordnance Store officer simply states in his application the nature, weight or bulk of the stores to be conveyed ; the General or other Officer Com- manding then directs the Commissariat and Transport Department as to how much transport shall be furnished. Workshops are maintained under the direction of the Senior Ordnance Store Officer for the repair of stores. Certain articles may also be manufactured in these work- shops. Officers of the department in charge of reserve depots are to make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the condition of the stores they hold in charge. When it appears that certain stores require repair, it is their duty to examine them and, if necessary, cause them to be repaired. Those which they consider unserviceable, they set aside in order that they may be brought before the next half-yearly board of survey for condemnation. The officers at the head of departments, regiments, &c., draw on the stock of stores in the reserve depots and maga- zines by means of requisitions. These requisitions must be made at the following periods : — 162 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. / Annually by : 1 15th March at Ammunition for practice and exercise -^^ home stations ; 15th September ' abroad ; Camp equipment, intrenching tools, Ij^^^^ ^^^^ . &c. ......) Stable necessaries . . . , \ Artificers' tools f annually by Articles for the repair of arms, accou- f 1st March ; trements, harness and saddlery . / _ . „ - . - ( annually by Paint, &c., for preservation of wagonsj^^^ September ; Veterinary stores (such as are provided ) i + lyr i, r\ by the Ordnance Store Department) [ .^. 9>^^i^m\^r' half-yearly by .... j 1st September , / 1st March, All other stores, quarterly by . . ^ J J September, V 1st December. Intermediate requisitions may possibly become necessary in emergencies ; but in peace time these rarely occur and ought to be avoided as much as possible. When a requisition is received for stores in excess of the regulated allowance, it is sent by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer through the General or other Officer Commanding, to the War Office, and the Secretary of State's orders on the point are taken. But, in an emergency, the General may give the Senior Ordnance Store Officer an order to comply with the requisition at once, a report being simultaneously made to the War Office. When a requisition is received from a Commanding Officer for stores or ammunition the value of which is to be recovered from the troops (such as stores to replace lost, stolen, or damaged articles, ammunition expended in shoot- ing matches, &c.) the Ordnance Store officer must see that the column of the requisition stating the purpose for which the stores are required is correctly filled up. See also p. 169 J DISTRICT ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 163 on the proceedings of courts-martial and courts of inquiry •on stores lost or damaged. According to paragraph 35 of the Regulations for the Equipment of the Army, officers making requisitions are to send them in duplicate direct to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer. Officers commanding detachments requiring stores usually obtain them from their own regiments or corps ; the Ordnance Store Department transacting business, as a general rule, with the head quarters of the corps only. But, occasionally, it is far more convenient that the stores should be conveyed directly to the detachment from the reserve depot, which may be close to it while the regiment is at a greater distance. In this case, the officer commanding the detachment makes out the necessary requisition, and, before sending it in to the department, obtains the signature of the Commanding Officer of his regiment ; the requisition is treated by the Ordnance Store officer, for the purposes of the accounts, as one from the regiment, but he sends the stores direct to the detachment. On an emergency, however, the officer commanding a detachment may be supplied at once, without previous reference to the Commanding Officer of the regiment, the transaction being subsequently regu- larized. If an officer who has requisitioned stores considers that undue delay has taken place in issuing them to him, he is not therefore to requisition them again. Two requisitions for the same stores might lead to mistakes in the accounts. The proper course to follow is for the officer to write a remmder, calling attention to his already made requisition. But if a regiment or other corps leaves a district before the issues have been made to it on requisitions already sent in, the Commanding Officer of the corps about to march prepares for the countersignature of the Senior Ordnance Store Officer a list of the articles (or quantity of ammunition) thus requisitioned but not received. On his arrival at his new station, he makes out a fresh requisition for the stores and appends the list to show that he is not drawing the articles M 2 164 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. twice over or exceeding the amount which he is entitled to draw by regulation. When stores are issued to a regiment or other body of troops, they may be conveyed from the depot by various- means which will now be briefly described. Whenever stores are issued from a reserve depot in pack- ages, every precaution is taken that the packing shall be securely carried out, and a ' packing note ' (Army Form G 1028), or inventory of the contents of each package, signed by the person superintending the packing, is placed within the package before it is finally closed. The packages are all marked and numbered, as in the case of stores sent from Woolwich. When the troops are quartered in the immediate neighbour- hood of the depot or storehouses, a notification may be sent to the regiment that the articles requisitioned are ready for issue, and the regiment may be directed to send for the stores. When the regiment is quartered at a distance, the stores, must be conveyed to it. They may be sent by : — 1. Transport (land or inland- water, military or civil) ^ requisitioned from and provided by the Commissariat and Transport Department ; 2. By rail, by carrier, by ordinary inland- water carriage &c. , simply consigned to the officer who requisitioned them ; 3. By sea. 1. When sent by convoy or other Commissariat trans- port, a Conductor (a subordinate of the Ordnance Store Department) may or may not accompany the stores. If one be thus detailed, he is responsible for the stores during transit and also for their safe delivery. If no Conductor be detailed, the officer or non-commissioned officer commanding the escort accompanying the convoy is responsible. 2. When stores are sent by rail, ordinary carrier, &c., the company or carrier is responsible. 3. By sea the company or owner or master of the vessel will be held responsible, according to the signature on the bni of lading. DISTRICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 165 During the transit of stores from one charge to another, ^whether it be between Woolwich and a reserve depot, or between a reserve depot and a regiment or other corps, &c., ^temporary vouchers are drawn out to secure the responsi- bility of the person temporarily answerable for them. When stores travel by convoy, these vouchers are ' convoy notes ; ' when they go by rail or by any carrying company or carrier, ' carriers' notes ' are used ; when they are sent by sea, or by inland- water carriage, ' bills of lading ' serve the same pur- pose. At the same time, the usual delivery and receipt vouchers are sent by post to the person who is ultimately to receive the stores. * Convoy notes ' are made out in triplicate (on Army Form F 754) and signed by the officer despatching the stores. To one copy he obtains the signature of the Conductor who is to travel in charge of the convoy, or, if there be no Con- ductor, of the officer or non-commissioned officer command- ing the escort. The officer sending the stores keeps this copy as a receipt. He hands over the other two copies to the Conductor or commander of the escort, who produces them on his arrival to the officer who is to receive the stores. This officer keeps one copy and, having signed the other, returns it to the Conductor or escort commander as an acknowledgment that he has correctly conveyed the stores. When carriers are employed, the officer sending the stores takes a receipt from the carrier after handing him a ' carrier's note ' (Army Form G 980). This paper contains a list of the packages, their weight and their contents. On arrival, the carrier presents his note with the packages, which are checked over by means of the note before a receipt is given to him by signing his way bill or any other paper. Should there be any deficiencies, they are noted on the receipt. When stores travel by inland-water carriage, triplicate •^ bills of lading ' (Army Form G 965) take the place of the triplicate * convoy notes ' above mentioned. When stores are despatched by sea from one to another port in the United Kingdom, the bills of lading are in dupli- cate only. Both copies are signed by the officer sending the 166 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. stores and by the master of the vessel, and each of these twa- persons keeps one copy. The stores must be checked on arrival by means of the usual delivery voucher, which will meanwhile have been despatched by post together with ther receipt voucher. A third copy of the bill of lading is, in this case, unnecessary, as it may be taken for granted that the ordinary vouchers, travelling by post, will have arrived before the stores. Bills of lading for ports abroad are made out in triplicate on Army Form G 964 ; the consignor of the stores gives the original to the master of the ship conveying the stores, keeps- the second copy, and sends the third by post to the con- signee. As was before stated, there are special rules concerning the conveyance of ammunition. These rules are necessitated partly by the law concerning the transmission of explosives, and partly by the need for a strict supervision over warlike stores. As far, however, as the responsibility of j^ersons goes, the rules do not materially differ from those given above for- persons in charge of ordinary stores during transmission. We have seen that a regiment or corps serving in a station has in its charge two categories of stores, viz. : — those which belong permanently to itself and form its regular equip- ment, and those which are merely issued for local or temporary use, such as camp equipage, &c. The first are held by the Commanding Officer directly forming the War Office and are accounted for in the regimental equipment ledger ; the second are held from the local Ordnance Store officer and appear on his store ledger. The regiment also has ammuni- tion in charge from the local depot. Wlien a regiment leaves the command, it hands in to the Ordnance Store depot all local stores and the whole of its ammunition except just enough to furnish guards and escorts with 20 rounds per man. It retains, on the contrary, all its own permanent equip- ment, and carries away with it all the stores which compose that equipment. However, there may be among these DISTRICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 167 articles some so bulky as to entail a considerable outlay for carriage. To avoid this expense for heavy stores, the Com- manding Officer may apply for and receive authority to return the stores into the reserve depot before leaving, replacing them on his arrival by similar articles drawn from the reserve depot at his new station. Sometimes, however, this course cannot be followed because the last-mentioned reserve depot is not in a position to replace the stores, and in that case the regiment must carry the stores with it, whatever their weight. Special carriage may, however, be granted. Ordnance Store officers are allowed to issue a few tents and other necessary articles on loan for garrison sports or entertainments, provided they have the sanction of the Officer Commanding at the station. But stores may never be lent for regimental entertainments. Whenever stores are given up by a regiment or depart- ment, whether it be because they have become unfit for use, or damaged, or that they are no longer needed, or that they are withdrawn on account of a change of pattern, or for any other reason, they are handed in to the local reserve depot of the Ordnance Store Department. Although clothing and stationery are not stores issued by the Ordnance Store Department, that department receives condemned clothing and old books and paper (for the purpose of being sold or otherwise disposed of) from corps and departments. It is the duty of Ordnance Store officers to see that all stores which have been issued for a temporary purpose or special service are returned as soon as they are no longer needed for that purpose or service. When articles are returned into store by a regiment as serviceable which appear to the Ordnance Store officer to be unserviceable or damaged, he calls on the Commanding Officer for an explanation. The cost of the article or of its repair will then be made good by the regiment, or a report is made to the General Officer Commanding, who may order the assembly of a garrison board to report on the matter. 168 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. The proceedings of this board of survey are sent direct by the president to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, who acts as described on p. 170. Occasionally, it will become necessary to receive articles into store on account of some alteration in, or renewal of, the equipment of a corps or regiment. When this is the case the corps and the department act under superior orders received. But the most frequent occasion of stores being returned to the depot occurs from the fact of their being worn out or having become unserviceable. Whenever this is the case, the head of the department or Officer Commanding the regi- ment makes application to the Ordnance Store officer to receive the stores, describing the articles and the time that each has been in use. Certain tables are published in the ' Regulations for the Equipment of the Army ' detailing the periods which sundry articles of equipment are expected to last ; and, in returning such stores as unserviceable, officers are guided by these tables. Nevertheless, the periods men- tioned in the tables are prescribed simply as a guide, and not as those after which articles may be returned to store as un- serviceable. For, under exceptional circumstances, articles of equipment may be received as unserviceable before the prescribed time has elapsed ; while, on the other hand, stores found to be serviceable after the time laid down for their ordinary duration are not accepted simply because they have been in use during that time. However, the duration tables serve thus far : that, in the absence of proof to the contrary, an Ordnance Store officer is justified, in the first instance, in accepting stores returned by a Commanding Officer as un- serviceable if they have served the time marked against them in the tables. It may be remarked that periods of duration are given for a small number of articles only. When damaged or unserviceable stores are returned from a regiment or corps, or are lost, stolen, or otherwise become deficient or damaged, the following rules are observed. Articles which, having lasted the prescribed time, are re- turned by the Commanding Officer as unserviceable, are, if DISTKICT — OKDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT, 169 considered by the Ordnance Store officer to be so, accepted as such and laid aside in store to be brought forward for con- demnation at the next half-yearly board of survey. But, if the Ordnance Store officer should be of opinion that (although they have lasted the prescribed time) they are not yet unser- viceable, or that they have become so through neglect or improper usage, he calls the attention of the Commanding Officer of the corps to the fact, obtains from him the value of any unfair damage or an explanation. If the Officer Com- manding should object to the charge assessed by the Ordnance Store officer, the matter is referred to the General, who may assemble a garrison board of survey. When the stores in possession of a regiment are lost, stolen, deficient, or damaged, the matter is at once reported by the Commanding Officer to the General or other Officer Commanding the troops, who orders, according to the circum- stances, the assembly of either a Garrison board of survey. Court of inquiry, or, Court-martial. When, however, the loss or damage is already included in a •charge to be submitted for trial by court-martial, there is no occasion to bring it specially to the notice of the General. In a case when it may not be clear to a Commanding Officer who should pay for stores in regimental charge which have been damaged, lost, &c., he may or may not, as he thinks fit, assemble a regimental board for the purpose of inquiring into the case and furnishing him with full inform- ation. But such a board can never decide who is to pay for the damage or loss if any objection still be urged. A garrison board of survey alone is competent to determine this point, and it must be applied for in all cases of the kind in which no question seems to arise concerning discipline or expense to the public. Whenever it seems doubtful if the loss or damage ought to be borne by the public, a court of inquiry must be assembled, unless disciplinary reasons seem to require the trial by court- martial of some person. 170 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Courts-martial decide on those cases when it is judged expedient to try some person subject to Military Law for any offence under the Army Act by which the loss or damage has been occasioned. Loss of or damage to arms or ammunition is a matter always brought before a court of inquiry or court-martial. The proceedings of courts of inquiry on losses and damages of articles of regimental equipment are made out in dupli- cate and sent direct by the president to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, who takes the orders of the General Officer Commanding resulting from the finding of the court, and forwards one copy of the proceedings of the court to the Officer Commanding the corps concerned. The Commanding Officer of the regiment or corps, thus provided with a copy of the proceedings of the court of inquiry, may use it as his authority either to strike the lost articles off charge or to demand others in exchange from the Ordnance Store Department. If he takes the latter course, the requisition will be marked as stated on p. 162, and the proceedings of the court of inquiry will be appended to it in proof of his right to demand the articles. The duplicate copy of the proceedings is sent by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer direct to the Secretary of State, unless the stores are to be replaced, in which case he sends it to the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich. Similarly, when a court-martial has established the loss or damage of stores belonging to the equipment of a regiment or other corps, the requisition for articles to replace those lost or damaged must, as before stated on p. 162, be marked in the column of remarks ; and, in support of this note, a copy of the approved sentence of the court-martial is ap- pended to the requisition. Whenever stores are lost or stolen from a reserve depot or from any other place in charge of the Ordnance Store Depart- ment, it is the duty of the Ordnance Store officer in charge to report the circumstance at once to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, who applies to the General or other Officer Commanding for a court of inquiry. The court's report in DISTRICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 171 duplicate is forwarded by the president direct to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer. This officer then transmits one copy to the General and the other direct to the Secretary of State, who determines if the officer in charge of the reserve depot is to be relieved of responsibility for the lost stores. Stores returned from a depot are sent to the following places according to their nature : — Arms and materials for their repair . Tower ; Clothing and necessaries . . . L,^?^^^ 4"™^ ^ 1 Clothing Depot ;, Old books and stationery . . . f H-M^Stationery ( Office ; Gunpowder, powder barrels, copper hoops Purfleet ; Harness and saddlery .... Accoutrements ..... [Royal Dockyard, Barrack, hospital, and military prison f Woolwich ; stores ...... Small-arm ammunition . . . ) Royal Arsenal, All other stores .....) Woolwich. But the vouchers are all sent to the Commissary-General of Ordnance, Woolwich. The proceedings of boards of survey will presently be noticed ; but we may here say at once that no stores may be disposed of as unserviceable unless condemned by such a board or by an officer selected to survey them ; and, even when this condemnation has taken place, none but perishable stores may be disposed of until the Secretary of State's order that they may be so dealt with has been received. Thus the Secretary of State decides, after stores have been condemned, what is to be sent back to Woolwich, and what is to be disposed of locally. Condemned stores which are to be disposed of locally are, in almost all cases, broken up or torn up previous to disposal. This is done in the presence of the surveying board or of one of the officers composing it. Condemned clothing is almost always disposed of locally. 172 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Old linen, &c., is to a certain extent utilized for cleaning purposes. The bulk of the materials of stores ordered to be disposed •of locally, derived from breaking up or tearing up condemned stores, is sold by the Ordnance Store Department. When there is a considerable amount of stores to be disposed of, a professional auctioneer is engaged, and public notice is given by advertisements or hand-bills by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, unless he thinks it advisable to sell the stores by tender^ in which case he calls on the Senior Commissariat Officer to advertise for tenders. When the amount is incon- siderable, reasonable steps are taken to give publicity to the sale, and a subordinate of the Ordnance Store Corps sells the stores in the presence of an Ordnance Store officer or of some other responsible person. No person in the Military Service of the Crown may purchase stores sold at these sales. When a sale is authorized, the Senior Ordnance Store Officer apprizes the District Paymaster in order that the latter officer may promptly recover the proceeds. When an auctioneer is employed, a catalogue or inventory of the stores is prepared. On it, the auctioneer enters the amount realized by the sale as soon as it is over. He deducts his commission from the total, signs the document and returns it to the Ordnance Store officer. When the sale is over, the Ordnance Store officer causes four copies of the inventory or catalogue to be made out. The date and number of the cash voucher by which the pro- ceeds have been credited to the public are mentioned on this document. The auctioneer signs all four copies. One copy serves as the store issue voucher ; a second, as the cash debit voucher ; the third copy goes to the War Office with a report of the sale (on Army Form P 1957, receipted by the District Paymaster) ; the fourth copy serves as an office record. The auctioneer recovers the value of the stores sold from the purchasers, and pays it in, less his commission, to the District Paymaster, who gives him a receipt, of which he keeps a duplicate to serve as a credit voucher for his own DISTRICT ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. l73 accounts. The purchasers may not remove the stores they have bought unless they produce a certificate from the auc- tioneer or from the District Paymaster that they have paid for them. Whenever one Ordnance Store officer relieves another in the charge of a reserve depot, a stock-taking of all the stores it contains takes place. It is superintended by an officer specially appointed for the occasion to represent the Sur- veyor-General of the Ordnance. Sometimes the appointment is made by the Surveyor-General himself ; but when he does not himself appoint anyone, the Senior Ordnance Store Officer ajDplies to the General, who then orders some officer to undertake the duty of superintending the transfer and the stock-taking. The stock-taking, once begun, must go on from day to day without any intermission except on Sundays and certain very exceptional occasions, when the suspension of the work must be satisfactorily explained. The stock-taking refers to quantities only, and not to the condition of stores, which is the business of the annual boards of inspection hereafter to be described. Therefore, so long as the stores are forthcoming, they are taken account of, by the officer superintending the stock-taking, as if they were in the same condition as that in which they stand on charge ; and if there be any doubt as to the condition of any of the stores, they are laid aside to be examined by the next half- yearly 'board of survey,' a list of them being transmitted with the documents sent in at the termination of the stock- taking. The officer appointed to act on behalf of the Surveyor- General of the Ordnance reports directly to him if appointed by his special authority. If he has been appointed by the General on the application of the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, he reports on the transfer to the last-mentioned officer. Owing to the great quantity and variety of stores in the charge of the Ordnance Store Department as compared with those in the expense stores of the Commissariat Department,, 174 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. the actual operations of stock-taking differ a little from those described under the head of the Commissariat Department (see p. 142). Previous to a transfer, it has been seen that an officer of the Commissariat and Transport Staff simply balances his district ledger. An Ordnance Store Officer under similar circumstances does not balance his ' station ledger ' in the pages of that book ; he opens a new book for the occasion called a ' remain ledger.' During the period of the trans- fer stock-taking, he keeps a double record of receipts and issues of stores : one, as usual, in the station ledger, which is the continuous account going on until the stock-taking operations are concluded ; the other, in the ' remain ledger,' begins with the total of the station ledger on the first day of stock-taking, records issues and receipts during the successive days of the stock-taking, and is closed and balanced at its termination. Issue and receipt transactions are not suspended during the transfer operations. The documents which correspond to the two transfer returns ' and the * day-book ' of the Commissariat stock- taking are, with the Ordnance Store Department, all three termed ' day-books.' As the Ordnance Store Department only exceptionally issues stores on inventory, there is no ' abstract of stores on inventory.' The balance in the station ledger should show just what is in the stores ; all other stores, even those in use by the department, are written off the ledger. When stores are on loan or issued exceptionally on inventory, certificates from the persons responsible acknowledging their responsibility are placed in the hands of the officer super- intending the transfer. The officer superintending the transfer, and the two Ordnance Store officers concerned, count, weigh, or measure the stores actually in the storehouses, noting the quantities in their respective day-books, three new day-books being begun . every day. The remain ledger is daily compared with the day-books. The sum total of the stores in the successive day-books DISTKICT OEDNANCE STOKE DEPARTMENT. 175 forms the * collected account ' of the ' transfer remain.' This is therefore simply a list of aU the stores forthcoming at the stock-taking, including those ^ in use ' and any which may have been issued on inventory. No discrepancies with the ledger are shown on it, as in Commissariat transfer accounts. The collected account is made out in duplicate and signed by the three officers concerned. One copy of the collected account, together with a state- ment of the ' stores in use,' and any certificates there may be from persons holding stores on loan or on inventory, is for- warded by the officer conducting the transfer with his day- books, to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer (if the officer was appointed by the General or other Officer Commanding), or direct to the War Office (if the officer was specially ap- pointed by War Office authority to conduct the transfer). A separate list of any discrepancies between the collected account and the remain ledger is also transmitted ; this list is accompanied by the explanations of the officer giving over charge, which he is always called upon to furnish before the documents are sent in. Every fifth year after a transfer-remain has been taken, a stock-taking also takes place. The operation is called taking a * quinquennial remain.' It is conducted as a transfer stock-taking, except that, of course, there is but one Ordnance Store officer concerned ; the same officer who was in charge before the stock-taking remaining in charge of the stores after it. The stock-takings before mentioned are for the purpose of ascertaining exactly the quantity of all the stores in the reserve depot ; they have nothing to do with the condition of these stores. For the latter purpose, and also to verify less minutely the quantity on charge, an 'annual inspec- tion' is held at which the quantities found to be in the depots are compared with those appearing on the station ledger, and the state of the stores is carefully ascertained and reported upon. Every year (except in such years as a transfer or quin- quennial remain may have been taken) the Senior Ordnance 176 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Store Officer applies to the General or other Officer Com- manding to appoint a board of inspection. The board consists of an Ordnance Store officer, an Artillery officer, an Engineer officer, and an officer of the Line. Where there are naval stores, the Senior Ordnance Store Officer applies to the Senior Naval Officer at the station to appoint also a Naval officer, who in this case forms an additional member of the board. The report of the board is transmitted by the senior of the officers inspecting to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, who forwards it to the War Office accompanied by a report of his own. The senior inspecting officer further reports to the General or other Officer Commanding that the inspection has taken place before that officer sends in his annual inspection report. All works, storehouses, magazines, workshops, and other buildings in charge of the Ordnance Store Department are also inspected once a year. This inspection is carried out together with that of similar buildings in charge of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineer Department ; the Officer Com- manding the Royal Artillery, the Commanding Royal Engi- neer, and the Senior Ordnance Store Officer arrange to make this inspection conjointly, although not as a hoard, in order that they may the better intercommunicate their ideas and proposals on the spot. The senior of the tliree officers in this case, as in that of inspections of stores, reports that the inspection has been held to the General or other Officer Commanding, before that officer sends in his own annual inspection report. Every half year (on the 31st March and 30th September) a board of survey assembles at each reserve depot, to decide on what is to be done with stores brought before it as unservice- able. The board is composed of the Ordnance Store officer in charge of the depot, of an Artillery, an Engineer, and a Line officer. A Naval officer is also appointed to serve on the board if naval stores are to be surveyed. The officers are appointed as for annual boards of inspection. I DISTKICT ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 177 The board condemns the stores or gives its reasons for not •doing so, transmits any explanations or statements of facts, ;and it may recommend that certain stores be, after con- demnation, broken up and sold on the spot. As regards the last class of stores, the board inserts in its report the prices that can be realized locally for the materials. The report of the proceedings of the board of survey is made out on Army Form G 1044, and is signed by all the members of the board. It is sent to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, who transmits it to the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich. "WTien the board has recommended that any condemned stores shall be disposed of locally, the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, in forwarding the report, adds to it a statement of the •cost of conveying such stores to Woolwich, so that, when the proceedings reach the Commissary-General at the arsenal, he may be able to judge if it be worth while or not to have the condemned articles brought to Woolwich or sold on the spot as recommended by the board. Occasions may arise when it is considered necessary to hold immediate surveys on stores without waiting for the assembly of the regular half-yearly board. These are either conducted by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer or by some officer deputed by him, or else by a board, for which he applies if he thinks it necessary. In such cases the Senior Ordnance Store Officer may himself approve and act on the report, except when he differs from the board in opinion or when any loss to the public is not fully explained. Under these •circumstances, he refers the matter to the General or other Officer Commanding, who directs him how to act and forwards the report to the War Office. When the Commissary-General of Ordnance has examined the report of a board of survey and come to a conclusion as to what should be done with the condemned stores, he either directs their return to Woolwich or obtains and sends down to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer the sanction of the 'Secretary of State to the local sale of the articles or materials. Such articles or produce of broken up stores as are to I. N 178 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. be disposed of locally under these instructions are then sold as already described (see p. 172). All stores which have been condemned are at once marked with the condemned mark. This consists in adding to the * broad arrow,' already stamped or cut on all articles while serviceable, a second ' broad arrow ; ' the two arrows having their points outwards in contrary directions. This mark is to be distinguished from that placed upon serviceable stores issued * on repayment ' (that is, allowed to be sold to make good losses or under any other authorized circumstances) by the fact that^ although a second * broad arrow' is also added to the mark in the latter case, the two arrows of the stores issued on repayment appear point to point. Store Accounts, Documents, &c. Whenever stores are sent to a reserve depot from Woolwich or from any other reserve depot, or are returned from a corps or department, two documents are sent by post to the same officer as the stores, which are called respectively the * receipt voucher ' and the ' delivery voucher.' These two papers are identical as to form in each case, the form varying according to whether the consignment is one of general stores, of ammunition, &c. &c. The delivery voucher is signed by the officer sending the stores. It is meant to serve as an invoice, and to be kept by the Ordnance Store officer to whom the stores are sent. The receipt voucher (which, like the delivery voucher, is- a list of the articles forming the consignment) arrives wnr- signed. It is the duty of the Ordnance Store officer to compare the two vouchers with one another and with the stores, and, on finding them to agree, to sign the receipt voucher as an acknowledgment, and return it to the person sending the stores. If the vouchers do not agree with one- another or with the stores, a correspondence takes place be- tween the officer sending and the officer receiving the stores until the matter is set right, and the voucher or vouchers are^ I returned if necessary to the person sending the stores to be= | corrected, any corrections being initialed by him. DISTRICT — OEDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 179' Two books are kept at every reserve depot, termed respectively the 'receipt journal' and the 'issue journal' (Army Books 195 and 196). Every consignment of stores received at the depot, whether from Woolwich, whether re- turned from a department or corps, or from any source what- ever, is entered on the day of its receipt in the receipt journal. Similarly, every consignment or quantity of stores issued, whether returned to Woolwich, issued to a department or corps, or issued in any other way, is entered at once in the issue journal. The entries in these books follow one another hy consign- ments according to date of receipt or issue. Now, a consign- ment usually consists of various articles of diiferent kinds, these will therefore be mixed together in the journals ; that is to say, that an entry in a journal will be a list of all the- articles, collected together as they were received or issued, whatever may be the nature of the items. But the chief account book of the depot is one which classifies all the articles of store according to their nature^ This book is the ' station ledger ' (Army Book 47 or 209).^ In it, every article has a heading to itself, and columns under this heading show the condition of the articles as serviceable, unserviceable, repairable, &c. The ledger is posted daily from the receipt and issue journals, receipts being entered on the ' debit ' side and issues on the ' credit ' side of each folio (or opening between two leaves). A balance struck at any time between the two sides of any heading of the ledger ought, consequently, to show exactly the number of articles of the kind described by the heading, in each condition, whick are on charge at that time at the depot. As the classification followed in the ledger is one by articles, while that of the journals is by consignments received or issued, a consignment forming one entry in a journal will, when posted in the ledger, be split up and appear dispersed about the book in as many places as there may be articles in the consignment. The journals and ledger bear cross references to one n2 180 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. another, so that an article may at once be traced from the ledger to the journal or vice versa. A ' transcript ledger ' is also kept at every reserve depot. This book is an exact copy of the station ledger and is kept in the same form. It is posted daily at the same time as the station ledger. The object of keeping this second book is that the accounts have periodically to be submitted to the War Office, and the transcript ledger is on these occasions forwarded thither. The receipt and issue journals are records of transactions more for office convenience than for any other purpose. Every entry in a ledger must be supported by a vmtcher. Every time an article of store is issued, or struck off charge in any other way, the entry showing it to be struck off charge is supported by reference to an issue voucher ; and, similarly, €very taking on charge must be warranted by a receipt voucher. We have seen how receipt and delivery vouchers are exchanged when stores are received : a converse process takes place when they are issued from depots in response to requisitions from departments and corps. But, besides these vouchers, used when stores change hands in a regular way by receipt or issue, others are in use for the purpose of accounting for stores being taken on charge or struck off charge in different ways. Now, stores may make their first appearance in the ledger or disappear from it, or be transferred from one class of articles to another in its pages, in several ways besides those of receipt and issue. Thus : — Stores may be lost, stolen or sold ; Stores may be unaccountably forthcoming at some stock- taking concerning which no record can be found ; Stores may be used up in cleaning or repairing other stores ; Stores may be broken up or converted from one kind of article into another ; Repairable stores may be repaired and so become service- able. When stores are lost, stolen or sold, after all the regulai DISTRICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 181 proceedings have been taken to investigate the circumstances or to record the transaction, a ' certificate voucher' is made out by the Ordnance Store officer in charge. This voucher (to which the proceedings of any board of survey, court of inquiry, &c., which investigated the circumstances or con- ducted the sale is attached) serves to account for the dis- appearance of the stores from the station ledger. A certificate voucher is also used for bringing on charge stores found or unaccountably forthcoming. The voucher records the circumstances under which the stores were dis- covered or otherwise made their appearance. Stores of a consumable nature, legitimately expended in cleaning, packing or repairing other stores, are written off charge and their disappearance accounted for by an ' expense voucher.' A ' transfer and conversion voucher ' is used to explain any alteration in the form of stores. For instance, if a bridging spar on charge is converted into pickets, it is entered in one place in the station ledger as a spar struck off charge and simultaneously an entry is made in another place of so many pickets brought on charge. The voucher accounts for both entries. Whenever an article hitherto entered in the station ledger as * repairable ' has been repaired and become ' serviceable,^ it is transferred from the former to the latter class. Here again a transfer and conversion voucher is made out ta explain the decrease in the former class and the increase in the latter. And so, also, for ' serviceable ' articles which become ^ repairable ' or ' unserviceable.' Vouchers, of which, as will have been observed, there are several kinds, are also of different forms according to the nature of the stores to which they refer. Thus there are, for general stores, distinct Army Forms for receipt and delivery vouchers, for transfer and conversion vouchers, for expenditure vouchers, &c. ; another set of Army Forms relates to ammunition ; another to arms ; and so on. Receipt and delivery vouchers, being always exchanged when stores pass from one person's charge to another's,. 182 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. officers are often tempted to write their correspondence on the paper of the voucher itself when questions concerning consignments arise, as they frequently do. This practice is irregular and forbidden ; the rule is a very reasonable one, as will be evident when it is remembered that the vouchers -are documents which must be kept to check the entries in the ledger. Ordinary correspondence, whenever it may be necessary to send it with a voucher, is to be written on a separate sheet of paper, and the voucher itself may only be marked with such notes as are specially authorized or re- quired by regulation. In receipt and delivery vouchers accompanying stores returned to the Ordnance Store Department the columns descriptive of the condition of the articles returned are always to be left blank ; the column for the total number of articles of each kind only being filled in. When the Ordnance Store officer receives the stores, he examines them and fills in the descriptive columns (according to the condition of the articles) on both vouchers before he returns the receipt voucher to the officer returning the stores who is thus apprized of the condition in which the stores he has sent back were received. From what has been said, it will be observed that every transaction of taking on or striking ofi" charge, as shewn by the station ledger, must be warranted by the existence of some kind of voucher which is referred to in the ledger in support of every entry. Further, we have seen that these vouchers are of four principal kinds, to wit :' — Certificate vouchers. Expense vouchers. Transfer and conversion vouchers. Ordinary receipt and delivery vouchers. But, after all, a voucher, while it satisfactorily explains entries in the station ledger shewing that certain stores were taken on charge or struck off charge, does "tiot shew in itself that these transactions were authorized or legitimate trans- actions. Thus, for instance, the presence of a voucher may prove beyond dispute that an Ordnance Store officer has DISTEICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 183 made some issue exactly as entered in his station ledger : but, if the voucher were itself unsupported by any authority, it would not prove that he had any right to make the issue. The authority which supports a voucher varies in form according to the nature of the voucher. We will take them in the order above given. It was stated that certificate vouchers are used when stores are lost, stolen, destroyed or sold, and also when they are unaccountably forthcoming. They are further used to rectify errors made in stock-taking ' remains ' which may be subsequently discovered, or to bring stores on charge which arrive without the proper vouchers when these cannot be obtained. When stores are lost, stolen, or destroyed, a board of survey, court of inquiry, or court-martial always investigates the circumstances. As has been before said, the proceedings of this board or court are attached to the certificate voucher writing the stores off charge, or are referred to by it, and serve as an authority for it. Similarly, when stores are, after condemnation, broken up or sold or otherwise made away with, the certificate voucher, referred to in striking them off charge, is warranted by the report of the board of survey ordering the destruction or sale, which report is attached to the voucher. When it is discovered that an error has taken place in a stock-taking remain, the officers who conducted the stock- taking are communicated with, and the error is rectified in the ledger by entries supported by a certificate voucher signed by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, to which is attached the correspondence which took place. This correspondence is, therefore, in this case, the authority for the voucher. When stores are discovered about which no information exists, they are brought on charge by a certificate voucher. In this case the authority for the voucher is the explanation of the circumstances under which the stores were discovered, written upon the voucher itself, and signed by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer. The expense vouchers warranting entries in the station 184 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. ledger striking off charge consumable stores (such as cleaning- materials, paint, ammunition, &c.) which may have been actually expended, are themselves supported by references, to entries in an ' expenditure journal.' The ' expenditure journal' is a book kept at each reserve- depot for the purpose of explaining how consumable storea^ written off charge in the station ledger have been used up. On one page is inserted a list of the stores repaired, painted, cleaned, &c., and on the opposite page the quantities of con- sumable stores expended in the process. The expenditure journal is balanced monthly, the quantities actually ex- pended are entered on an expense voucher and the same quantities are written off charge in the station ledger ; thus- the voucher explains the striking off charge, and the expen- diture journal, shewing that the actual expenditure wa& legitimate and proper, is the authority for the voucher. The expense voucher supporting entries in the station ledger of stores consumed by Inspectors of Warlike Stores in proving or examining other stores must bear a certificate that they have been thus expended signed by the Inspector of Warlike Stores who consumed them. This certificate is necessary on expense vouchers of this class because there can be no exact quantities prescribed beforehand by regulation as those which are to be expended, and therefore the bare entry in the expenditure journal would not be sufficient authority for the expense voucher. The authority for a transfer and conversion voucher is the approved report of the board of survey or court of inquiry which ordered the transfer or the conversion. This report is. attached to the voucher. Obviously, the report of one board or court may be the authority for many vouchers. As the report can only be attached to one of them, the remainder, instead of having a report attached, bear a reference to that voucher to which the report is appended. This rule applies also to the case of certificate vouchers. We now come to the authority for ordinary delivery and receipt vouchers. DISTRICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 185 Stores are never returned to a reserve depot without- either local or War Office authority. The order for the return is, therefore, the authority for the delivery and receipt vouchers made out when stores are returned ; and is quoted on those vouchers, of which the delivery voucher remains in the hands of the Ordnance Store officer in charge. As regards stores issued, the requisitions of officers entitled to draw stores are the immediate [authority for the vouchers. But, of course, this fact presupposes that the requisitions themselves are warranted by proper authority. Consequently, before an issue of stores can be made, and receipt and delivery vouchers prepared, by an Ordnance Store officer in response to a requisition received, it is the duty of that officer to examine the requisition very carefully and satisfy himself that the officer demanding the stores is really entitled to do so. If the requisition be warranted by an order or standing regulation, it evidently becomes a sufficient authority for the receipt and delivery vouchers, the former of which remains in the hands of the Ordnance Store officer in charge. This being so, when the two copies of a requisition (see p. 163) are received by an Ordnance Store officer in charge from an officer entitled to draw stores, the former checks them to ascertain that the supply is warrantable. If it should not be so, he returns the documents to the officer who sent them in, drawing his attention to the fact. But if the re- quisition is a correct one, the Ordnance Store officer, if he has the stores in hand, makes the issue and forwards the duplicate of the requisition to the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich. If he is unable to comply with the requisition, he forwards both copies to the Commissary- General ; except in the cases of expense stores and of all stores at foreign stations, when, if the Ordnance Store officer is not in a position to comply with a requisition, he forwards to the Commissary-General an intermediate demand for the stores (Army Form G 984), accompanied by one copy of the requisition. 186 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Requisitions are of various forms according to the class of stores to which they refer. It will have been observed that if any deficiencies of stores should occur in a reserve depot, the stores are ultimately written off charge in the station ledger, after all due pro- ceedings have been taken to investigate the circumstances and to recover the value from the proper person, if the value be recoverable. And we have also seen that such an entry in a ledger is supported (like all other entries) by a duly warranted voucher of some kind. But in the event of any stores, written off as deficient, being subsequently forth- coming, they must be brought on charge again by an entry supported by a certificate voucher, as before stated, and twt by any correction or alteration in former entries in the ledger. Whenever a station ledger is balanced, the total of the issue side of the book is deducted from the total of the receipt side ; the result being to leave a * remain ' of the stores on charge at the date of the balancing. This process closes the account. The remain of the ledger should evidently corre- spond exactly with the stock of stores actually in the reserve depot or on charge. When an account is closed ivithout a stock-taking, the remain, as shown by the station ledger, is assumed to be cor- rect and is carried forward to form what is called the ' state ' (or beginning line) of the next account. But when, at the same time that the station ledger is balanced, stock is also taken of the stores (which occurs when a transfer or quinquennial remain is struck) it may happen, as before said, that discrepancies appear between the ledger remain and the remain of the stock-taking. In this case, the discrepancies are left to be dealt with as before described, and the state of the next account corresponds, "iiot with the ledger remain, but with the remain of stores ascertained by the stock-taking to be actuaHy present in the reserve depot. Accounts are closed and station ledgers are balanced at transfer and quinquennial stock-takings and also at the following dates in each year : — DISTRICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 187 At Chatham . . . yearly, 31st March, At Malta and Gibraltar . half-yearly, 31st August and 31st March, At all other stations, at home , half-yearly, 30th Septem- or abroad . . . \ ber and 31st March, The accounts are then examined. The accounts of the central depot at Woolwich are examined at that station. The accounts at The Tower, Portsmouth, Devonport, and Chatham, Tiaving been closed, the Senior Ordnance Store Officers a those stations transmit their station ledgers to the War Office and notify that they have done so to the Commissary- Oeneral of Ordnance at Woolwich. The books are sent back when the accounts have been examined. At all other stations, the accounts are submitted to the War Office by transmitting thither for examination the transcript ledger of each station. It is, however, to be noted that the accounts kept at Aldershot, Malta and Gibraltar are examined every half-jear, while from all other stations at home and abroad the accounts are only submitted yearly after balancing the station ledgers on the 31st March, the last day of the financial year. The transcript ledger must be for- warded to the War Office within 20 days after that date. All vouchers referring to the account under examination and the expenditure journal accompany the account when sent to the War Office. The vouchers are numbered con- secutively in two series : one for issue vouchers, the other for vouchers referring to receipts. The periodical examinations of store accounts at the War Office may lead to correspondence with accountants ; explana- tions may be required, irregularities may be pointed out, decisions may be pronounced on other questions, &c. Copies of all correspondence thus arising must be retained in the Ordnance Store office concerned. 188 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Ordnance Store officers are supplied at most stations with lithograph drawings and descriptions of all warlike stores ; it is obviously impossible to expect a technical knowledge of such stores from every officer in the department. These drawings and descriptions, together with books and papers supplied for office use, are entered on a catalogue kept by every Ordnance Store officer in charge, which cata- logue he is required to keep corrected up to date at all times ;. but they do not appear on the station ledger as stores in charge. When a transfer of charge takes place from one officer to another, the catalogue is verified and signed by both officers as being correct. The Senior Ordnance Store Officer of a District reports annually on the 31st March to the General or other Officer Commanding on the working and efficiency of his department and on the discipline of his personnel. The returns of the department relating to stores, and all documents and correspondence on the same subject, are addressed by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer of a District to the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich. But returns on the personnel and all correspondence not connected with routine store duties go to the War Office, addressed to- the Under-Secretary of State who passes such papers on to the Director of Artillery and Stores. The Senior Ordnance Store Officer also transmits, on the 1st April of each year, to the officer commanding the Royal Artillery of the District, returns of all guns, carriages, am- munition and other Artillery stores on charge. These returns are prepared by the Ordnance Store officers in charge of reserve depots and reserve magazines. Bemarks. The brief glance which we have taken at the duties of the Ordnance Store Department shows that those duties extend over the Administration of two classes of stores widely dif- ferent in nature. On the one hand, we have the great variety of articles comprised under the head of general stores ; while, on the other, we find the department also administering DISTRICT — ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 189 warlike stores ; that is to say, arms, ammunition, and military carriages. Moreover, it will have been observed that, while we have a central grand depot of stores under the Commissary-General •of Ordnance at Woolwich, and (so-called) reserve depots in the various Districts, regiments and other corps of troops are all, nevertheless, in direct account with the War Office for the stock of stores forming their own equipment. Again, the fact that our regiments are organized on the understanding that they are to be periodically moved compels us to restrict the stock of stores in charge of a regiment to that which can readily be carried about with it — in short, to little more than the personal equipment of the men. A technical knowledge of warlike stores is, by all nations, held to be part of the science of Artillery. And we our- selves, while we have handed over this class of stores to be, in the main, administered by the Ordnance Store Depart- xQent, are obliged to make large concessions to the same rule. And thus we find that, in this branch of Ordnance Store duties, recourse is had to a very remarkable extent to the assistance of Royal Artillery officers. In the first place, we find that the Director of Artillery and Stores (the administrative head of the Ordnance Store Department) is a selected General Officer of the Royal Artillery. Next, the Manufacturing Establishments are necessarily superintended and officered from the Royal Artillery. The same corps provides Inspectors of Warlike Stores. We place Artillery officers on all boards of survey on warlike stores. Within the District, a number of subjects com- pel frequent intercommunication and correspondence between the Senior Ordnance Store Officer and the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery. Further, it becomes necessary to furnish Ordnance Store officers with lithographs and descriptions of warlike stores and materiel to supplement a want of technical knowledge which cannot be expected out of the Royal Artillery. In the field, as will be hereafter seen, the am- munition manufactured at home under Artillery superin- tendence, after being collected in the larger depots by the 190 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Ordnance Store Department, is passed on to the Royal. Artillery before it finds its way to the troops. JSTow, the nature of weapons, of materiel and of ammuni- tion makes it essential that these stores should be centrally administered. As regards some articles, no doubt the assistance of private manufactures of a high class may be called in ; but they can never be more than auxiliaries to Manufacturing Establishments of the Government. The high standard of quality which it is absolutely necessary to main- tain in these stores would rapidly sink if the Government did not keep the function of testing and proving in its own hands : nay, if it did not manufacture to a large extent itself.^ Nor can this function be delegated to any authority lower than the central one at the War Office. The character of warlike stores is quite distinct from that of general stores. It is comparatively easy to secure a sufficiently high quality and enough uniformity of patterns from local contractors- when the stores are barrack furniture, intrenching tools,, accoutrements, and so on : these things have their likes in civil life, and civil manufacturers know as much about them as they need know. But it is quite otherwise when we come to scientific materials for fighting. From what has been said concerning the inevitable con- nection, under any system, of Artillery officers with the manufacture and Administration of warlike stores, and con- cerning the necessity that these stores should emanate from an arsenal or arsenals under the central authority of the War Office, it would certainly seem that our present system is needlessly complicated, and that it could be simplified by separating the Administration of warlike stores from that of general stores. A ' Royal Artillery Department ' might be formed of Artillery officers trained to a special knowledge ^ As a matter of fact which may serve as an example, we believe it has beeu found that, although a considerable quantity of gunpowder is purchased from contractors, these private manufacturers have failed to reach the high standard obtained in the quality of powder at the Royal Powder Factory, and that thej'' have hitherto been unable to produce certain natures of cannon-powder. DISTRICT ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT. 191 of materiel and warlike stores. In this department would naturally be absorbed the officers employed at the Manufac- turing Establishments ; the central magazines at Purfleet and XJpnor would become Artillery charges, as would also the gun- wharves and the small-arm establishments at the Tower and Birmingham. In the various Districts, the reserve magazines and armouries might be placed in charge of one of these specially trained Artillery officers serving on the staff of the Officer Commanding the Royal Artillery. This officer of the ' Artillery Department ' would naturally combine with his functions of supply those now exercised by the Inspectors of Warlike Stores. The department would also be a suitable rallying-point in times of peace for the nucleus of the ammu- nition columns which must be formed for active operations. As regards general stores, the question is far simpler ; and several courses are open. Obviously, if we had really localized corps of troops, the simplest and by far the most economical plan would be to follow the Prussian system and allow regiments to supply themselves ; requiring them to maintain a certain stock of exact pattern, satisfying oneself by rigorously inspecting the stores, while allowing the corps itself to purchase, sell, and administer. Under this system, the present Quartermaster's store would be expanded to include the present reserve depot, which would cease to be necessary, as would also nearly the whole Ordnance Store Department. But, even if moving regiments must still exist, supposing it were thought right to take the Administration of warlike stores from the Ordnance Store Department, it would seem advisable to amalgamate the remaining duties of that department with those of the Commissariat Department. The latter already administers expense stores and, under the present system, we have, in some respects, two store depart- ments. However, we may again call attention to the enormous economy of money, time and labour and to the superior effi- ciency to be attained in the matter of equipment by a system based on true regimental localization ; by which is meant the localization of the corps itself, and not that of merely its depot. 192 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Moving regiments mean separate local store establishments ; and separate establishments mean the perpetual handing in and handing out of stores, transfers of charge, the multiplica- tion of accounts, vouchers and correspondence, and, more- over, the maintenance of a separate personnel. Moving regiments can Tiever equip themselves, save at an exorbitant rate, and with such regiments the system must be centralized at the War Office ; the result being that that office has itself to audit and check the accounts of some hundreds of direct accountants. On the other hand, a regiment that is settled down permanently in one place, wjth barracks, storehouses, and workshops which it knows are to be its own for ever,^ ' has breathing-time to look about it. Thus settled, it does not need a separate department to provide it with stores ; it can provide these quite as well for itself ; and, working for itself, will do so with all the thrift possible. The General's inspection report would contain an audit of the regimental expenditure and savings on stores. It is firmly believed that if the War Office contracted (so to speak) loith regiments them- selves to provide their own equipment stores (which would include the expense stores for their barracks), it would be found that the large sums now spent in fattening civil con- tractors, in conveying stores from Woolwich which (under a different system) could be procured more cheaply locally, and then in carting those stores about the country, might either be saved to the Army Estimates or might at least go towards an increase in the soldier's efficiency and comfort. The more regiments are made independent in the matter of Administra- tion, the less they have to look to this department or to that for necessary supplies, the more efficient they must become and the more likely to shift well for themselves on service. There can be no bandying about of blame between depart- ments when anything goes wrong in a system under which every Commanding Officer knows that he has only liimseK to depend upon ; and, under such a system, he will take care to 1 As those of the Royal Engineers at Chatham or of the Royal Marines at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Chatham. DISTRICT PAY DEPARTMENT. 19S be provided against all emergencies. A case in point is said, to have occurred quite recently ; a battalion was embarking at Gibraltar for Egypt ; we are told that they had to go without waterproof sheets, because at the last moment it was discovered that there were only 200 to be found in the reserve depot. This could not have happened if it were part of every Commanding Officer's business to have these things at all times in store. But, clearly, a moving regiment cannot permanently keep up its war equipment, whereas a stationary corps re- quires, indeed, to be provided with arms and ammunition,, but in other respects does not, in time of peace, need the^ help of any distinct store department, IX. The Pay Department in the District. General Duties. The officer at the head of the Pay Department in every District is the agent in that District for the Financial Secretary as regards all non-regimental disbursements on receipt of money and all non-regimental cash accounts. The official title of tliis officer is that of 'District Paymaster.' He usually holds the rank of Chief -Paymaster in the Pay^ Department carrying with it the title and honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. A certain number of Paymasters, subordinate to the District Paymaster, are usually placed under his immediate orders to assist him in the work of the District pay office* These officers, however, have no charge, and the District Pay- master is himself responsible for the cash and accounts. The method according to which all cash transactions are to be conducted and all books and returns kept is laid down in the 'Financial Instructions in relation to Army Accounts, 1882.' The term ' accountant ' is used to denote those officers only who are in direct account with the War Office ; officers who are in account with accountants are termed ' sub-accountants.' It is to be noted, that the Paymasters of corps of troops serving in a District are all direct accountants of the War Office and not sub-accountants of the District Paymaster. I. o 194 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. The latter has nothing to do with the interior cash accounts of regiments quartered in the District, and a regimental Paymaster keeps his own accounts directly with the War Office, although he has frequently to transact business with the District Paymaster, as he has also to do with other regimental Paymasters. The only respect in which the relation between the District Paymaster and regimental Paymasters serving in the District is that of superior and subordinates is that the former is required to frame the * annual return of officers and subordinates ' of the department which is sent to the Financial Secretary. As the District Paymaster is the senior officer of the department in the District, he is considered the head of it for this purpose, and each regimental Paymaster furnishes him with the information necessary to enable him to report upon the personnel in each office. But, although the District Paymaster has nothing to do with ordinary regimental accounts, there is a vast amount of work to be done in the District pay office. Charged with the receipt and disbursement of all military funds receivable or payable on account of District affairs, the District Paymaster collects and receives in cash or paper all sums due to the War Department by departments, officers, or individuals in the District ; and, on the other hand, he is the person who pays all expenses incurred by the War De- partment in the District excepting those incurred by corps of troops. Other officers may make bargains, contract en- gagements, hire labour, sell stores ; the conduct of these transactions is not the business of the District Paymaster ; what he has to do is to receive or to pay the money stipulated hy these bargains. On the other hand, the officers who make the bargains have nothing to do with paying or receiv- ing cash and do not handle public money. ^ The District 1 There are some triflin^^ exceptions to this rule, as may have been observed in the precedincj pages ; but these exceptions refer either to money advanced by Paymasters on imprest or to the mere temporary passage of insignificant sums of money through the hands of heads of departments. DISTRICT PAY DEPARTMENT. 195 Paymaster has to receive money paid in with certain formali- ties, and to pay it out when demanded with other formalities ; and, as a general rule, he goes no further into the transactions which have brought about these receipts or disbursements than to examine if these formalities have been duly observed. Thus, when a claim for payment is presented to the District Paymaster bearing, as an authority to pay, the sig- nature of the head of a department and otherwise correct in form, the Paymaster always pays the amount without any further inquiry ; any question respecting the propriety of the payment is a matter for which the head of the department has made himself answerable. When, however, claims for money come in wicertified by the head of any department, the Paymaster must go further in his examination of them and satisfy himself, not only that the demand is correct in form, but also that it is one which is warranted by some standing regulation or special authority. As with other departments, when it is necessary to act immediately in a doubtful case, the question is referred to the General or other Officer Commanding whose orders on it are carried out pending an ultimate reference to the War Office. As may be supposed, the receipts of a District Paymaster from his District are very small as compared with his expen- diture. Among the moneys he may have to receive are : rents for Government lands, buildings, canteens, &c. ; sums realized by sales of produce or of condemned stores ; and various miscellaneous receipts. On the other hand, he must pay all contractors' bills ; all bills for purchases, hire of labour or other services ; bills for carriage, for transport, &c. ; and claims of all kinds. Also, as he acts as regimental Paymaster to detached men serving departmentally or as Staff clerks, he will have to disburse their pay and allowances. Further, he must have money in hand in order to make necessary imprests or advances for the requirements of the service in the District. To meet these necessities he draws monthly in advance o2 196 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. from the War Office the amount which he considers will be- required to defray all expenses. Money is not kept at the War Office itself, nor is gold sent to the Paymaster. The revenue of the country and all Government moneys not required for immediate use are lodged in the Bank of England by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Here these sums are kept at the disposal of the Lords of the Treasury, the executive department of State responsible for the applica- tion of funds in accordance with the votes of Parliament. The Treasury official who signs all drafts on Government funds (whether for the Army or for other departments of State) is the Paymaster-General. As soon as the Army Estimates have passed through Parliament and the sums therein specified have been voted, the Lords of the Treasury authorize the Paymaster-General to honour the orders of the War Department (Financial Secre- tary) to the extent of the votes. Whenever the War Office wishes to provide a Paymaster with funds, he is, at home stations, furnished with Treasury drafts obtained from the Paymaster-General and payable at the Bank of England. These drafts are, however, negotiable, and consequently can be cashed locally anywhere by the Paymaster or other person receiving them. In commands abroad, an officer of the Army Pay De- partment acts as agent for the Treasury and takes charge, in the Colony, of the Treasury chest which contains the funds belonging to the Imperial Government. This duty he carries out under the ' Regulations for conducting the duties of the Treasury chests abroad.' Paymasters in the command draw funds from this chest on Army Form O 1772, leaving a receipt in duplicate with the officer in charge of the chest. The District Paymaster does not remit to the War Office the amount of the sums he may periodically receive. Ob- viously, this course would be an unnecessarily complicated one to follow. What he does is to treat all Government money in his hands as available for business purposes ; and, if he receives any money during the month from the District, that money belongs to the Government and he uses it, duly DISTEICT — PAY DEPARTMENT. 197 accounting for it, and asking in his next estimate for so much less than he would have demanded had there been no receipts. Before making out his estimate for the amount of money- he will require to meet the coming month's expenses in the District, the District Paymaster receives from the Command- ing Royal Engineer, the Senior Commissariat Officer, and other sub-accountants sub-estimates of the sums which will be needed to meet the expenses of their respective depart- ments or charges. These sub-estimates are sent in to the District pay office by the 1 5th of the month preceding that to which they refer. In framing his estimate, the District Paymaster must also take account of the sums he has to receive as due to the War Department from various sources in the District. Thus it is the duty of the Commanding Royal Engineer and Senior Commissariat Officer to furnish him with all necessary infor- mation concerning rents or other revenue derivable from War Department property. Similarly, the District Paymaster is always apprised of all payments which will periodically fall due ; such as rents for property hired, tithes, &c. His own estimate of the whole amount required for the expenses is based on the sub-estimates above mentioned, on the information received as above stated as to what he may expect will be periodically and regularly coming in and going out, and, lastly, on his own estimate of what will be required, in addition to these sums, to meet the very great number of incidental expenses payable in the District. To make a fair estimate as regards this last head is evidently a matter of practical experience, both general and local. The District Paymaster is, as we have said, informed as fully as is possible of the whole amount he may expect to have to spend during the coming month. He also knows what cash balance he has in his safe, or lodged in the local bank, or outstanding in sub-accountants' hands ; and he is further informed as nearly as can be of what sums will be coming in from various sources. Deducting the total amount 198 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. which he has or will have in hand from the total required to meet all anticipated expenditure, the balance will obviously represent what he will need, and he proceeds to demand this amount together with as much over as will leave him a margin to meet unforeseen expenses. The margin thus admitted on an estimate must be limited to such an amount as will leave the balance in hand, when the accounts are rendered, under one-fourth of the total expenditure in that account, over and above any sums out on imprest for the purpose of meeting the expenses of sub-accountants during the following period. The estimate by means of which he demands this supply of cash is made out, by District Paymasters at home, on Army Form M 1403, and forwarded to the Financial Secretary monthly 10 days before the beginning of the month to which it refers. The estimate specifies the instalments in which the money will be required. In the Colonies, a ' Treasury chest ' is, as before stated, kept under special regulations by an officer of the Pay Department at the head-quarter station of the command. All Army expenditure in the command is paid out of this chest, iriduding that incurred hy regiments and corps. Con- sequently, in these commands, regiments send no estimates to the War Office, but merely monthly sub-estimates to the District Paymaster. This officer is the only Paymaster of the command who estimates for cash, and tliis he does annually. The * annual general estimate ' is, after compila- tion, submitted to a committee composed of the Governor of the Colony, the General or other Officer Commanding the troops, the Commanding Royal Engineer, the Senior Com- missariat Officer, the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, and the District Paymaster. This committee reports on the estimate and suggests such reductions or alterations as may seem fit to it for the Secretary of State's consideration. Two copies of the estimate are then forwarded, together with the com- mittee's report, by two separate mails, in such time that one copy may reach the War Office by the 1st December. To return to the District at home. It is the District Paymaster's business to take care that all sums due to the DISTRICT PAY DEPARTMENT. 199 War Department in his District are punctually paid in. Thus, he applies for rents due, and other revenue of land as instructed by the Commanding Royal Engineer : if immediate payment is not made, he reports the matter instantly to the War Office. The rents payable for canteens are collected weekly in cash by the Commissariat officers in charge and paid in monthly to the District Paymaster. Sums accruing from the sale of unserviceable stores are paid in by the auctioneer employed by the Senior Ordnance Store Officer to the District Paymaster who gives a receipt and signs the ' return of stores written off charge and sold by auction ; ' (Army Form P 1957). Sums obtained by the sale of con- demned or surplus supplies, of expense stores," of hides, offal, refuse, manure, &c. , are paid by Commissariat officers to the District Paymaster. Sums recoverable from Staff and departmental officers are paid in by the individuals con- cerned. Those payable by regimental officers or by the troops are collected from regimental Paymasters, or credited to the War Office as chargeable to the accounts of these Paymasters. Among the charges against corps will be those for damages sent in after the periodical inspections of the Royal Engineer Department. These will be partly barrack, partly hospital, and (possibly) ^d^xily prison, damages. Barrack damages are assessed at the quarterly or marching-out inspections of barracks ; a claim is made out against each corps by the Commanding Royal Engineer on Army Form P 1923, and passed by him to the District Paymaster for recovery. The latter officer obtains the total amount from each regi- mental Paymaster concerned. Damages to the fabric or fixtures of hospitals are notified by the Commanding Royal Engineer to the Medical officer in charge of the hospital, in a lump sum, on Army Form P 1923. The Medical officer apportions the sum to be paid by each corps from which men have been treated in hospital and returns the form to the Commanding Royal Engineer. This officer notifies the several sums to the Assistant-Adjutant-General of the District, who issues a District order publishing the 200 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. amounts and calling on the several corps to make them good. This is then done by an adjustment by the regimental Paymasters with the District Paymaster. Prison damages are similarly treated ; Army Form P 1924 being used by Governors or Chief Warders in reporting them to the District Paymaster. On this form the amount due by each corps is stated and the several sums are recovered by the District Paymaster from the Paymasters of the corps concerned. Among the many payments which District Paymasters are called upon to make, may be noticed : contractors' bills ; ■duly certified claims for all kinds of expenses incurred ; rents for property hired ; pay of subordinates, of non-commissioned officers or of soldiers employed as clerks or otherwise in District services ; &c. Stafl'and departmental officers (including the officers of the Army Pay Department itself) do not, at home stations, draw their pay or ordinary allowances from the District, or from any other, Paymaster : each department has a distinct Agent in London who acts for its officers in the capacity of Pay- master. But for incidental purposes, such as travelling claims, or any amount payable to, or recoverable from, a Staff or departmental officer, recourse is had to the District Paymaster. In order to secure the issue of the necessary funds to Army Agents, the head of the Staff and of each department in a District transmits monthly to the War Office a return of the officers of his department serving in the District. When, however, civilian clergymen officiate as chaplains to the troops, or when civil medical practitioners are employed for military purposes, they are paid quarterly in arrear by the District Paymaster on receipt of claims duly made out on certain specified forms ; which claims when receipted become the Paymaster's vouchers. The amount payable to civil clergymen and to civil medical practitioners is laid down in paragraphs 252, 257, and 326 of the Poyal Warrant for Pay and Promotion, 11th March, 1882. In making payments, it is necessary, as has been already stated, that a Paymaster should satisfy himself that certain DISTRICT PAY DEPARTMENT, 201 fformalities have been observed. Thus when claims for miscellaneous expenses or allowances are presented for pay- ment, the Paymaster must examine the charges and see that •each is in accordance with the standing regulations bearing on the point, or has been authorized by some special order. Claims in Great Britain and the Channel Islands of over 1001. in amount (or of smaller sums forming portions of money due on large contracts) are forwarded (duly certified by the head of the department concerned) to the War Office for examination and payment as they become due. In Ireland, such claims are dealt with in Dublin ; unless they refer to Engineer services, in which case they go on to the War Office as from stations in Great Britain. Claims for rents, tithes, rates and taxes or any other charges payable on lands or buildings hired hy the War Department for less than 21 years are certified correct by the Senior Commissariat Officer before being presented to the District Paymaster. Similar charges on property belonging to the War Department or hired hy it for periods of 21 years or more are certified as being correct by the Commanding Royal Engineer. Of these charges, the District Paymaster pays locally all, except that, at home stations, those referring to rates and taxes are invariably passed on to the War Office for adjust- ment. Abroad, this exception does not hold good, and the District Paymaster pays rates and taxes locally with other charges. To enable the District Paymaster to check over con- tractors' or any other bills which fall due, the head of each department which has incurred expenses of this kind sends to the District Paymaster a list of all the bills he has passed. In this way the Paymaster knows that any bills not yet pre- sented are still overdue. Bills for repairs to buildings, when certified to be correct by the responsible officer of Royal Engineers, are paid with- out further question by the District Paymaster. Claims for stores or for supplies provided by contractors or others must not only be certified by the Senior Ordnance 202 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Store Officer or Senior Commissariat Officer (as the case may- be) but the head of the department concerned must further state in which store account or provision account the articles were brought on charge, and quote the contract or other agreement, if there be any ; the District Paymaster then examines the bill and satisfies himself that these points have been attended to and that the quantities provided are charged for at the rate specified in the contract or other bargain. Having found these things correct, he makes payment of the amount claimed. Claims sent in under running Commissariat contracts are paid on presentation by the District Paymaster provided they be accompanied by full particulars as to the stipulated prices of the supplies and bear a certificate, signed by the respon- sible Commissariat officer, that the quantities for which the claim is made have been duly received. The pay of non-commissioned officers and men employed on the Staff or departmentally is issued by the District Pay- master on the receipt of pay-lists signed by the heads of the departments in which the men are serving. Those serving at the head- quarter station of the District are paid directly from the District pay office : those at out-stations are paid by the officers under whom they are employed, who receive the money necessary for the purpose on imprest from the District Paymaster. So, also, for the wages of civil labourers who may be engaged by departments. The actual method of issuing money for payments is either by cash, post-office orders, cheques or other means when more convenient. Sums of cash not exceeding 21. may be sent by registered letter. The cheques bear the words * On Her- Majesty's Service' and do not require the penny stamp necessary on ordinary cheques. If any cheque, issued by a Paymaster, remains unpresented for more than three months, the Paymaster reports the fact, and the amount for which the cheque was drawn, to the War Office. Paymasters may not cash private cheques out of their - public moneys. No Paymaster receives or pays away any sum of money DISTRICT PAY DEPARTMENT. 203 without taking and receiving vouchers. There are a few exceptions to this general rule as to taking receipts for ordinary pay and allowances ; but these exceptions hardly affect the District Paymaster. When money is paid in to a Paymaster, he takes with it an account signed by the person paying it, which becomes a * debit voucher ' to his accounts, and he gives this person a receipt. On the other hand, when the Paymaster pays money, he takes a receipt which becomes a * credit voucher ' to his accounts. In speaking of the duties of the Assistant-Quarter-Master- General, we have seen that, when a corps or party of troops is moved, the commander is provided with a route. He produces this legal instrument as his authority for all neces- sary purposes during the journey, whether he requires to billet his men, to demand transport, &c. Among other rights conferred by the possession of a route is that of making use, for travelling at Government expense, of rail- ways, steamboats, &c. But, in order to compel railway or other companies to convey troops at Government expense, the commander of the corps or party must be provided with warrants. A railway warrant is, virtually, an order on the company to provide the party with a railway ticket. To obtain a warrant or warrants, the commander of the party proceeding presents his route at the pay office of his corps or (if the party be composed of men employed on the staJST or departmentally) at the District pay office. The Paymaster issues the necessary warrants (which are in the form of leaves torn out of Army Book 73, for railway warrants, or Army Book 74 for sea-passage warrants). At the same time the Paymaster makes an entry on the counterfoil of the Army Book from which the warrant is taken of the circumstances. and of the number of the route which has been his authority. The commander of the party about to proceed takes back his route together with the warrant or warrants. Then, when on his journey, instead of buying tickets for his men as though they were private passengers, he presents his warrants at the booking-office or other place of payment. The railway or steamboat official keeps the warrant and issues to the 204 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKT ADMINISTRATION. otherwise allowed, being withheld. Articles of clothing may be withheld to the following extent : — All articles may be withheld and compensation allowed for the year's wear of all. Boots may be issued in kind and compensation allowed for all other articles. Compensation may be allowed for hoots not issued : all other articles being issued in kind. 314 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Compensation may be allowed for timics and trousers withheld from soldiers serving in Hong Kong, the Straits Settlements, and Ceylon. The climate in these Colonies makes it necessary to wear white drill clothing during a great part of the year, and the ordinary clothing therefore lasts a longer period. But otherwise than as above specified, no man may draw compensation for part of his clothing and draw the other part in kind. When a soldier, previously entitled to clothing of rank and file quality only, is promoted to the rank of Serjeant, he becomes entitled to certain articles of superior quality. Whenever it is possible, the part- worn clothing of the out- going Serjeant is given to the newly-promoted Serjeant, who hands into store his rank and file clothing. This course is, however, not often practicable ; but it is often possible to issue part- worn Serjeant's clothing from store until the next April issue of new clothing. This, again, not proving prac- ticable or convenient, the newly-promoted Serjeant retains in wear his rank and file clothing (chevrons only being issued to him from store) until the next issue of annual clothing, when he is clothed afresh according to his new rank and is- paid compensation for the broken period during which he has necessarily worn the clothing of inferior quality. So, also, in the case of non-commissioned oflicers promoted to a rank entitling them to clothing of first-class quality.^ All Bandsmen and Pipers, and also Buglers of Rifle regiments, are given clothing of Serjeant's quality. This, however, is a pure concession to them which is not held to constitute any claim. Therefore, under the circumstances above quoted with respect to non-commissioned officers, these men are not entitled to compensation. When soldiers are appointed Drummers, Buglers, &c.^ if they cannot be supplied with part-worn clothing of the pattern of their new appointments, the special laces, &G.y 1 Except Band-Serjeants, who, although supplied with first-clas5 clothing at the regular periodical issues, can only claim compensation, as platoon Serjeants. KEGIMENTAL— CLOTHINa, ETC. 315 are transferred, at the public expense, to their rank and file clothing. But in such a case no compensation can be claimed. Schoolmasters and certain other warrant and non-com- missioned officers, never receive boots in kind, but are instead of them granted a special ' boot allowance ' under para. 40 of the Clothing Regulations ; and all warrant officers and those non-commissioned officers entitled to clothing of first-class quality may he allowed to receive compensation instead of boots. There are also a few special cases in addi- tion to those above-mentioned, in which compensation for certain articles may be allowed to the soldier : these cases, are given in para. 166 of the Clothing Regulations. Soldiers whose term of Army Service will expire between the 1st April and the 30th September, or who have given notice that they intend to claim their discharge between those dates, do not, as has been stated, receive any annual clothing on that 1st April. They continue to wear the clothing they previously had in possession and get no com- pensation. And if a soldier's service is to expire between the 1st October and the 31st December, he gets neither October boots nor compensation in lieu of the wear of them. A soldier convicted of felony is not credited with any compensation which may have accrued to him prior to his conviction. The rates at which compensation, when authorized, is paid for every article not issued, are published from time to time in Army Circulars. As the soldier is entitled, in certain cases, to compensa- tion for articles of clothing not issued, so, in other cases, he is chargeable with the values of articles he may lose or make away with, or damage to any great extent, and which, con- sequently on his bad conduct or neglect, do not last in a serviceable condition the full period allotted to each for its^ wear. Loss or ill-usage of clothing, even through carelessness^ may be of such a nature as to amount to an offence ; and it is. always an offence when the soldier intentionally makes away :316 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTKATION. with or damages such articles. But, apart from the question of discipline and whether the soldier be pttnished or not, he will be called upon to make good such articles as are lost or damaged to an extent not attributable to fair wear and tear, unless he can show that the loss or damage has not been brought about by his own neglect or misconduct. Thus, when articles of clothing in a soldier's possession are destroyed, lost, or damaged, and the man is apparently not to blame, a regimental board is convened by the Com- manding Officer to investigate the matter and report on the extent of the loss or damage. If the board reports that the damage or loss was occasioned by unavoidable accident or by the nature of the duty the soldier was carrying out, it recom- mends that the loss or cost of repair shall fall on the public. When any article of a soldier's clothing requires to be replaced through having been worn out, lost, &c. , before the proper time, he is supplied, when the loss is accidental or not attributable to his own fault or neglect, with a part-worn article instead of it which has been worn as long as the article replaced, if such an article can be provided from the store. If this cannot be done, a newer article must be issued to the man : in which case it is again taken into store as part-worn when the next general issue of similar articles takes place. But when the soldier is chargeable with the loss or damage, an article is issued to him in the same way from the new or part- worn clothing in stock, and he is made to pay for the lost article according to the following rule : — Deduct the worn-out value of the lost garment from its value when new ; Divide the remainder by the number of months the gar- ment should wear ; Multiply the quotient by the number of months the lost garment has actually been worn ; Subtract the result from the total value of the garment when new ; The remainder will be the sum to be charged to the soldier. EEGIMENTAL— CLOTHING, ETC. 31 T If, however, the damaged article be still forthcoming but unserviceable, the worn-out value of it is deducted from the amount chargeable to the soldier as above stated. Cloaks for mounted men and greatcoats for foot soldiers^ are treated somewhat differently from other articles of cloth- ing, as are also the leggings supplied to foot soldiers. Why this difference should exist is not very clear. There are no periodical issues of cloaks, greatcoats or leggings : they are issued as required to every soldier entitled to them. They each have a specified period of duration and, if one of these articles become unserviceable before this time has expired, the value of the portion of wear which should have still be taken out of it is chargeable to the soldier, un- less it can be shown to the satisfaction of a regimental board that the article has become unserviceable before its time by unavoidable circumstances, as in the case of other garments. The periods of wear laid down for these articles are : — Special cloaks and capes for Household Cavalry 8 years. Ordinary cloaks and capes for mounted services 6 ,, Special greatcoats and capes for Koyal Artil- lery band ...... 6 ,, Ordinary greatcoats and capes for dismounted services . . . . . . . ^ >? Leggings 3 ,, Yet even when these articles have been in use the full time, they are retained as serviceable (part-worn) and can only be returned to store as unserviceable after they have^ been condemned by a board of survey. The same rule is followed as regards the jack spurs issued to mounted men. They are to last five years, but if the board of survey finds them serviceable after they have been used for that time, they are continued in wear, either without repair or after having been repaired at the public expense During the five years, any repairs they may need are charged to the soldier. The leather breeches, jack boots, and special spurs for- 318 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. wear with jack boots which are issued to the Household Cavalry are treated in much the same way. When a man deserts, such articles of clothing as he may leave behind are returned to store as part- worn ; such as he may carry away are, in the first place, charged against the public (see p. 371), the amount being recovered from the man if he should rejoin. When a soldier is transferred, he takes with him all articles of clothing which he can wear in his new corps, the rest being returned to store. On joining his new corps, he gets part-worn articles of the patterns worn in that corps to replace the articles handed in. But, as soldiers transferred must join with some clothing, this clothing, when it cannot be utilized in the new corps, is sent back to the corps whence the man came after he has been clothed in his new uniform, if the transfer takes place between the 1st April and the 1st October. If the transfer occurs between the 1st October and the 1st April following, the new corps puts the clothing brought by the soldier into its own store and disposes of it subsequently as may be ordered by the Director of Clothing. Whenever a soldier is discharged or transferred to the Heserve, he is either provided with a suit of plain clothes or he may be allowed compensation for it on showing that he is in possession of plain clothes in which he can leave the corps. Warrant officers and non-commissioned officers above the Tank of Corporal are always allowed to provide their own plain clothes on leaving the service or passing to the Reserve. -Plain clothes for the purpose of issuing in kind may be obtained from the Royal Army Clothing Depot. When a soldier is discharged by reason of his misconduct, lie does not receive the same number of articles of plain clothes as he does when discharged in the regular course or when passed to the Reserve. Necessaries. Necessaries are, as has been said, articles which a soldier purchases and keeps up at his own expense. Nevertheless, REaiMENTAL— CLOTHING, ETC. 319 he must at all times keep himself in possession of a complete s erviceable set of these articles. The term ' kit ^ is generally used to express the collection of all articles in charge of the soldier, and therefore as in- cluding his clothing and sometimes also his equipment. But it is to be noted that the Clothing Regulations use the word as meaning the soldier's set of necessaries only, and that therefore a 'free kit,' for instance, is to be understood as containing merely necessaries and no clothing. Recruits on first joining the Army have a right to a ' free kit.' That is to say, that the first expense of every soldier's outfit in necessaries falls on the public. The following table shows the necessaries which each soldier must keep up : — All Arms. Articles. No. Blacking, tin of . Braces, pair of blacking brass Brushes -{cloth polishing \ shaving Button, brass •Comb, hair . Pork .... •Gloves, gauntlets, or mitts | (according to corps), pair of j Hold-all . . . Knife, table . . Razor and case I Cavalry, Artillery, Shirts \ and Engineers [Infantry . Soap, piece of . . . 320 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. All Arms — continued. Articles. No. Socks, worsted, pairs of Sponge, pipeclay . Spoon .... Tin, mess Towels .... Cavalry may have 4 pairs of cotton socks instead. Additional articles peculiar to Cavalry, mounted men of Royal Artillery, and all men of 'troops' of Royal Engi- Bag, stable . Bottle, oil . ( hair Brushes |j^^^^ Drawers, cotton, pairs of Paste, brass, tin of Rubber, horse Spurs, swan-neck, pair of f mess-tin . Straps Valise valise, set of three . except for dismounted men of Royal Engi- neer * troops.' Besides these articles, some corps are required to keep up a few special articles in addition ; while in the Rifle regiments certain articles are dispensed with. These articles are the following : — Household Cavalry Blue serge frock . Pair of blue serge trousers . REGIMENTAL — CLOTHINa, ETC. 321 Hoyal Artillery Plume-case . , ( (Horse Artillery ^ only). Worsted cap Brush bag . I j- (mounted men). Waterproof bag 1 1- (all men). with hook Clasp-knife . li Paste, brass, tin of -|^ f (dismounted ^ men). Royal Engineers . Brush bag . 1 (men of ' troops '). Waterproof bag 1 (all men). 1^ with hook Clasp-knife . Mess-tin cover 1 ) (all men of ' com- 1 i panies '). Paste, brass, tin of Infantry Kit-bag l^ Mess-tin cover 1 [ (all men). 1^ Forage-cap badge Gaiters, pairs of . 2x Garters and ro- settes, pair of . 1 (men wearing Tartan hose-tops, the kilt). pairs of 2 Purse, with belt . 1^ In Rifle regiments the men are not required to have the following articles : — Brass brush, Button brass, Pipeclay sponge. The mounted and dismounted men of the Commissariat and Transport Corps and the men (all dismounted) of the Ordnance Store Corps have the same kit as the corresponding men of the Royal Artillery. The kits of men of the Colonial Corps differ very slightly from those of the Infantry. . Boys, on probation, are provided with a kit not quite so complete as ordinary soldiers. When, in the Artillery, Engineers, &c., men who have duly received free kits as dismounted men are transferred to I. Y 322 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. mounted duties or vice versdy they are entitled to receive a free issue of such articles as they need to complete the free kit of their new position, if they have at no previous time received the full kit. The kits above given are those of private soldiers. Cor- porals have the same kits. Those of Infantry Serjeants and Staff Serjeants differ in so far that gloves take the place of mitts. It sometimes happens that a soldier absents himself illegally from his corps and fraudulently enlists in another, obtaining in this way a free kit. When it is discovered that a soldier serving in a corps is a man who has fraudulently enlisted into it, he may be tried by court-martial and convicted ; or his trial may be dispensed with. But, however he may be dealt with in respect to punishment, he may be either retained in the service or discharged. As regards the manV necessaries this gives rise to two different cases. If he is retained in the service, he is sentenced by the court-martial which tried him or (if he has not been tried) he is ordered by the Competent Military Authority, which dis- pensed with his trial, to pay for the kit he obtained free by fraud, and he is placed under stoppages to meet the full expense. After this has been done, of course, the kit remains legitimately his own ; and, as he must have neces- saries, it is utilized by him in the corps in which he is held ta serve as far as it can be so. But it may be that this kit contains articles not required in the corps the soldier is held to serve in, and, on the other hand, is deficient of articles which are required in that corps. In this case, the surplus articles are sold ; the money being applied to purchasing any deficient articles. If the amount is insufficient for this purpose, it is supplemented by money stopped from the soldier's pay. If it is more than necessary, the soldier receives the balance. If there are deficiencies in the new kit and nO' superfluities, the soldier must be stopped the whole value of the deficiencies. If the soldier who has fraudulently obtained a free kit is not held to servo, of course, it is hopeless to expect that he REGIMENTAL— CLOTHINa, ETC. 323 can make good the value of the free kit he may have fraudulently obtained. All that can be done is to take possession of whatever articles may be forthcoming. Such of these articles as are new and unworn are returned to store for re-issue to recruits ; the rest is sold and the proceeds credited to the public. But, as a man cannot be sent absolutely naked out of the Army, however worthless he may be, every soldier discharged after fraudulent enlistment is allowed to retain from his fraudulently obtained kit, a pair of socks, a pair of braces and a shirt. We have already said that, as regards clothing, he gets certain articles of plain clothes, which are thus supplemented by these indispensable necessaries. If a man has been accepted as a recruit, and been accord- ingly supplied with a free kit, who is afterwards taken out of the service as an apprentice, his necessaries are inspected and any unused articles are returned to the store to be re- issued as new ; while those which have been worn or used are sold and the proceeds credited to the public. Recruits have a right to purchase their discharges within 3 months of attestation : they have earned their free kits and done nothing to forfeit their right to them. Therefore, they may do what they please with these necessaries. But if a recruit exercises his right of purchasing his discharge before it has been possible to issue the articles to him, he obtains the money-value of the kit, instead of the articles in kind. The money-value of complete free kits for every branch of the service is fixed from time to time by a clause of Army Circulars. The tariff now in force is the following one determined by Appendix F, Clause 88, Army Circulars 1881. Army Hospital Corps . Commissariat and ( mounted Transport Corps \ dismounted Corps of Military Labourers Foot Guards Gun Lascars y2 £ s. d. 15 9 2 15 8 1 14 6 2 4 2 1 4 01^ 1 15 U 324 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. £ s. d. 2 15 1 1 4 3 3 1 2 10 3 1 4 3 2 15 2 15 1 1 14 6 1 3 3 2 16 3 1 14 1* 2 16 4 1 14 1* 1 3 Hi 1 6 1 Heavy Cavalry Highland Regiments 1 J^^f ^f ^ (kilted Hussars Infantry of the Line . Lancers Military Mounted Police Ordnance Store Corps . Rifle Regiments . EoyaIArtiUeryl«^°™*«'i , ( dismounted x» IT?- (mounted . Royal Engineers^ .. ( dismounted Royal Malta Fencible Artillery West India Regiments Part-ivorn necessaries are not recognized in the service, with two exceptions. Part-worn Cavalry valises and the mess-tins and covers of men transferred from mounted to dismounted duties or vice versa, may be taken into store and re-issued to recruits ; but in the case of a valise it is merely as a matter of economy, and because this article, somewhat expensive in itself, always sells at a great loss, being useless in civil life, and being seldom required to replace another by a soldier. And even when a part-worn valise is thus re- issued the recruit gets the money difference between it and a new one. With these exceptions, no articles of necessaries are ever returned to store except such as may be new and unworn. Nor can a valise be returned to store unless a board has pronounced it fit to be so ; and if the board does not consider it good enough for re-issue, it is carried away by the man or sold with the rest of his necessaries on his be- coming non-effective, according to whether he is, on dis- charge, entitled to his kit or not. When boys on probation are discharged for misconduct, they are allowed to retain only those articles of the free kits issued to them which it is absolutely necessary they should KEGIMENTAL — CLOTHING, ETC. 325 wear on their way to their homes : the rest is sold and the proceeds credited to the public. But, if the boys are dis- charged for any other cause, they keep the free kit. The necessaries of any soldier who dies in the service and such articles of necessaries as may be left behind liim by any man who may desert are sold and the • proceeds credited in the soldier's 'non-effective account.' Whenever the new necessaries of non-effective men or their part-worn valises and mess-tins are returned to store, the marking is obliterated and the articles marked again before they are re-issued. Books, Accounts, &c. General. The Commanding Officer of every corps, being the account- ant to the War Office for all the clothing and necessaries on charge in his corps, is responsible also for the correct keeping and rendering of all accounts relating to these stores. The Quartermaster is the working officer in this business ; but he carries out all his operations under the authority of the Commanding Officer. In batteries of the Koyal Artillery and other small corps, there being no Quartermaster, the Commanding Officer must do the work himself with such assistance from his subordinates as may be at his disposal. The chief books used for recording transactions in cloth- ing and necessaries in a Quartermaster's office are the follow- ing, viz. : — 1. Ledger for new clothing in store : — Mounted services, Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers . . . Army Book 273 Dismounted services, except Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers . ,, 274 2. Ledger for part-worn clothing in store : — Mounted services. Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers . . . ,, 275 Dismounted services, except Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers . ,, 276 326 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. 3. Nominal clothing roll of articles in possession of soldiers : — ( . . Army Book 289 Mounted services, Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers • Detach- ments of less than 250 men ,,. 290 ( ' ' »> 287 Dismounted services, Detach- except Royal Artillery ■< ments of and Royal Engineers . less than 1 250 men „ 288 4. Ledger for necessaries in store : — All services ,, 277 5. Ledger for sea-kit necessaries in store : — All services ,, 277 Besides those kept by the Quartermaster, the officer commanding every troop, battery and company makes use of the following book : — Free kit issue book Manuscript Accou7its special to Clothing. The 'ledger for new clothing in store ' is a book in which is entered, on the debit side, all receipts from the Royal Army Clothing Depot, and on the credit side, all issues of new clothing. The issues will be those made in response to the requisitions of officers commanding troops and companies in the Cavalry and Infantry ; or directly to the soldiers in the case of ledgers kept by such officers as those commanding batteries of Royal Artillery, detached companies of Royal Engineers, &c., who are, so to speak, at one and the same time, both Captain and Commanding Officer to their men. In the ledgers of all arms of the service, there may also occasionally be entries of issues of new clothing, brought about by its being returned to Pimlico for any special reason. The delivery vouchers received with consignments from Pimlico are kept by the Quartermaster. The receipts must KEaiMENTAL — CLOTHING, ETC. 327 be posted in the ledger the day the articles are taken on -charge. The forms of ' requisition and delivery note ' sent in by officers commanding troops or companies for new clothing are receipted by those officers as soon as the demand thej contain has been complied with by the Quartermaster. This officer, having issued the articles, enters the issues on the credit side of the ledger in order of date as they occur. The receipted delivery notes remain in his hands as vouchers, and he guards them until the time when the accounts must be rendered. Where the Commanding Officer (the accountant to the War Office) is also in direct account with the soldier (as, for instance, in batteries of the Royal Artillery), there being no intermediate Captain, there can be no requisition or delivery note. In these cases, the entries on the credit (or issue) side of the ledger for new clothing are arranged separately for each soldier, and each issue is receipted by the man's signature against each issue entry in the ledger itself. It was before stated that when articles or materials of clothing are demanded from the Royal Army Clothing Depot on immediate repayment within the quarter, separate requisitions for these things are sent in. The reason this course is followed is because these articles are not brought on charge by being entered in the ledger for new clothing ; they are separately accounted for. As no clothing can be returned to Pimlico without authority, the striking off charge of any articles of new clothing thus returned would evidently be warranted by the authority to return them and the receipt vouchers received for them. Thus the ledger for new clothing, accounts for all articles Non-commissioned officers, acting Bom- bardiers, Trumpeters, Farriers, Shoeing- smiths ft il g » 6§ .t be Ar7ns. Sword bayonet and scabbard Sword and scabbard . 1 — 1 1 Accoutrements. Sword-belt .... Sword bayonet belt (with frog Gunners) .... Pword-knot Haversack .... Water-bottle for ) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Eveiy mounted man in the Cavalry, Artillery, Engineers, and Commissariat and Transport Corps has also in charge a set of saddlery, which consists of the articles given below. The differences observable between the several branches are due to the fact that Lancers require certain extra articles, and that the troop horses of the Royal Artillery and Com- missariat are provided with gear which enables them to be utilised on emergencies for draught purposes. 354 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Number composing a sjt >> 3 ^ r« 1 '3 t^M "5b >• ^^i 6 '^Sg' (Li O 1 i Bits, bridoon with rein 1 1 1 ■RrAaof -1 pieces, leather, Maude's . jsreast ^ pjj^^gg^ ^^j^^ j^^^,]^ g^^^p . 1 — 1 Bridles, complete .... 1 1 B-i^etsi— «. : : ; z — fLancers •- only Cases, horseshoe, single 2 2 Collars, head stall 1 1 Cruppers .... 1 1 Girths 1 — Irons, stirrup, ( with lance buckets single . y without „ — rLancert> I only 2 2 Leathers, stirrup 2 2 Logs, iron, 21b. 1 1 Numnahs, felt 1 1 Pannels, saddle, stuffed pairs 1 1 Reins, chain .... 1 1 Saddles, universal . 1 1 Skins, sheep 1 1 carbine, protecting . — — case, shoes, single . 2 2 e'o^Mrndwallet ! 1 2 1 2 Straps. girth 4 — lance bucket . 2 — fLancers *- only supporting, \ front . — 2 — Maude's . i rear . — 1 — L trace, breast harness — 2 — SurcinglesiJ---'**"^- 1 1 1 rp ( breast, harness, rope ^^^^^^ ( lasso, 20 or 30 feet . — 2 — Tugs, trace, breast harness , — 2 — Wallets, universal, pairs 1 1 1 REGIMENTAL — EQUIPM ENT. 365 Garriso7i Batteries of Royal Artillery. Each Battery Serjeant- Major and Serjeant Each Corporal. Bombardier and Grunner Each Trumpeter Aims. Carbine Sword I aj^onet .... Accoutre me tits. Carbine, sling .... Sword bayonet, belt witi frog Valise and braces Pouch (buff) .... Bag (ammunition) . Haversack Water-bottle ..... Set of straps: water-bottle, pair \ of great-coat, mess-tin, - supporting valise . ) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 It may be noted here that the mounted soldier's valise forms part of his necessaries ; that of the dismounted man is part of his equipment. These tables refer, of course, only to the personal equipment of the warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, and men ; in short, to the sets of arms and accoutrements entered in the * register of arms and accoutrements ' and to those of horse equipment for riding-horses. Besides these things, for which the men are responsible to the Commanding Officer, there remains a vast mass of articles for the general use of the corps or of its troops and companies. The men are chargeable if they lose, make away with, or damage any article of their equipment. Unlike clothing, which varies in value according to its state of wear, the value of equipment always remains the same. The full value of every article is recorded in the * Priced Vocabulary of Stores,' 1882 ; and when an article is not forthcoming, the soldier responsible for it is charged this value. By special provision, however, of the ' Royal Warrant on Pay and Promotion,' 1882, no soldier can be charged more than A a2 356 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Battalions of Infantry. 1$ o c s 1^ ft If ce a S O g'bC ^ li 11 is OS 6 II 1 m o .2 i Anns. Pistols, revolver . 1 — — — _ Sword with scabbard (Staff | 1 1 Serjeant's pattern) . 1 Sword bayonet and scabbard — — 1 — — — ^ Rifle .... — — 1 1 — ■ — — .2 Bayonet and scabbard ] (common ) ... J 1 it, % Sword with scabbard ' (Drummer's and Bugler's — — ■ — 1 — — • .:: pattern) . . . , "2 Sword with scabbard ' 1 1 (Pioneer) . . . ) .2* Accouliements. ^ §* Revolver case 1 1 — — — — Is Sword - belt (Staff - Ser- ) 1 1 g jeant's pattern) . . ; M Sword-knot . 1 1 — — ■ — — — 05 Whistle . 1 — 1 — — — ~ ^ Rifle sling . — — ■ 1 1 — — — U Waist-belt with frog — — - 1 1 1 — 1 o Pouch (20 rounds) — — 2 2 — — - 1 „ (24 „ ) 1 1 — — — — — % ! Bag (ammunition) — — 1 1 — — c Haversack . 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 p: Valise with V.races 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 Water-bottle . 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Set of straps: water-bottle, ' mess-tin, pair of great- 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 coat, supporting valise . forty shillings on account of damage to, destruction of, or loss of, a Martini-Henry rifle or carbine. Frequent inspections of the equipment by, or under the orders of. Commanding Ofiicers are necessary to ascertain its complete eflBiciency or secure its timely repair. When a change of Commanding Officers happens in a corps, the officer giving over command and the officer taking it over verify the equipment on charge by inspecting it and KEGIMENTAL EQUIPMENT. 357 comparing the numbers forthcoming with those shown to be on charge by the equipment ledger. A certificate in dupli- cate, according to a form given in Appendix I. of the ' Equip- iment Regulations,' as to the quantity, condition, and correct- ness of appropriation of the stores is then signed by both oiRcers and forwarded to the General Oflicer Commanding by the officer assuming the command. Lists of deficiencies and surplus articles (if any such discrepancies are discovered) are made out and, with such explanations as can be afibrded by the officer giving over command, are appended to the certifi- cate. The General forwards one copy of these papers to the Secretary of State, and returns the other to the officer who has assumed command to accompany the first rendering of his equipment accounts. Unless it can be shown to the satisfaction of a court of inquiry or court-martial that any loss of equipment is rightly chargeable to some other person or to the public, deficiencies on transfer of command must be made good by the officer who gives over the command. If a difference of opinion should arise between the officers respectively giving over and taking over the command of a corps, either of them may apply to the General Officer Com- manding for the assembly of a board of survey to consider the matter. Arms and accoutrements once marked by a corps are never transferred to another in time of peace, although they may be so in war time. Exceptionally, however, the personal equipment of men of the Commissariat and Transport Corps or of the Ordnance Store Corps may be transferred from company to company. Other articles of regimental equipment are only trans- ferred from one corps to another by special authority. Whenever it is possible, an Ordnance Store officer is present at the transfer, and both the accountant delivering and he receiving the stores carefully inspect them either personally or by deputy. The most frequently occurring case of transfer of equip- ment in peace time is when mounted corps relieve one 358 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. another on home and foreign service. It has been saicJ (p. 285) that horses are on these occasions transferred ; and when this is the case, the horse equipment is transferred also. So, too, with the harness and ordnance stores of Field batteries of Artillery. The small-arm ammunition ordinarily held on charge by corps of troops is classified as 'service' and ' practice and exercise ' ammunition. That for service is kept for use during any emergency that may arise ; and from this stock are also taken the cartridges given out at every guard- mounting to the men on guard. All arms receive and keep up a service stock of 20 rounds of ball cartridge per rifle or carbine of the establishment, and of 24 rounds per revolver. Excepting such quantities as may be in use, this ammunition is placed in the magazine in charge of the Quartermaster. As to ammunition for practice and exercise the following is the proportion issued yearly. Rounds For each trained For each recruit Corps soldier officer or man Remarks Blank Ball (rank and file only) Ball Blank Cavalry .... 160 50 260 40 Artillery |jj^^.g^ & Field 40 20 50 20 10 10 20 20 Fiigineers 160 60 260 40 Infantry .... 160 60 260 40 Commissariat and Trans- ] Whenever port and Ordnance [ Store . . . j 30 ^ 70 40 ■I to be in- structed in V Musketry Rangoon oil and old sheeting is supplied among the stores as ' materials for cleaning arms,' and are issued periodically to each troop or company by the Quartermaster in prescribed proportions, a reckoning of this expenditure being kept by him. HEGIMENTAL — EQUIPMENT. 359 Rifles and carbines are * browned' every two years. Materials are provided for this purpose also. The work is done, in those corps having Armourer-Serjeants, by those non-commissioned officers free of charge as part of their ordinaiy duties. In those corps which have none (as bat- teries of Artillery) the same course is followed as below stated in the case of repairs to arms. The field guns of Artillery are browned also every two years by the battery artificers, or those of the nearest battery available. A certain proportion of dubbing, soft soap, &c. , is allowed yearly for the preservation of squad-bags, harness, and saddlery. Carriages, wagons, &c., are painted annually, without charge, by the regimental artificers. Paint and other materials are provided for this purpose. Working pay is, in certain cases, allowed to soldiers who assist the Artificers in those operations. The whole equipment of a corps is repaired as it may re- quire it, as far as possible, by the Artificers of the corps : the arms and metal work by the Armourer-Serjeant, the leather work by the Collar-Maker, Saddler, Shoemaker, &o. &c. In corps not having Armourer-Serjeants, the Command- ing Officer applies to the General Officer Commanding in the event of his arms requiring repair. The Armourer-Serjeant of some corps in the command is then detailed to do the work, or, if the services of an Armourer- Serjeant are not available, the Commanding Officer is ordered to hand over the articles requiring repair to the Ordnance Store Depart- ment. When, however, the barrel of a rifle or carbine is damaged, the whole arm is exchanged and not repaired regimentally. For the repair of accoutrements the following annual allowance is made : — 12s. per company or battery. 18s. per depot company of Royal Engineers. 20s. per Infantry regimental depot. 360 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Parts of articles which remain serviceable when the other parts are lost or worn out are retained to be used in repair. The parts of articles of equipment furnished by the War Department to be worked up in repairs are issued gratis for those repairs only which are chargeable to the public. Repairs necessitated by the misconduct or carelessness of the men are paid for by them, and the charge includes the cost of renewal of any parts which it may be necessary to replace. When any repairs to equipment are necessary which would involve the issue of working pay, or which must be done by contractors or other persons on payment, the Com- manding Officer sends in a requisition to the Senior Ordnance Store Officer, stating the nature of the work to be done and the cost of getting it done regimentally at regular working pay rates or that for which he can get it done by local agree- ment. The Commanding Officer is then informed how the work is to be done. If it is decided that it shall be done regimentally, he certifies, on the completion of the work, that it has been carried out satisfactorily. This certificate is on the original requisition which has been returned to him, and which then serves as a voucher to the regimental Pay- master's accounts in debiting the War Office with the amount of the necessary disbursement. The renewal of trumpet-strings, bugle-strings and drum- heads are, in the Cavalry and Infantry, charged to Trumpeters, Buglers, and Drummers, whose pay is, for this reason, 2d. a day in the Cavalry and Id. a day in the Infantry higher than that of Privates of their own arm. In the other branches of the service. Trumpeters and Buglers are not chargeable with these articles. The bulk of the horseshoes and nails necessary for affixing them is manufactured, in mounted corps of troops, by the Serjeant-Farriers, who receive an allowance to cover the cost of iron and fuel expended. But as, on service, these articles must be provided ready-made in certain sizes and fitted, it has been thought advisable (see Clause 85, Army Circulars 1881) to order that every corps shall draw a fixed proportion of the variously sized horse- shoes from the Ordnance Store Department in peace time. REGIMENTAL EQUIPMENT. 36 1 The value of these stores is credited to the War Office in the pay-list. Certain articles of equipment have fixed periods of dura- tion assigned to them which are those for which they usually remain in a serviceable condition ; but it by no means follows that at the expiration of these periods they are to be con- sidered as unserviceable. These periods are merely guides, indicating, to all concerned as accountants, the time which these articles ought to remain in a serviceable condition. Moreover, as regards the greater number of articles, no specific time of duration is laid down. Therefore no Com- manding Officer is held to be justified in requiring that he be relieved of the charge of certain articles of equipment simply on the ground that they have been in use this or that time. Any application of the kind must be on the ground that the articles are unserviceable or that orders have been received for their return. A Commanding Officer may assemble a regimental board of officers to assist him with its opinion as to the condition of stores ; but it must be borne in mind that no regimental board can condemn stores. A garrison board is the only one which can do so. The usual procedure, when the Command- ing Officer has arrived at an opinion that stores are unser- viceable, is for him to apply to be relieved of them by the Ordnance Store Department. If the Ordnance Store officer who receives them sees no reason to diff'er with the Com- manding Officer's opinion that they are unserviceable, they are put aside in the reserve depot and, in due course, brought for- ward for condemnation by the next periodical board of survey. On the other hand, when it has been notified to a Com- manding Officer that stores have been withdrawn from the service through having become obsolete or whenever he receives orders to return stores of any kind, it becomes his duty to apply to the Ordnance Store Department for the withdrawal of the articles. In so doing the authority for the return to store must be quoted on the application, which, further, gives a description of the stores, states the quantity 362 ELEME^^TS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. to be returned and the time they have been in use. It is the Commanding Officer's duty to make arrangements for the conveyance ; which means, not that he is precluded from applying for Commissariat or any other kind of transport, but merely that it is his business to move in the matter. The officer returning the stores sends, on the same day that they are despatched, receipt and delivery vouchers (on Army Form G 1033) to the Ordnance Store officer who is to receive them. As in the case of all stores consigned from a lower charge to a higher, the columns detailing the condi- tion of the stores are not to be filled up ; the total column only is completed. On receipt of the stores they are examined by the Ordnance Store officer, who fills in the descriptive columns according to the state in which he finds the articles. He then signs and returns the receipt voucher if it be found to be correct. Vouchers from a distance are invariably sent by post. As, in any case, they do not travel with the stores returned them- selves, and as, moreover, the articles must be checked over and examined in detail before receipt vouchers are returned, it becomes necessary that the officer delivering them to the Ordnance Store officer should receive from the latter a tem- porary receipt pending the due exchange of vouchers. As there has been no examination, so this receipt is one for quantities only. All stores forming part of the equipment of a corps are, then, to be returned to the Ordnance Store Department as soon as they become unserviceable or are called in by superior authority as obsolete. Further, as the equipment of a corps is intended to comprise only the exact quantity of articles prescribed by the regulations, all surplus stores must also be returned. While speaking of vouchers, it may be well to mention some rules regarding them which, unfortunately, are not always so strictly observed as they should be. No correspondence or memoranda, other than what is prescribed by the regulations, should ever appear on the paper of a voucher. REGIMENTAL — EQUIPMENT. 363 In the event of an officer receiving a consignment of stores, which does not agree, on comparison, with the vouchers relating to the consignment, he must return both receipt and delivery voucher (the former unsigned) to the consignor unaltered. He makes his remarks on a separate paper which he sends with the vouchers. After the case has been settled between the officers, either by their agreement or by decision of superior authority, the consig7ior makes any necessary alterations in the two vouchers, initials those on the delivery vouchers and again forwards both vouchers to the consignee, who then initials the corresponding alterations made by the consignor on the receipt voucher, signs it and returns it to the latter officer. No coloured ink or pencil is to be used upon vouchers, either in making ticking marks or otherwise. This may seem a trivial point, but the infraction of the rule may lead to much confusion ; for, when the accounts are rendered, the vouchers are ticked and checked in different colours by the officials of the Central Administration according to their own rules. Such certificate vouchers used in equipment accounts as are not at the same time expense vouchers have no prescribed form. They are merely ordinary certificates in manu- script. As regards other vouchers, the forms used are the following : — Receipt and Delivery Vouchers. Arms ....... Accoutrements and Pioneers' appointments Musical instruments Harness and saddlery Artificers' tools Camp equipment Equipment in general Stores in general (Royal Artillery only) Ordnance, barrack and special stores (Royal Engineers only) .... Miscellaneous stores (Royal Engineers only) . G 830 . G 951 . G 1040 . G 1010 . G 1046 . G 971 . G 1033 . G 1 884 1 . G 987 . G 994 364 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Materials for repairing arms . . . . G 828 ,, browning arms . . . . G 822 ,, repairing accoutrements . . G 956 ,, repairing harness and saddlery . G 1011 ,, repairing carriages (all services except Royal Artillery) . G 977 ,, repairing carriages (Royal Artil- lery only) .... G1056 Ammunition G 809 Transfer and Conversion Vouchers. Articles manufactured from materials for re- pair G 959 All other stores G 1049 Expense Vouchers. Equipment in general, also small-arm ammuni- tion ...... Ammunition, gun .... Materials for repairing arms ,, browning arms . ,, repairing accoutrements ,, repairing harness and saddlery . G 1009 ,, repairing carriages (all services except Royal Artillery) . G 978 ,, repairing carriages (Royal Artil- lery only) . . . . G 1061 Articles of equipment damaged, lost, stolen, destroyed, &c., are written off charge every month (after all due for- malities) by expense vouchers on Army Form P 1925. Separate copies of this expense voucher must be used for stores struck off charge the cost of which is to be borne by the public and for those the value of which is to be recovered from the troops. When the public is to bear the cost, the money columns need not be filled in. When the losses, &c., are attributable to deserters, a nominal list of the men who have deserted during the month is inserted at the foot of the voucher. . P 1925 . G 904 . G 826 . G 823 . G 955 KEGIMENTAL — EQUIPMENT. 365 When articles have been damaged or lost and the cost of the damage or loss is chargeable to individuals, these articles are duly entered every month on a distinct copy of the expense voucher form P 1925. The value of each article is, in this case, entered against it. Also, the period of the pay- list in which the money will be credited to the public is mentioned and reference is given to the report of the court of inquiry upon the loss. In this form, the voucher will justify the ledger entries striking the articles off charge. But something more is needed ; for the money must be stopped from the men. Consequently, the entries on Army Form P 1925 are copied on to the ^ return of stoppages of articles lost' (Army Form P 1954) which is passed to the Paymaster and appended to the pay-list account for the same period as noted on the corresponding voucher P 1925. In short, Army Form P 1925 serves as a voucher for the eqidpment ledger and justifies the striking off charge, while Army Form P 1954 serves as the corresponding pay- list voucher, justifying the stoppages being made against the men. When an article of equipment becomes unserviceable as a whole, certain parts of it or fittings attached may, neverthe- less, be as good as ever. It was said before that when this occurs, the portions which are needed to replace the de- stroyed, lost, or damaged parts are alone demanded and the old fittings are fixed to the new parts. ^ Such portions of the unserviceable parts as may remain, are all returned to the Ordnance Store Department, to be dealt with as old metal, &c., in the manner described when speaking of the proceeds of broken-up stores (see p. 177). There are a few exceptions to this rule, as, for instance, stable necessaries which, when worn out and unserviceable, need not be re- turned to store upon being replaced by new articles. It is hardly necessary to say that materials provided for the purpose of cleaning, lubricating, browning, painting, &c., equipment, being intended to be expended, cannot by their 1 Except when a Martini-Henry rifle barrel is damaged ; when the whole rifle or carbine is exchanged. 366 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. nature ever be returned ; but, as regards materials provided for repairs, certain unused residues of these articles are returned. These are the following : — (canvas, cloth or serge ; leather or sheepskins ; numnahs ; Saddle flaps ; Hair ; Junk ; Saddlery seats ; Metal work (fragments of brass, copper, iron, &c.). Ninety per cent, of the empty ball-cartridge cases issued to every corps are to be returned to store. All packages which have contained stores consigned to regiments or other corps are taken on charge until they can be returned, when they are again struck off charge. It is well to remember that the packages are always to be entered on the vouchers. Before returning boxes, barrels, or other packages which have contained combustibles, they must be carefully examined so as to ascertain that no iron nails have been driven into them and that they are free from grit or dirt. The wooden hoops are on no account to be stripped off powder barrels. Shells are, if filled, emptied and the powder wetted, before either are returned to the Ordnance Store Depart- ment. The course followed when a Commanding Officer returns stores as unserviceable which the Ordnance Store Officer considers are fit for service, has been already detailed in dealing with the Ordnance Store Department in the District, as has also that of stores returned as unserviceable through fair wear and tear, which appear t6 the Ordnance Store Officer to have become so through ill-usage or neglect (see p. 169). We must also refer the reader to the same part of this book for the procedure to be followed when stores on charge are lost, stolen, or in any way become deficient, or KEGIMENTAL EQUIPMENT. 367 when they are damaged or rendered unserviceable otherwise than by fair wear. When a corps leaves a station, it hands in to the Ordnance Store Department any stores which it may have received from that Department for local use or on loan, but, as a general rule, it keeps all its equipment. With respect to ammunition^ however, there is an exception ; all ammunition is handed in except so much as may be required to furnish all guards and escorts with twenty rounds per man. Also, very bulky stores, which would cost much to transport, may be handed in to Ordnance Store charge. In this case the Commanding Officer receives a receipt from the Ordnance Store officer which enables him to draw similar articles to those handed in, from the Ordnance Store Department at his new station after arrival. But, before handing in articles of equipment to avoid cost of carriage, it must be ascertained that the Ordnance Store Department is in a position to replace them at the new station ; for if they cannot be replaced they must go with the corps, w^hich may, however, claim the cost of extra carriage. When a corps of troops is about to proceed from home to India or has just returned home therefrom, a careful survey of the whole of the equipment which is to be taken out with the corps or has been brought home by it, is taken by two 'Officers appointed, the one by the Secretary of State for War, And the other by the Secretary of State for India. When a corps is about to proceed to India from a Colony or has just arrived in a Colony from India, a board of survey takes the place of the officer appointed to act for the Secretary of State for War, and the India Office is given the opportunity of despatching or not an officer to act on its behaK. The board of survey is composed of the following officers : — A field officer of the regiment, president. A Captain of the regiment . ] An Ordnance Store officer • [ The exact proceedings of the survey are described in Appendix II. of the ' Regulations for the Equipment of the Army,' 1881. The object of it is to arrive at an exact valua- 368 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. • tion of the equipment, which is property about to be trans- ferred from the Imperial Government to the Indian, or vice versa ; and this is necessary, because an exact account must be kept of all values, whether in money or stores, passing between the two Governments ; the two revenues being inde- pendent of one another. Troops in the Colonies remain on the Imperial establish- ment, and therefore this transaction is not necessary when corps pass between home and these stations. Sooks, Accounts/&c. The books kept up by the Quartermaster of a corps (or by the Officer Commanding himself, in batteries of Artillery and troops and companies of Engineers) in which the equip- ment accounts are recorded, are the following : — 1. Equipment ledger ; 2. Eegister of arms and accoutrements ; 3. Demand book (Army Book 243) ; 4. Work book (Army Book 244). Also, every Commanding Officer is furnished with a copy of the ' Regulations for the Equipment of the Army, ' 1881 , and with the ' Priced Vocabulary of Stores, ' 1882. The 'equipment ledger' is the book containing the enumeration of all the equipment stores of the corps, and the account of their being taken on charge or struck off charge. The form of this book necessarily varies according to the arm or branch of the service, for the equipment of the different arms is itself very different ; for instance, it is obvious that a book with columns to contain the enumerations and transactions concerning the immense varieties of stores on charge of batteries of Field Artillery or by a Pontoon troop of Royal Engineers would be needlessly complicated if used for a battalion of Infantry or regiment of Cavalry. The books actually in use are : — Cavalry ..... /Depot batteries A«A-n^^, I Horse and Field batteries . Artillery ^ . • ^ Garrison brigades V Siege train . Army Book 164 j> 241 j» 183 • j> 242 j> 240 Infantry ^ ^ . (Kegimental depots KEGIMEMTAL EQUIPMENT. 369 i Garrison companies . . Army Book 250 Siege train ... , , 232 Staff „ 253 Troops and Field companies ,, 254 (Battalions ... ,, 239 239a Other books are provided for the use of departmental troops. As soon as stores have been received and accepted as serviceable by the officers whose duty it is to examine them, as aforesaid, they are entered as receipts in the proper columns on the debit side of the equipment ledger folios, the entries being made from the receipt vouchers. A reference in the proper columns against each entry shows the number of the voucher which is the authority for bringing the article on charge. The receipts in the equipment ledger will almost invari- ably be entries of stores received from the Ordnance Store Department. Nevertheless, there may be rare entries of equipment received on transfer from other corps ; for it has been stated that such transfers, although by no means common, may take place. There will also probably be occa- sional entries of stores brought back on charge which, having been written off (after all due formalities) as lost or destroyed (by deserters, or otherwise accidentally), are found and again brought on charge. Further, when articles of equipment have been manufactured regimentally out of materials for repair or other stores on charge and the newly-made articles are themselves brought on charge, they will occasion entries of another kind in the ledger. The vouchers supporting the entries of receipt will be the delivery vouchers from the Ordnance Store Department ; those from corps transferring the equipment ; the ' certifi- cate ' vouchers bringing on charge again stores which had been struck off it ; and, finally, in the case of stores manu- factured out of articles already on charge, * transfer and conversion ' vouchers. The issues recorded in the equipment ledger are noted in I. B B 370 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. a similar manner to receipts. The entries will be of the following kinds. 1st, Entries of stores returned to the Ordnance Store De- partment, either as unserviceable, or as surplus, or under direct instructions, or because the corps is leaving the com- mand. 2nd, There may be, very exceptionally, entries of issue of stores transferred to other corps. 3rd, Of stores lost, deficient, destroyed, made away with, &c., when (after all due formalities) authority has been received to strike them off charge. 4th, There further may be records of stores written off charge as expended. 5th, Stores written off because they have been converted into other articles (in which case they simultaneously appear on the other side of the account as receipts in another form on conversion). The vouchers for issues are kept in a similar manner to that followed for receipt vouchers. They will consist of, in the first case mentioned above, receipt vouchers from the Ord- nance Store Department ; in the second case, of similar vouchers from corps to which stores have been transferred ; in the third and fourth cases, of expense vouchers ; and, in the fifth case, of either certificate, or transfer and conversion vouchers. The vouchers are all numbered in two series ; one for receipt, the other for issue, vouchers, in each of which the vouchers are numbered consecutively, according to date, from 1 upwards. The entries in the ledger bear references to the numbers of vouchers and the vouchers themselves refer to the folios of the ledger, so that any record of receipt or of issue may be readily verified or checked by turning from the ledger to the voucher or vice versa. When stores are lost, stolen, or unaccountably disappear, they are, after all due formalities have been observed as to any possible recovery of the value, written off charge by means of an expense voucher duly certificated. If any such stores should be recovered, no alteration is ever made in pre- vious entries, but the articles are brought on charge again by another certificated voucher. KEGIMENTAL — EQUIPMENT. 371 When stores are lost by the fact that a deserter has carried them away, the articles are written off charge in the ledger (after due formalities as before stated) and the loss is one which the public must bear if the deserter is not appre- hended or does not return. If the deserter returns, bringing back the article, it is simply written on again, as before stated. But if the man rejoins without bringing back the missing article, the loss is one which should not be charged to the public but to the deserter, who, being now present, can be made to pay ; therefore, the article is, as a matter of form, brought on charge again to relieve the public, and simultaneously struck off charge as to be made good by the deserter. The stores issued to corps to be expended in repairs, cleaning, &c., are written off charge by means of expense vouchers. To justify those expense vouchers is the object of the 'daily work book.' This book is a daily account of the work done in the repair- ing, cleaning, &c. , of equipment by the regimental Artificers ; and it shows among other things, the amount of materials used up in each job. In it is also inserted the work done in manufacturing any new articles of equipment ; and in this case an entry is made of the certificate voucher by which an article, when completed, has been brought on charge, and also of the ledger folio in which the article appears in the equip- ment ledger. The daily work book is open to the inspection of the Senior Ordnance Store Officer of the District. The work book is itself checked by the 'demand book.' This book contains the entries of all materials issued from the Quartermaster's store for cleaning, repair, &c., to Artificers. Every issue is to be initialed by an officer detailed by the Commanding Officer for the purpose of superintending ex- penditure of this kind. The work book should show that all the stores periodically demanded and entered in the demand book have been properly expended. Thus, in a corps of troops, the demand book answers the same purpose as is fulfilled in an Ordnance Store reserve depot by the * expendi- ture journal ' (see p. 184) ; that is to say, that it accounts for ' BB 2 372 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. the disappearance of consumable stores (except ammunition) and justifies the expense voucher in which these stores are quarterly summed up in order to be written ofi" charge in the equipment ledger, just as similar stores are written off monthly in the reserve depot ' store ledger. ' ■Ammunition expended is not entered in the demand book, which is one for articles issued to Artificers only. Separate expense vouchers are used for ammunition. These vouchers are, at the same time, certificate vouchers ; for they bear their own justification in the form of a certificate, signed upon each by the Commanding Officer, that the ammunition has been expended in accordance with the ' Equipment Regulations.' The * register of arms and accoutrements ' is the book in which is kept up a record of all the sets of equipment articles which are in possession of the men. Separate columns are allotted for the separate articles forming the sets, and one column gives the name and number of the soldier holding each set. As each set of personal equipment has a kind of ^ history ' of its own, room must be allowed for the various incidents in this history to be entered as they happen. Thus, half or one-third of a page in depth of the register may be ruled off" and allotted to each set ; the articles com- posing the set and the name of the man holding them being entered, when starting a new book, as high up in the space as possible. The articles are entered (in the vertical columns headed by their designations) by inserting their dates of issue ; to write the number of the article would be useless, since the number is the same for the whole set and is taken up by any article put into it at any time. When an article is exchanged, a note, fully explaining the case, is made at the same time that the date of issue of the new article is written in under the date of issue (now struck out) of the article it replaces. So, also, when the set is given up by a soldier, the alteration in the column for the soldier's name is accompanied by an explanatory note ; and the same thing happens when some other soldier takes the set over. Of course, alterations in a set of equipment brought about by new articles being added REGIMENTAL — EQUIPMENT. 373 to it in the place of old ones withdrawn should agree with entries in the equipment ledger. The sets of arms and equipment are entered in the book as originally made up, and follow one another in order from No. 1 set up to that bearing the highest number on the establish- ment of the corps. The men who hold the set may be changed and these changes entered as before said. But no alteration is made in the order of entry of the sets. If the notes showing and explaining the additions and withdrawals of articles and changes of hands are properly made, a register of arms and accoutrements may, without requiring renewal for a very long time, be kept so as to contain a perfectly complete history of each set of arms and accoutrements and one which will agree thoroughly with the entries and withdrawals of equipment as entered in the equipment ledger and therein also explained by notes. We may say that officers cannot be too particular in giving details in these notes, as books and equipment not seldom change hands. Much confusion is thus avoided in tracing articles and explaining what may otherwise appear to be simultaneous deficiencies and surpluses in the general stock of equipment. It will be evident that, unlike articles of clothing, those of equipment all appear in one book — the equipment ledger — and that, from the time an article is taken on regimental charge to the time it finally passes out of the corps, it remains entered as on charge in that one book, independently of any other documents. These other documents are merely sub- sidiary and auxiliary accounts giving greater details as to the disposal of the stores. At the end of every quarter, stock is taken of all materials for repair, &c. , which may remain in store, and the remain arrived at by the stock-taking is com- pared with the amount which should remain on charge as shown by the ledger. Every corps in the service renders the accounts of the equipment on its charge to the War Office at the end of ^very military year. Therefore, on the 31st March of each year, the equipment ledger is balanced and closed. A fair copy of it (which has 374 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. been prepared beforehand) is carefully compared with it, and when found to agree in every particular with the original^ is forwarded to the Commissary-General of Ordnance at Woolwich before the end of the following month. From home stations, the book is sent c^irec^^i/ to Woolwich ; abroad, it is forwarded through the Senior Ordnance Store Officer. With the copy of the equipment ledger (which answers to the transcript ledger of the Ordnance Store account, see p. 180) all the vouchers referred to in it are also despatched. They are made up in two packets : one for receipt and the other for expenditure vouchers. In each packet, the vouchers are arranged according to the numbers previously allotted to them. Observations may, perhaps, be made and correspondence take place concerning the equipment accounts, as in the case of those forwarded from Ordnance Store reserve depots. Any losses or deficiencies which cannot be satisfactorily ex- plained by the Commanding Officer or traced by him to their proper source are ultimately made good by him. After any irregularities have been disposed of according to regulations and the accounts duly audited, they are passed. V. CONSUMABLE SUPPLIES. i. Provisions, Messing, and Liquor. General Remarks. The soldier's food in peace time consists of two portions : — 1st. The portion provided gratis by the Government ; that is, his free rations of bread and meat. 2nd. The portion for which he pays ; that is, his extra messing. The persons entitled to rations free, at home and foreign stations respectively, are those mentioned in the table below^ which also gives the amount which each may draw free and the composition of the ration. EEGIMENTAL SUPPLIES. 375 Station Persons entitled to draw rations No. of rations How quar- tered Scale of ration In barracks or station- ary quar- ters Under can- vas ( 1 lb. bread. ! fib. fresh or 1 preserved [ meat. ' 1 lb. bread, lib. fresh meat or | lb. preserved ( Home-' Each warrant officer, \ meat. non - commissioned 'IJlb.freshmeat officer and man - one - weighed pre- borne on the effec- viously to tive strength of the cooking. I Army In billets ('Hot meal' provided by innkeepers) lib. bread. 1 lb. potatoes or other vegetables. 2 pints of small beer. Vinegar, salt and pepper ^ as necessary. Each Staff, depart- mental, or regimen- tal officer Each effective male civilian servant em- ployed by an officer as a groom, not exceeding the number allowed Each warrant officer, non - commissioned officer and man borne on the effec- tive strength of the Army - one nib. bread. Abroad- Each Barrack - Ser - jeant Wife of warrant officer, non - com- missioned officer or man borne on the effective strength of the Army, and on the married es- tablishment Child of the above one r half [ one quarter - However quartered lib. fresh meat 1 or fib. pre- i served meat. under 14 years of age Unmarried School- I one f lialf mistress (not act- ing), Pupil Teacher or Monitress J 376 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. No issue of rations free may be made to any other persons without the special sanction of the Secretary of State. If, on the death of the wife of a warrant officer or Staff- Serjeant, the Commanding Officer should allow his children to be retained on the ' married roll ' of the corps, they con- tinue to draw their rations. If, however, the death of the wife of any other non-commissioned officer or soldier on the married roll occurs, the issue of rations to the children can only be granted temporarily for a period not exceeding three months. Also, if a soldier is struck off the married roll as a deserter or for misconduct, his wife and children may con- tinue to be retained upon it temporarily and draw their rations until they can be sent to their home. But in none of these cases can the allowance of rations be continued if the vacancy on the married roll has been filled up. It will be observed that officers never draw free rations at home. They do so in the Colonies, except that at certain stations a money allowance is granted instead of the issue in kind. Moreover, the soldier on furlough draws a money allowance in lieu of rations, while the officer on leave from a foreign station sacrifices all claim to rations or money allow- ance for himself or servants, except that, if he continues to draw forage for horses, the groom or grooms to whom he is entitled may continue to draw rations when left behind to take care of the horses. All officers have a right to draw for themselves and families a certain amount of meat on repayment at contract prices. The amount is limited to 1 lb. for each officer and as much for every member of his family. Except, however, at those stations where careful arrangements are made, it is seldom that officers can avail themselves of this privilege. To supply officers with meat in this way does not repay the con- tractor for the trouble it costs him. While keeping within the limits of his contract, he makes himself vexatious in a hundred ways, such as invariably providing other portions than those demanded, or the worst scraps of his carcases, &c. &c., until the officer, to the contractor's relief, gives it up and goes to a butcher. It is ordered that officers thus drawing REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 377 meat are to pay for it directly to the contractor. But it is unfortunate that no method of regulating the issues is pre- scribed ; as, in the absence of any orders, Commissariat officers naturally abstain from interposing, and thus, at many stations, officers are compelled to deal individually with the unwilling contractor or to forego the privilege. By permission of the Secretary of State, officers on home service may, while employed at summer drills, manoeuvres, &c. , draw rations in kind on repayment. Meat, to the extent of ^ lb. for every non-commissioned officer and private included in the ration return, may also be obtained on repayment for sale to the men in recreation rooms. Army Schoolmistresses may be allowed rations on repay- ment when at isolated stations where it is difficult for them to supply themselves with provisions. Men absent from their corps illegally and deprived of pay forfeit all right to rations for the days of absence ; rations for one or two days may nevertheless be drawn for them as will be mentioned further on. Prisoners in prisons or pro- vost cells get no rations from their corps, inasmuch as they are rationed in prison or by the Provost-Serjeant. Men absent on duty from their corps are either rationed from other corps to which they are attached for subsistence, or are provided with food in billets, or draw the allowance in money granted for travelling and intended to cover the -expense of food. Men travelling by sea from one sea-port to another are usually victualled by the ship. Men admitted to hospital, being dieted by the hospital authorities, get no rations from their corps. Certain persons entitled to rations may be allowed to draw a money allowance of 6d. a day instead of the ration in kind. As will be seen, it is, in some cases, a matter of necessity arising from the impossibility of providing rations ; in others, it is a matter of convenience or a boon to the soldier. The persons who draw this money allowance are the following : — 378 ELEMENTS OF MILITAEY ADMINISTRATION. 1. All persons entitled to rations at stations where there is no Com- missariat contract, or who, while travelling, cannot be supplied with them. 2. Warrant officers at home, except unmarried regimental warrant officers. 3. Warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men, on leave, pass or furlough ; and soldier servants allowed to accompany their masters on leave of absence. 4. Recruits who have not been finally passed into the service, for the days on which they are entitled to pay ; and recruits who join their corps too late to be included in the ration return. 5. Non-commissioned officers and men employed in the recruiting service. 6. Men employed as waiters or servants in officers' messes. 7. Men employed as officers' servants when their masters live at an incon- venient distance from the barracks. 8. Other soldiers present with their ^ corps at home stations. Under the standing au- thority of para. 2 8. * Allowance Regulations.' Under special authority of the General Officer Com- manding. j Only by special authority from the Adjutant- General. The weight of the fresh meat ration includes that of a fair proportion of bone. The weight of bone should not exceed | of that of the whole ration, which should therefore contain, before cooking, about 9^ ounces of eatable food. Emergencies may arise making it impossible that the men can provide themselves with groceries, vegetables, or milk. REGIMENTAL SUPPLIES. 37 9 'No provision is made by the War Office for supplying (in time of peace) vegetables or milk ; but a grocery ration (which includes extra bread) may in these exceptional in- stances, be drawn from the Commissariat Department and paid for by the men at the rate of l^d. per ration, which sum is stopped from their pay. This grocery ration is thus composed : — i lb. bread. ^ oz. coffee. i oz. tea. I oz. salt. 2 oz. sugar. 3^^ oz. pepper. Also, it may be convenient or advisable, under certain exceptional circumstances, to depart from the regular scale of issues as laid down. A table of equivalents is, accordingly, given in para. 25 of the * Allowance Regulations.' But it must be very rarely that there can be any need to apply it on home service. Special scales are locally prescribed for : — South Africa, Hong Kong, and Ceylon, The Straits Settlements. A special scale also applies to the Malta Fencible Ar- tillery. No liquor of any kind is, as a general rule, issued as part of a soldier's ration in peace time. But on active service, in flying columns, on board ship, or in virtue of one of the exceptional scales mentioned as special to certain foreign stations, a liquor ration of J gill of spirits, or sometimes 1 pint of porter, may be issued. For this liquor ration, if he draws it, the soldier is stopped Id. All food required by the soldier over and above the Government ration is provided by money stopped from the man's pay. There can be, evidently, no precise rule as to the com- position of this part of the soldier's diet ; for as the men pay for it themselves and it is bought more or less directly by themselves, their own tastes and means have much to do with the bill of fare. Usually, however, the articles and the quantities daily purchased are those undermentioned. .380 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Bread 8 oz. per man Flour, barley, or oatmeal (for soup) 1 oz. ,, „ Potatoes lib. „ „ Other vegetables .... 4 oz. ,, ,, Salt loz. „ ,, Sugar 1 oz. „ „ Tea 1 oz. to 6 men Coffee 2 oz. „ „ „ Milk Ipint,, 8 ,, According to Dr. Parkes's work on Military Hygien amount of food, solid and liquid, taken in by an active man in full health may be assumed as very rarely exceeding ~ of his weight. The average would be less than this. Also, the amount of liquid always exceeds that of the solid food ; it usually weighs twice as much ; but, in rare cases, the weight of a man's solid food may be equal to that of the liquid. A rate of | of solid food to f of liquid would, therefore, be a very liberal one of the former. Now, assuming that a soldier's average naked weight is 150 lbs. ; that in solids and liquids he consumes daily, on an average, when in active exercise, ■— of this weight ; he would require altogether 6 lbs. daily of both kinds of food combined. And if I of this be taken as the weight of the solid food,^ it will amount to a fraction over 2 lbs. 6 ozs. or (say) 2J lbs. As a matter of fact. Dr. Parkes gives 40 ozs. (2 lbs. 8 ozs.) as the average, which ranges between 34 and 46 ozs. in this country. From what was before said, it would appear that the usual quantity of solid food provided for the British soldier amounts to close upon 3} lbs. But it must be remembered that this weight is that of the quantities as issued or purchased, and that, before the food enters the soldier's mouth, it must necessarily have undergone a considerable decrease in weight. The separation of refuse, the process 1 By the term ' solid food,' as here used, is meant that ordinarily so- called (as bread, meat, potatoes, vegetables, &;c.), irrespective of the fact that these articles contain a considerable amount of water. The amount of chemically pure solids consumed is far less than that given. REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES . 381 of cooking, and a certain amount of waste (to some extent unavoidable) tend to decrease the weight of the whole. Still there is an ample margin between 3f lbs. and 2 J lbs., and we think that, so far as total quantities go, the soldier'^ ration in England ought certainly to be sufficient. But there are other things to be considered besides the weight of the total quantity of solid food which a man swallows in a day. In the first place, the composition of the diet has much to do with its value. Albuminates, fat, starch, and salts are all required in order to sustain the human body in health and vigour. The best combination of these substances, as required by a working man, is stated, on good authority, by Dr. Parkes, who also gives a calculation of the proportion of the same substances in the British soldier's diet. We here place these two tables side by side : — Albuminous substances . Fatty substances Starchy substances . Salts Proportion assumed as correct Soldier's diet 4-587 ounces 2-964 „ 14-257 „ 1-058 „ 4-250 ounces 1-665 „ 18-541 „ •789 „ 22-866 „ 25-245 „ It would thus seem that, while the total amount of the soldier's daily food is more than strictly necessary, it is not, as usually composed, combined in quite the best proportions. This fact is thus remarked upon by Dr. Parkes : — *The ration of the English soldier at home, therefore, appears to be deficient, to a certain extent, in albuminates, to be very poor in fat. and to be in excess in starches. The fresh vegetables are sufficient. It would be improved by the addition of more meat, or, what would perhaps be better, two ounces of good cheese — by some fatty food, such as bacon, butter, or by a greater use of oil in cooking (an excellent way of getting fat into the system) — and by a larger employ- jtSE l-IB^4^ 382 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. ment of beans and peas. The accessory foods are rather deficient, and vinegar especially should be used ' When it is remembered that the total quantity of food appears to be even greater than strictly necessary, the con- clusion seems inevitable that, in the feeding of the English soldier, there must be waste in some directions while there is scarcity in the others ; and that, the error being simply one of proportion, a remedy might without much difficulty be found, such that, without increasing in any way the amount of food or its cost, more value might be got out of the diet. The prevalent ignorance of, and carelessness in, cooking is probably the greatest difficulty in the way ; for practically the ignorance of the use of a few simple methods of employing certain articles in a palatable manner forbids the use of them altogether and keeps alive vulgar prejudice against them. Next, we must notice that, even when enough food is provided and even when the diet comprises all the necessary elements in their correct proportions, there still remains the fact essential that, if the diet is to produce the desired effect in nourishing the man, it must be assimilated by him. It is not enough that he should simply swallow it ; the food must be digested and taken into the system. It is difficult, of course, to compute how much food (or rather how much valuable material which might have been food) is simply wasted by passing through a man mechanically without working its proper effect, but it is nevertheless certain that much waste may happen in this way. Therefore, it is not enough that the soldier's food should be sufficient in quantity and composed of the correct ingredients : it must, further, be palatable and digestible, and the soldier must take it at proper times and in proper proportions. The food and the man both require preparation. The preparation of the food is a most important point. It consists in cooking it properly, in administering it at judi- cious intervals, in suitable quantities, and in providing a certain variety.- As to the preparation of the man, it seems almost needless to say, that the most perfect diet is worse REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 383 than wasted if the man brings to it a stomach not fit to deal with it through any cause, whether it be sickness, over- drinking, lack of exercise, or over-fatigue. But cooking and variety of the diet are very important matters. The former not only makes the food digestible and thus, when properly carried out, enables the greatest amount of virtue to be taken out of it in the form of nourishment, but it also stimulates appetite by presenting the food in a tasty form. Skilful cooking alone enables many articles to be most usefully and economically employed as food which would otherwise be repulsive or simply wasted. A very small amount of dexterity in the art will produce much variety, even without varying the materials ; and beyond this fact, the soldier's diet, restricted as it is, still admits of considerable variety in the materials themselves. A healthy man's likings are generally a very safe guide as to what is good for him. Variety in food is pleasant and nothing is healthier. It is a matter of notoriety in civil life that, although the working classes in England command a good supply of the best food materials, the ignorance of how to cook is greatly productive of drunkenness. Although a little has been done in the Army towards improvement of cooking by the institution of the Instructional Kitchen at Aldershot, still we must ask ourselves if the morbid craving after drink which is still so prevalent in our ranks could not be in a great measure forestalled by doing a great deal instead of this little, and if it is not very often due to bad cooking and a monotony of fare. The disgust and lack of zest bred by the eternal round of sodden boil or shrivelled bake, topped up with dry stale bread, must almost necessarily seek dissipa- tion in beer and spirits. Variety in food is positively valuable in another way. No two men have exactly the same likings. There is a very true saying ' that what is one man's meat is another man's poison.' It is not a very satisfactory solution to compromise matters by striking even an agreeable average of likings and cleaving to it monotonously. A variety secures the chances that each day some man gets the things that suit him best, and that those who would not as a general 384 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. rule like these things, like them, thus given, from the very- fact that they afford a chmige. And so, in the long run, the greatest amount of real average nourishment is distributed. That good cooking is a luxury, reserved for the wealthy, is now, happily, an exploded idea. But it is easier to explode ideas than to overcome the habits of their practice. In the Army the difficulty is less : the Army is more under control than the general public ; it is amenable to teachiiig. The Army, properly understood and treated, may, we feel certain, be made worth its cost in peace time as a school of social science and as a powerful means of dissipating vulgar prejudice. Among other more important matters, it may assist in diffusing among the masses a better knowledge of cooking. But for this purpose more than one Instructional Kitchen is required. Good cooking may be as readily applied to frugal fare as to costly materials ; this much — and this much only — is essential : scrupulous cleanliness and care,, rigid economy of everything which in any way or shape can be eaten, a little study and ' gumption ' and a pride in the result when good. In no part of the world does the British soldier fare so well as in India. This is solely because in that country, his cooking is done by natives. The actual materials which compose the soldier's meal are not better than in England : the meat is far inferior. But all is more than redeemed by the skill of the native cook. People are fond of talking of the British soldier as being^ far better fed than the soldier in Continental Armies. In a certain sense, he probably is so ; although not to the extent which it is usual to suppose. To a large number of English- men a larger allowance of flesh diet necessarily implies better feeding — according to their notions, the matter begins and ends there. Yet not only may the absence of flesh, in many cases, be compensated by the use of oil and other substances, but, further, it is quite possible, by proper treatment, ta obtain from a somewhat smaller quantity of really inferior meat a greater amount of nourishment than that obtained from a larger quantity of superior kind which has been ruth- REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 385 lessly dealt with and which has been deprived of some of its most nourishing juices. A number of tables in Dr. Parkes's work enables us to compare the diets of the English with that of the foreign soldier. Certainly, whatever its shortcomings in the abstract, the quantity and composition of the Englishman's fare com- pares very favourably with that of the Foreigner. But Dr. Parkes's tables deal only with the provisions when raw ; his statements of their composition refer to what the substances contain when in that state — to what virtue ought to be got out of them, and not to what actually is extracted. As just stated, the difference at the outset is not so great as is com- monly supposed between the essential compounds of the English soldier's diet and that of his foreign colleagues in the better fed among the Continental Armies ; it remains to be determined how much of his initial advantages the Englishman retains when both have treated their materials according to their respective notions of cooking. We come now to the manner in which the soldier's food is obtained and the arrangements connected with its distribu- tion. And first we will speak of the rations, or that part of the food which is provided gratis by the Government. nations. Corps ordered to move to a new station, notify beforehand to the Commissariat officer in charge of that station not later, if possible, than the day before that of arrival, what quantity of rations they will require to be prepared and ready for issue when they reach the station. This application is on Army Form F 748. In discussing the Commissariat Department in the chapter on District Administration, it was stated (p. 110) that the regular supplies of rations of bread, meat, and forage are demanded by means of the ' ration return ' (Army Form F 746). The Quartermaster of the corps (or the officer acting in that capacity) prepares two copies of this form which are handed in to the Commissariat officer in charge on the day of arrival at a new station and subsequently on the first day of I. c c 386 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. each month. The document is compiled by the Quarter- master from the statements prepared every day by orderty Serjeants of troops or companies, on Army Form B 289, of the men who will be in mess in their respective troops and companies. These statements are handed in to the Quarter- master in time for him to total them and enter the whole number of rations required for the corps in the ration return. The return shows the number of rations of bread and meat required by the corps for the day and justifies the demand by a statement of men present. The Commissariat officer compares the two copies and, finding them correct, returns one to the Quartermaster, keeping the other in order to apprize the contractor or otherwise make provision for the issue and for the purpose of entering the amount in his books. Until the end of the month the two copies are ex- changed every day, the Quartermaster daily initialing the entry in the copy he holds, as soon as the provisions are issued, in token of their having been received by the corps. At the end of the month, the Quartermaster closes and completes the return, which is then signed by the Com- manding Officer and sent to the Commissariat officer in charge to serve as an issue voucher to his accounts. When the contractor sends in his bill for signature by the Commissariat officer, which he must do before it is presented for payment to the District Paymaster, the Commissariat officer can evidently check it by the ration returns of the several corps supplied. The contractor must, of course, be paid if he has supplied to order, and this fact the Com- missariat officer can certify to after checking his bill as just stated. A bill thus certified is paid at once by the District Paymaster who does not concern himself as to whether the number of rations drawn is right or wrong. Neither Com- missariat officer nor District Paymaster are in a position to be sure that the ration return itself is correct and that the right number of rations have been drawn. This, however, is done as follows by the regimental Paymaster. As soon as the ration return has been closed and handed in, at the end of the month, to the Commissariat officer in REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 387 charge, he furnishes the regimental Paymaster with a 'certificate of rations issued' (Army Form F 743). This document is simply to certify that, during that month, a certain number of rations of food and forage have been supplied to the corps and its total exactly agrees with that of the ration returns. The regimental Paymaster, who thus learns for the first time what rations have been drawn by the corps during the month, proceeds to check these quantities and ascertain if they be correct or not by means of other information already in his hands. Now, as a general rule, of course, the issue of a day's pay entails also prima facie the claim to a ration ; but this general rule is subject to several exceptions, which, therefore, must be taken into account. In the first place, men in hospital get their pay, but being dieted in the hospital, they have no right to rations. Again, men who are allowed to draw the money allow- ance in lieu of rations have no right to the ration itself. Thirdly, men cannot draw their rations who, although they draw their pay from the corps, are travelling on duty and draw the allowance for hot meals and for travelling. So, too, men travelling by sea, who are victualled on board ship, draw their pay from the corps, but evidently no ration can be drawn on their account. Men may also be attached temporarily to other corps and be rationed by those corps, while they continue to draw their pay from the corps to which they belong. Men deprived of pay for absence without leave, and men in prison or in the cells, get no rations from the corps. They may nevertheless be termed men in pay, for their pay is credited in the pay-list although it is simultaneously shown as forfeited. Still, if a man is absent without leave, his absence is usually unexpected, and his rations are probably already demanded. If he should be deprived of his pay, he ought also to forfeit his rations, and therefore the corps would have overdrawn these rations. To meet this case, rations may be cc2 388 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. drawn for men absent without leave to an extent not ex- ceeding two days' rations in each case. This regulation will not seem strange when it is remembered that, under certain circumstances, a man may forfeit two days' pay for absence without leave for as little as 12 hours and may be thus deprived of two days' pay although present at every meal hour. The regimental Paymaster is made acquainted with the number of men of the corps who have been in hospital and of the number of days each has spent there by the * account of hospital stoppages ' (Army Form O 1643) compiled by the Medical officer in charge of the hospital from the * admission and discharge book' and sent in to regiments monthly (see p. 230). Men who, for whatever reason, draw the money allowance instead of rations are specified on the alphabetical roll of their company's pay-list. The Paymaster is necessarily aware of the number of men on furlough from the return of these men (on Army Form O 1782) and of those who have been allowed to draw the money allowance in lieu of rations on the authority of the General Officer Commanding or of the Adjutant-General ; for he will have to enter these men's names on the * voucher for ration allowance ' (Army Form P 1948) in order that they may obtain the money value of their undrawn rations. The * route ' (with its sub-vouchers concerning subsistence), under which men proceed, informs the Paymaster how many days such men are out of mess on account of travelling, either by land or sea. The Paymaster also knows by the * return of men drawing bread and meat rations who are not on pay ' (Army Form P 1950) how many attached men belong to and paid by other corps must be provided with rations. The * return of mulct pay ' (Army Form O 1675) informs him concerning absentees who have been, deprived of pay. The rations unavoidably drawn for these men, and which are allowed, are taken into account in the total of this return. REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 389 The ' return of soldiers imprisoned ' (Army Form O 1714), sent in by Governors of military prisons and Provost- Serjeants to all Commanding Olficers, gives the Paymaster the necessary information concerning men belonging to the corps who should get no rations through being in prison. When men are paid by their own corps but subsisted by another, the Paymaster of that other corps sends the Pay- master the copy of Army Form P 1950 for signature. Before he signs and returns it, he makes out from it a statement of these men on the back of Army Form P 1949. Provided with this information as he is, the Paymaster fills up a copy of the ' voucher for rations and stoppages ' (Army Form P 1949) which embodies all these matters, and which is sent in to the War Office every half-year with the pay-list. 1 . As many rations are set down as would be necessary for all the men belonging to the corps during the month or attached to, and paid by, it. To this must be added : — 2. Schoolmaster's rations. 3. Rations for men attached for subsistence but paid by other corps. From the total of these three items must be deducted that of the following : — 1. Rations for men in hospital. 2. Rations for the number of days of absence without leave for which men are deprived of pay, less any days for which rations have been unavoidably drawn. The mulct pay return gives the number of days to be deducted. 3. Rations for men who have been victualled on board ship. 4. Rations for men in military prisons or in the cells. 5. Rations for men in the guard-room, when these have not been drawn. 6. Rations for men in civil prisons for military offences. *J. Rations for men drawing the money allowance in lieu. 390 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. 8. Rations for men who have drawn the allowance for subsistence while travelling. 9. Rations for men of the corps paid by its Paymaster but subsisted by other corps. The result of these additions and subtractions is to bring out a certain number of rations as those which should have been drawn by the corps during the month. This is accord- ingly set down by the Paymaster in its proper place in Army Form P 1949. The amount actually drawn by the corps during the half- year, which has been communicated each month to the Pay- master, as before said, by the certificate on Army Form F 743 from the Commissariat ofiicer, is next copied by the Pay- master into its place on Army Form P 1949. If everything has been properly carried out, the two accounts should exactly agree ; i.e. the number of rations due should be exactly the same as that of the rations drawn. Any discre- pancies must be owing either to mistakes or to the fact that rations have been overdrawn or underdrawn. Army Form P 1949 goes in, in due course, with the regi- mental Paymaster's account to the War Office. Containing as it does an exact copy of the quantities shown by Army Form F 743 as those actually drawn by the corps and there- fore of those paid for by the District Paymaster in settling the contractor's bill, it is self- checking. For the certificate on Army Form F 743 would not be accepted by the Com- manding Officer of the corps as correct unless it agreed with the total of the ration return by which the contractor's bill is checked previous to its being signed by the Com- missariat officer for payment by the District Paymaster. It is not, perhaps, a very difficult matter for a Paymaster to check over the rations consumed during the half-year when this period is over and all the documents completed and in his hands ; but it requires considerable care within the regiment to keep the account correctly from day to day as the month proceeds and when it is impossible to foresee every casualty which will happen. As far as possible, a certain give-and-take is observed REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 39 1 during the month ; that is to say, if rations be over- or under-drawn one day, as many may be under- or over- drawn the next day to compensate for the error and keep the account straight. But this can only be done during the month. A fresh ration return always begins with a clear account ; and if rations under-drawn be not drawn before the end of the month, they become 6acA;-rations and are lost to the corps. On the other hand, if, at the end of the month and when the return has been closed, any rations still remain over-drawn they must be paid for, at contract price, by the corps and the money value of them is credited to the public by the Paymaster. If, as above stated, a ration more than required be drawn one day, the ration thus drawn is kept by the corps to be issued the next day with the fresh issue, when (as said above) one less than required will be drawn. It is almost impossible with the greatest care, to avoid occasional discrepancies in over and under-drawing. Attached men are very troublesome ; unexpected departures or arrivals, or men suddenly going sick on the last day of the month or last day but one, may easily (sometimes unavoidably) throw the account out without there being any opportunity to correct it. Practically, however, rations are seldom over-drawn ; to meet unforeseen cases, it is the practice of many non-com- missioned officers purposely to under-diYsw a few rations towards the end of the month ; thus keeping the troop or company a few rations in credit. These rations either counterbalance others unavoidably over-drawn on the last day, or else, if not needed for that purpose, may then be themselves drawn. When rations have been requisitioned by the ration return, the Commissariat Department arranges for the delivery of the required quantity, either by its own subordi- nates or, if they be provided by a contractor, by him directly, to the corps. The number of rations demanded is brought daily to the ration stand. The orderly officer of the day and the Quartermaster are there to receive them. The orderly 392 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. men of messes are also present under the orderly Corporal of each troop or company to carry away the bread and meat issued for each mess. The Quartermaster or Quartermaster-Serjeant brings with him memoranda of what each mess should that day draw : the same information, received from the orderly Ser- jeants of troops or companies on- Army Form B 289 from which he, the day before, filled in the ration return for this issue. The bread and the meat are inspected at the ration stand by the orderly officer. He usually orders the orderly men to inspect them themselves also and looks into any complaints they may make concerning the rations provided ; but, in any case, he should form his own opinion ; and it is well that he should very carefully bear in mind that the Quartermaster and Quartermaster-Serjeant are not there to offer any opinion as to the quality of rations. They are distinctly forbidden to deal with the quality of supplies and are there solely to furnish the necessary information as to quantity only. This is a fact too often overlooked, although it is not without reason that it is mentioned in the Queen's Regulations. All officers should learn to distinguish between good provisions and bad, whatever may be their nature. Certain rules are laid down concerning these matters which it would be out of place to repeat in this rudimentary book ; but practice only can be relied upon as a safe guide. If the rations be considered by the orderly officer to be unfit for issue, the matter is reported by him, through the proper channel of communication, to his Commanding Officer who communicates with the Commissariat Department and demands a garrison board upon the provisions. Of course, if the board pronounces favourably on them, they must be issued. But if the board condemns the rations, an equal quantity of provisions may be purchased directly, and the extra cost of such provisions over contract price is charged by the Commissariat Department to the contractor (if the rations be provided by contract). After the bread and meat has been passed by the orderly REaiMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 393 officer, it is served out. The bread is distributed by loaves. The meat is usually cut up in convenient portions for cooking, and as many of these portions as make up the weight which each mess is entitled to draw are given to its orderly men^ who carry it to their own cookhouse. Messes and Extra-Messing. Before speaking of the soldier's extra-messing, it is necessary to say something about the system of messes as established in the British Army. There does not seem to be any necessity to detail in this book the constitution of officers' messes, which must be so well known to most of our readers. It may be observed, however, that it seems impossible, with our present frequently moving corps of troops, to carry out any scheme by which officers can live upon their pay. The actual expenses of the transport from place to place of the mess property and the inevitable damages caused by each move are a source of very considerable expense. But, still more than this direct effect, there is that caused by the fact that the mess is but a casual and temporary customer to the tradesmen in any one place. The idea prominently prevalent among local trades- men is, to ' make hay while the sun shines ' off this bird of passage. A mess president cannot promise long-continued custom, nor has he time in any one place to discover the best sources of supply and make it worth while for both parties concerned to establish satisfactory relations. As things are now, the officers of a regiment are somewhat like other men who must be continually moving and who must be content to live in hotels at hotel prices. They may grumble at the bill ; but they must pay or submit to endless trouble. The tradesmen then begin the game again with a fresh set of strangers, of which the Government guarantees them an unfailing supply. As a matter of fact, those few stationary officers' messes which now exist are those where officers live best and at the cheapest rates. In the Cavalry, Infantry, and Royal Engineers, it is 394 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. customary for the rank and file of the whole troop or com- pany to form a single mess for administrative purposes, albeit the different portions of it may take their meals in different rooms. In the Royal Artillery, the men of Horse and Field batteries mess by sub-divisions, there being six sub-divisions in a battery. In Garrison batteries, the arrangement is usually much the same as in the Infantry. The rank and file messes are simply collections of men who are united for the purpose of taking their meals together and for which arrangements are made in common as to the provisions, the cooking and the expenses. The meals take place in the barrack-rooms and are cooked in the cookhouses attached. The utensils and crockery are simply the articles furnished as barrack expense stores by the Commissariat Department. The Serjeants' mess is on a somewhat different footing. A special establishment exists in the shape of a mess-building. The Serjeants usually provide themselves with special furni- ture and crockery. But the most important difference lies in the fact that liquor of all kinds is obtainable by the Serjeants in their mess ; whereas, according to the rules of the service, the rank and file can only obtain liquor at the canteen, and even there can get no spirits. On this point we shall have more to say anon. We now come to the method by which that portion of the soldier's food is provided for which he pays himself. First, as regards the Serjeants' mess, the cost of extra messing is defrayed by money paid in by, or charged in the accounts of, the warrant and non-commissioned officers who are dining members. The amount is never to exceed Is. a day. It is, however, only in rare and exceptional cases that a Serjeant's messing costs as much as Is. The sums usually paid are the following : — Cavalry 7|c?. Engineers 7|c?. Artillery 7id. Infantry Q^d. The rules for the constitution and conduct of Serjeants' EEGIMUNTAL — SUPPLIES. 395 messes, which are to be formed ' as one of the means of adding to their self-respect and comfort/ are given in detail in Sect. VII. * Queen's Regulations/ 1881, and may be sum- marized as below. The following persons are to be members : — Regimental warrant officers, married or single. Schoolmasters, only if single. Staff-Serjeants. Troop - Serjeant - Majors, Company- Serjeant- Majors, Battery- Serjeant- Whether Majors or Colour-Serjeants. \. married or Serjeants (including Artificers of that single, rank). Paid Lance-Serjeants. In the Royal Engineers, full Corporals are also members of the Serjeants' mess. Unpaid Lance-Serjeants in all other corps have the option of joining the mess or messing with the rank and file. The single members of the mess must be dinitig members. Honorary members of the mess may be made by per- mission of the Commanding Officer, but their rank must be not lower than that of Lance-Serjeant. An entrance fee not exceeding 3 days' pay is paid on joining the mess by every member, married or single ; and, on promotion to Serjeant or Staff-Serjeant the difference between the old and the new rates of pay for the same number of days is charged. A monthly subscription is further paid not exceeding :— Is. 6c?. for every unmarried member. 9d. for every married member. The mess is managed by a committee appointed at quarterly mess-meetings and consisting of a president, not under the rank of Colour-Serjeant, and two Serjeants, one married and one single. A treasurer is appointed every quarter from among the Staff-Serjeants and Colour-Serjeants, who take this duty by roster. Another non-commissioned 396 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. officer is selected by the committee, subject to the approval of the Commanding Officer, to serve as caterer. He must not be a member of the committee. He is struck off all duties while holding this appointment. The following warrant and non-commissioned officers may not be either president, treasurer, or caterer. Regimental- Serjeant-Major ; Schoolmaster ; Bandmaster ; Regimental-Quartermaster-Serjeant. The caterer must not be the canteen Serjeant. Monthly mess meetings are held, which all members must attend. The Regimental-Serjeant-Major presides or, in his unavoidable absence, the next senior member. Minutes must be kept of these meetings which must be sub- mitted for the approval of the Commanding Officer. The meetings (subject to the Commanding Officer's approval) are empowered to make rules as to minor matters and decide points of detail connected with the regulation of the mess. The caterer provides the fare and takes charge of all eatables and liquor. All necessary articles which can be provided by the canteen are to be procured there. When articles are re- quired which cannot be purchased from the canteen, the Commanding Officer decides if they are to be delivered directly to the caterer by the contractors or tradesmen, or if the articles (even when selected and ordered directly) are to be delivered at the canteen and charged to the mess in the weekly canteen bill. The committee, not the caterer, selects the tradesmen with whom the mess is to deal, and the caterer can only make purchases with the committee's sanction. The caterer makes up the members' mess-accounts, enters the amount of them against each member's name in a book kept for the purpose, and totals each account daily. The Commanding Officer decides if these accounts are to be settled every day or every week ; usually a weekly total is made up, the treasurer collects the amount of each REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 397 member's daily or weekly account in cash, from the Pay- Serjeant of his troop, battery or company, who debits the Serjeant's account of pay with the charge. The treasurer must pay all bills weekly after they have been signed as correct by the president of the committee and submit his accounts every week to the committee. The committee examines the caterer's book and the trea- surer's account every week and, at the end of the month, certifies to the Commanding Officer that all outstanding debts are paid. On or before the 5th of each month, the committee submits the caterer's book and treasurer's account to the monthly mess-meeting. Every quarter, also, an abstract of the accounts is made out signed by the president of the committee and submitted to the quarterly mess-meeting for audit. After being thus audited, it is passed on for the approval of the Commanding Officer. During the course of a month, any accumulation of money arising to more than £5 is paid in by the treasurer to the savings bank, as is also any balance (whatever be its amount) which remains in hand at the end of the month after paying all bills. The liquor sold in the Serjeants' mess is not included in these charges, which are for messing exclusively. A very strong feeling exists among the Serjeants against any account being kept of the expenditure for liquor or of any method of paying for it being adopted other than ready money pay- ment in cash over the bar. Two or three private soldiers are usually employed in the Serjeants' mess by permission of the Commanding Officer, in the capacity of cook and waiters. They are placed under the orders of the caterer, subject to the directions of the managing committee. The * Royal Warrant on Pay and Promotion,' 11th March 1882, paragraph 755, limits the amount which may be stopped from a private soldier's pay on account of messing and washing to 5Jc?. a day. As a matter of convenience, therefore, the expense of a soldier's washing, is a charge which is always 398 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTEATION. taken in connection with his messing. The prescribed total sum, or such less amount as may be stopped, is, in practice, differently apportioned between messing and washing in the different arms of the service. The daily rates of stoppages in the different rank and file messes at present prevalent are the following. Corps of Messing Washing Total Cavalry .... Artillery Engineers Infantry. 4:d. Skd. Id. Id. Id. Oid. 5d. Each mess, therefore, has a sum of money due to it daily which is the total of the stoppages of the men composing it for that day. Further, the messing fund each month receives its share of the money obtained by the Quartermaster for tlie sale of the cooking refuse. The proportion allotted to each troop or company depends on its strength. On the other hand, the charges against the messing fund are those entailed under the following heads : — Payment for all the articles of food consumed by the men excepting only the ration of bread and meat. Payment of the men's personal washing. Charges for the provision of nets for carrying vegetables, meat, &c. ; for canvas fatigue suits for the cooks and for the periodical washing of the same. In the Royal Engineers, also, a charge is allowed against the messing fund of a daily sum granted as extra pay to the cook. This is to compensate him for the loss of his working pay, which in the Royal Engineers is a serious consideration. In other corps, the cook is usually allowed his extra messing free by the remainder of the mess. The vegetables, milk, and other articles of food are pur- chased locally. Arrangements are usually made by Com- manding Ofiicers with tradesmen to supply at fixed rates. Groceries and all articles sold at the canteen are procured from it. As regards other articles, the Commanding Officer KEGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 39^ decides whether the tradesmen or contractors shall deliver them direct to the messes or whether they shall be sent to the canteen and charged to the men in the canteen bill, along with the articles provided by itself. The latter plan i& usually followed as the best and simplest way of keeping and checking the accounts of contractors and tradesmen. Sometimes, though rarely, the soldier appointed as caterer buys a portion of the requisites in the open market. The refuse is usually collected in a swill-tub and takes the form of pig's-wash, which is sold to some person who contracts to take it at a certain rate. The messing accounts of each troop of Cavalry and com- pany of Infantry and Royal Engineers are kept in the ' messing book ' (Army Book 48). This book contains a page for each day's account in the month, with a form at the end in which the month's account is summed up and closed. The Royal Artillery (in which corps the messing and pay are managed by subdivisions) have a special book called the ' pay and mess book ' (Army Book 272), in which the accounts are made uj) and closed weekly. A small sum only should be carried forward as debit or credit from one account to another. The balance credit, when it rises above this amount, is dis- tributed among the men of the mess. When ready money purchases have to be made, as in the case of articles purchased in the open market, the soldier entrusted with the purchasing is provided with money by the Pay-Serjeant for the purpose. The amounts are entered as spent on the debit side of the account together with those paid away in settling the bills, due to the canteen and tradesmen and for washing, which is done weekly. The credit side of the account, on the other hand, will show the amount of the men's daily contributions reckoned, in each arm of the service, at the rate above-given against each man of the mess for as many days as he has been in mess during the month or week, and totaled out. Once a month, there will also be a further credit of the share of refuse money allotted. Reverting to what was said as to the composition of the soldier's daily food, it will be seen that in most corps, an 400 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. extra half-pound of bread (over and above the 1 lb. free ration) is purchased daily for each man. This is familiarly called the 'tea bread.' It would appear that this is to a great extent an unnecessary and wasteful expense and, as a matter of fact, all corps do not indulge in it. The Royal Engineers find the pound ration amply sufficient, and thus economize their messing money for a more plentiful provision of articles affording a greater variety. In Line regiments, where the practice is universal, a large portion of bread is wasted, and it is no uncommon thing to see half-loaves floating in the swill-tubs. There is an obvious lack of economy (to call it by no worse name) in purchasing food for the purpose merely of improving the refuse fund. It is also to be observed that, if there be any truth in the remarks of Dr. Parkes, before quoted, it is not in the direction of bread that the soldier's diet is deficient, but rather in that of substances which will provide the fatty matters which are absent in bread. If, therefore, something could be saved in the matter of bread (and perhaps also in other small ways), it seems possible, without much difficulty, that a little might be spent on bacon, oil, vinegar, or even cheese, as recommended by Dr. Parkes, although it is remarkable that cheese, although such a staple article of food among the English labouring population, is not popular (at least in its crude form) with the British soldier. It may owe its unpopularity to the considerable element of Irishmen in the Army, for in Ireland, grazing country as it is, cheese is either unknown to, or disliked by, the working classes. The rank and file of all corps of troops are all, with certain exceptions, included in one of the messes of the corps. The exceptions are men who are said to be * out of mess. ' The case of a man who does not draiv rations must not be confounded with that of the man who is struck out of mess. Yery few men do not draw rations ; but many who draw rations may still be out of mess. Thus, as before stated, certain men only are entitled to draw the money allowance in lieu of rations, and these men .are all struck out of mess also, that is, they do not take their REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 40 1 meals with any mess, and nothing is therefore stopped from their pay on account of messing. But, besides these men, all married men on the establishment and such others as the Commanding Officer may allow, are struck out of mess. In addition to men drawing the money allowance, married men, men on furlough or legitimately absent from the corps, and others having the Commanding Officer's permission, men absent without leave, and all for whom rations are not drawn, such as prisoners, men in hospital, &c., are struck out of mess. The men out of mess who draw rations take their own rations from the place of issue and make the most of them, supplementing them as they think fit with such articles as they require, inasmuch as they draw their pay without any deductions for extra-messing. Every regiment of Cavalry, the Cavalry Depot, every battalion of Infantry, every Infantry regimental depot, and every equivalent body of troops of the other arms is provided with a Serjeant-Cook who is a non-commissioned officer trained in the Instructional Kitchen at Aldershot. A second trained cook is also authorized in each of the above mentioned bodies ; but he is only employed in cooking duties when the Serjeant-Cook is not available, or when he may be required for duty with a detachment. Every troop of Cavalry, company of Infantry, battery of Artillery, or company of Engineers, has a private soldier permanently employed as cook. In the Cavalry and Infantry the cook is assisted by a man detailed every week as assistant- cook, and every mess or room has an orderly man detailed daily (or sometimes weekly), who, in addition to certain duties connected with the order of the barrack-room, is paraded by the troop or company orderly Corporal at the issue of rations, and carries them to the cook-house. The Royal Engineers combine the duties of assistant-cook and orderly man, which, in that corps, are performed by a single man detailed as * cook's mate. ' The rations of meat issued to the orderly men of messes every morning are carried by them to the cook-houses of their respective troops or companies, whither also the I. D D 402 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. groceries, vegetables, and other articles provided for the day's consumption from the messing money, have been conveyed by the caterer. As the resources in appliances for cooking and the utensils in the various cook-houses are usually limited, it is the business of the Serjeant-Cook to arrange that the different messes shall get due turns of the several appliances on successive days, so that each shall get its fair share of variety in the way of baked, boiled, and stewed meats, and of soup. The Serjeant- Cook is also responsible for the general order and cleanliness of all the cook-houses, the extinction of the fires, &c., and supervises the several company cooks, who themselves are seconded by the assistant-cooks. The meals of men on guard, of prisoners in the guard- room, and of men detained in hospital for the day (who are rationed from their corps) are conveyed to them in their mess-tins from their own messes, ready cooked, by the orderly men of their own rooms if the distances to which they must be carried are short. Otherwise, special arrange- ments are made. Sometimes, when a guard is mounted far away from the barracks, uncooked rations with a proportion of groceries, vegetables, &c. , are carried away by the men in their haversacks on mounting, and cooked by them in the guard-room. Occasionally it may be necessary to send the guard their meals, either cooked or uncooked, by a special fatigue party. The usual hours for the soldier's meals at home stations and the composition of them are, generally, as follows : — Breakfast, at 8 a.m. Coffee with sugar and milk, and bread. Dinner, at 1 p.m. . Soup, meat, potatoes, vegetables, sometimes pudding and other extras ; bread. In most corps, provision is also made for bring- ing over a certain amount of beer at dinner-time from the canteen for those who wish for it. KEGIMENTAL SUPPLIES. 403 Tea, at 4.30 p.m. . Same as breakfast, except that tea replaces the coffee. What will strike any reader at once is that this arrange- ment, while as far as it goes it corresponds fairly enough to that which finds favour with most men of the labouring classes, does not provide for a meal never omitted in the life of the labourer who is not in absolute penury. There is no supper. And there would seem to be something wrong in a system of meals which disposes of the full necessary amount of food for the 24 hours, and yet requires the soldier to go without anything to eat from 4.30 p.m. until 8 a.m. the next morning. It is easier to see the evil than to obviate the difficulty to which it gives rise. The fact is, that the later hours of the day, the hours from the tea-time to tattoo at 10 o'clock, are the soldier's playtime. He will be content enough to work or idle in barracks until late in the afternoon ; but anything which interferes with his going out of barracks afterwards is felt as a great hardship. So thoroughly is this fact recog- nized by officers who know the soldier's habits, so well do they know that he will submit to any amount of labour and trouble in the early part of the day rather than to a small amount which entails his presence in the evening, that many will inflict a light task late in the day as the greatest punish- ment for acts of carelessness. This being so, it is clear that a late meal, if attendance at it were voluntary, would be very probably served to empty tables, and, if the attendance were compulsory, would be looked upon as a punishment. Some regiments have tried the plan of providing simple meat suppers which could be purchased in the recreation-room, and it is probably with a view of favouring this system that the War Office allows meat to be purchased at contract price for sale in recreation-rooms. But these plans cannot be said to have succeeded. The soldier cannot be tempted by any meal which entails his presence in barracks when he might be outside the gates. Nor does it seem right to demand more money from the soldier for food than he already pays in a regular way. D D 2 404 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Practically, many soldiers solve the difficulty by saving a dry piece of the too-plentiful bread from their other meals to be eaten in the dark after tattoo. Some, perhaps, buy some- thing outside after having left enough uneaten at dinner to serve for another meal. This surplus, however, goes to the contractor's pigs. The only solution which occurs to one is that possibly some means might be made by which men might obtain something to eat at night after the hours during which they mtist^ in any case, be in barracks ; these suppers being provided for by the messing fund in kind or payment, and eaten in the recreation room or any other convenient place. At any rate, if the option was between attending supper and going to bed, instead of between attending supper and stopping outside barracks, probably supper would become a popular meal. Another point appears worthy of attention before dis- missing the subject of the soldier's food. What object is served by maintaining the division into * rations ' and ' extra messing ' ? Why should not the regiment, which can supply itself with groceries, vegetables and *tea bread,' also provide the full quantity of necessary bread and meat, receiving a fixed sum instead of the present rations ? The only real objection which can be foreseen is the inability of the regimental Administration to make sufficiently cheap contracts. Undoubtedly, in many matters, a moving corps labours under serious disadvantages in this respect ; but as regards supplies of food, the great anxiety always displayed on the part of dealers to obtain the custom of regiments makes it a matter of certainty that there would be no diffi- culty, and it is clear that in all other respects there would be everything to gain by handing over the whole business of providing food to corps themselves. A mass of labour and documentary correspondence would be saved to the Com- missariat Department and, of course, much working expense to the Government. On the other hand, very little extra trouble would fall upon the regiment, and the contractors would necessarily strive to please the Commanding Officer REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 405 who, being now responsible for the food, would take care that it was of proper quality. At present the results of a struggle with a War Office contractor are seldom encouraging. Above all, the contract would be a direct one between the corps consuming and the party providing ; and we may be allowed here to say that, in these matters, the fewer middle- men there are, the better it is for the parties really concerned on both sides. We believe, indeed, that the Government could afford to give a soldier more than the present contract price of his rations and yet save money by ceasing to contract for them ; for the working expenses (known and unknown) are very considerable. It seems to us that it would simplify matters very much and be very satisfactory to all with whom we need concern ourselves if the Government ceased to provide the rations and at the same time made a nominal increase of, say, 7d. a day to each soldier's pay to be added to the sum he already pays into mess, thus allowing him to buy his bread and meat as he already buys his potatoes.^ The plan, we believe, would meet with great opposition ; but it would not come from the soldier. Liquor. No liquor is, under ordinary circumstances, supplied by the Government to the soldier. Even in the exceptional cases when a liquor ration is provided, it is so on repayment only. Nevertheless, the soldier has ample means of obtaining liquor at low price. The officer and the Serjeant can get spirits, wines, or malt liquor in their respective messes ; for the Corporal and the Private a canteen exists where the only drinks of an in- toxicating kind sold are wine and malt liquor. The canteen 1 It will be observed that what is here advocated is by no means a reversion to the old system, according to which the Government (con- tracting as it does now) allowed the soldier higher pay, and then docked it to cover the cost of the ration itself supplied. 406 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. is also a shop where groceries, stationery, and a variety of articles of the kinds soldiers commonly require are sold. There are two systems according to which canteens are managed. These are respectively the * tenant ' system and the ' regimental ' system. In the tenant system the canteen is let to a civilian nominated at home stations by the Officer Commanding the regimental district, or in the Channel Islands or foreign stations by the General Officer Commanding. He has the monopoly of the sale of articles and liquor in the barracks ; a monopoly from which, however, the officers' and Serjeants' messes are excepted. The tenant's agreement is terminable at a week's notice, and he can only be removed by the authority of the General Officer Commanding. The tenant of a canteen must observe all the rules for order as prescribed for canteens regimentally managed. He must submit samples of the articles he sells to a garrison board of survey, which assembles every three months to examine them and report upon them and upon the prices charged. A list of these prices is to be hung up in each room. The tenant system is that usually applied in barracks where small detachments or single batteries of artillery are quartered, and also, in some places, in garrison canteens. Under the regimental system, the canteen is managed by a standing committee of three officers, of which the president must not be of lower rank than Captain. Under this com- mittee, a sub-committee of three non-commissioned officers may be appointed by the Commanding Officer to assist the officers in the immediate management. Under the committee a Serjeant or pensioner is appointed as ^canteen Serjeant' and acts as steward and salesman in charge. Another non-commissioned officer acts as accoun- tant, and a limited number of Privates or soldiers' wives are allowed to assist the canteen Serjeant. These persons all receive a certain amount of wages from the canteen fund. The rules for the administration of the canteen are minutely given in Section XV., Queen's Regulations : our REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 407 space will not allow of their detailed repetition in this book. The subject of the liquor supply to soldiers in barracks is, however, important and requires some remarks. The committee makes its own arrangements with trades- men, dealers, &c., for stocking the canteen. The Co-opera- tive Societies in London do a large business of this kind in groceries and similar articles. The liquor is procured, either from local brewers, or from distant firms with which the corps has established a connection. No spirits may be sold in the canteen, and no intoxicating liquor of any description is, according to the regulations, allowed to be sold before 12 o'clock in the day, or, on Sundays, during the hours of Divine Service. Defaulters may only enter the canteen at fixed hours of the day, usually between 6 and 8 p.m. Civilians may be allowed to use the canteen only by permission of the Commanding Officer. The liquor purchased at the canteen must be drunk on the premises, except that malt liquor may be taken to the barrack- rooms for consumption at dinner-time. Printed lists of the prices of all articles are hung up conspicuously in the canteen. The canteen Serjeant hands over the takings every day to the committee ; and the officer who is its president, or acting as such, lodges the sum daily with the Paymaster or otherwise secures the money. The bills incurred in the purchase of liquor and articles to stock the canteen are all paid by the president or a member of the committee personally. Among these bills will be those for articles purchased from tradesmen in order to be furnished to the men or to the Serjeants for messing when the Commanding Officer has decided that these articles are to be purchased through the canteen. Every week, each mess will have a canteen bill to pay (which will include the cost of the articles above mentioned), the amount of which is made out by the canteen accountant on the information of the canteen Serjeant and which is recovered from the Pay- Serjeants of troops or companies. With the exception of these weekly bills, all payments are in ready money. 408 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. All charges for the maintenance and conduct of the canteen must be paid from canteen profits. Amongst these charges will be the following : — Payments for articles purchased. The monthly rent of the building. The purchase of and monthly percentage on bar uten- sils, authorized by the War Office regulations. Charges for canteen losses or damages. The insurance of the canteen stock against fire. The payment of the wages of the canteen Serjeant and assistants. The cost of fuel and light. Cleaning, &c., of the canteen establishment. Poor rates and local rates, when assessed. Regimental canteens are not liable to income tax. The net profits made in the canteen, after all expenses- are paid, go to make up the ' canteen fund.' This fund is allowed to accumulate until it amounts : — In the Royal Artillery Canteen at Woolwich, to £500. In the Royal Engineer Canteen at Chatham to £200. In regimental canteens to ... . £50. In garrison canteens, when established, to £50 per regiment in garrison. This amount is kept in hand as a reserve to meet any unexpected expenses. When the canteen fund swells over this amount, after the prices of articles have been reduced as nearly to cost price as possible, the accumulation every quarter may be disposed of by the Commanding Officer's direction, at his own discretion, in certain ways which are minutely prescribed in the Queen's Regulations. Any proposed expenditure of canteen profits for other purposes than those thus specified must be referred to the General Officer Commanding and specially sanctioned by him. Any application for such expenditure which the Commanding Officer may wish to make, he sends to the Assistant-Quartermaster-General, to whom all correspondence respecting canteens is addressed. But even the General cannot sanction the application of KEGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 40^ money from the canteen fund to certain purposes (specified in the Queen's Regulations) which are not connected with the private well-being of the men of the corps as a whole ; the principle is that the canteen fund belongs to the persons who have contributed to raise it and that it should not go to defray expenses of the corps in its official aspect or be used to benefit unduly one section of its members more than, another. The hooks by which the accounts are kept are : — 1. ^ General monthly stock and cash-ledger ' ; kept by the canteen accountant. It shows the cost price, and the retail price to be charged for each article. A balance is struck at the end of each month, showing the consumption of each article during the month, and the quantity remaining on hand. 2. ^ Cash-book of daily takings ' ; signed by an officer of the canteen committee and by the canteen Serjeant daily. The total monthly expenditure is also shown in this book, which is in charge of an officer of the committee. 3. 'Daily stock-book ^ ; kept by the canteen Serjeant. 4. * Tradesmen's general ledger,' with separate sheets for each tradesman ; kept by the canteen accountant. All invoices on receipt of the goods, are counter- signed by the canteen Serjeant and separately filed. Discrepancies are at once reported. 5. * Invoice order-book,' with counterfoil ; for small supplies ordered by the committee. 6. ' Guard-book,' containing duplicates of the monthly abstract and other accounts, to which the signatures of the committee of officers, in original, are attached. The canteen committee meets monthly. It takes stock of all articles in the canteen and inspects the quality of them. It authorizes purchases and regulates the prices which shall be charged. The books are also submitted to it at this monthly 410 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. meeting. The accounts are examined and compared with the stock, the cash receipts and the expenditure. The committee then prepares a summary statement of the accounts, which is forwarded to the Commanding Officer. Eveiy quarter, a detailed statement is forwarded to the Commanding Officer, with full explanations of all expendi- ture and a copy of the printed price list of all articles in siock. The quarterly abstract and the above mentioned papers are forwarded by the Commanding Officer to the Assistant-Quarter-Master-General. When the canteen committee or its president are relieved by a new committee or president, a regimental board is assembled composed of a field officer (if possible) as president and of the out-going and in-coming committee presidents as members. This board thoroughly examines the accounts and records the financial condition of the canteen. It reports distinctly among other matters, 1. The cash balance at the time of transfer and where it is lodged. 2. The liabilities of the out-going committee for bills and unpresented cheques. 3. The assets of the canteen. The proceedings of the board are sent to the Command- ing Officer, who retains them for reference in case of any future irregularities occurring, when this document will assist him in deciding any disputed responsibility. There is no doubt that a strict adherence to the pre- scribed rules, if conscientiously carried out by all concerned and supplemented by due vigilance on the part of the officers composing the committee, ought not only to make of the canteen a most economical and excellent store for the soldier, but ought further to check an undue amount of drinking in barracks. Human nature, however, is weak ; there are such persons as careless and over-confident officers, and, unfortunately, there are also non-commissioned officers who are more anxious to make money than to adhere scrupu- lously to rules which restrain them in that direction. Stock is often taken in a hurried and incomplete manner. It REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 41 1 would be a great improvement if it could be taken at unex- pected times. It seems difficult to see how, under the pre- sent system, the committee is to prevent articles which never appear on the books in any way being introduced surrepti- tiously and sold in the canteen between stock-taking times. Certain it is that non-commissioned officers of a certain class seek the appointment of canteen Serjeant with an avidity which is not explained by the legitimate emoluments and advantages of the position. The Serjeants' mess has already been spoken of in con- nection with the messing of warrant and non-commissioned officers. But it is also the place in which these persons obtain any liquor which they may require. It has been said that spirits may not be sold in can- teens. Serjeants are, however, allowed to provide them- selves with this class of drinkables in addition to wines and malt liquor. According to the Queen's Regulations, no liquor may be sold in the Serjeants' mess before the hour of forenoon parade. No member of the Serjeants' mess is allowed to drink at the canteen ; still less is any Corporal or Private permitted by the regulations to obtain liquor from the Serjeants' mess. Perhaps no regimental institution gives a zealous Com- manding Officer and a conscientious Regimental-Serjeant- Major so much trouble as the Serjeants' mess. The institu- tion is intended to be ' one of the means of adding to their (the Serjeants') self-respect.' It is very much to be feared that, in many cases, instead of doing so, it does the very reverse, and that much drunkenness and tippling is encou- raged by this institution, not only among the Serjeants themselves, but also among the men. The fact is to be very much regretted, but it nevertheless is an undoubted truth that, too often, the cupidity of the caterer and other non-commissioned officers connected with the management of a Serjeants' mess soon gets the better of their self-respect. On all sides — in corps of aU arms — how is it that we hear so frequently of Serjeant this or that having 412 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. made 501., — lOOL, — or what not, in some incredibly short space of time, * when he had the Serjeants' mess ' ? Such reports are far from being empty ones. They are facts ; and well known to be such by all the rank and file in the corps where the cases have occurred. The thing is so frequently done that it has ceased to excite any surprise, and no feel- ing that there is anything dishonourable in the performance appears to be attached to it. Yet there are no means by which such sums may be accumulated honestly and without infringing the Queen's Regulations. Apart from the abstract evil, the impunity with which money may thus be made, and the fact that such doings are looked upon as almost a matter of course, have a most demoralizing effect upon young Serjeants, who are fre- quently found eagerly looking forward to the time when they, too, will have what they openly call ' a chance ' of making money in the same way. And how is this done ? Simply by drinking and encou- raging drinking. In too many instances to mention, the Serjeants' mess is little else than a dram-shop in barracks. The individuals who should be the mainstay of order among the rank and file, and who should check the propensity for drink where it exists, enlist the men as customers to increase their gains ; for it is perfectly well known that from many Serjeants' messes, liquor, including spirits, may be freely ob- tained, at all hours, by private soldiers who know where to apply for it. It is hardly necessary to say, after this, that, in these places, the rule concerning no liquor being sold to Serjeants before forenoon parade is not very strictly observed, and that, be he Serjeant or be he soldier, no man who fancies a morning dram need forego his tastes if he has a few coppers to pay for it. The practice has even been systematized in some of these messes : a regular predetermined tariff of prices is in force for private soldiers ; the rule being that the Private pays about half as much more than the mess price for liquor thus obtained surreptitiously. Obviously, here is a rich source of extra profit which will not have to be accounted for. REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 413 Frequently, also, civilians are admitted to Serjeants' messes, nominally as guests but really as customers for drink. The civilian is required to pay a higher price for liquor thus obtained than would be demanded from the members of the mess. These sales to civilians are most common at the hours when public houses are closed on Sundays. It is to be observed that, in the Serjeants' mess, liquor is always sold for ready money across the bar. No account is taken as to who purchases it ; and it is thought to be sufl&- cient if the treasurer produces the selling value of the stock which appears to have been consumed. Curious results have occurred when the amount of liquor consumed in any given period has been compared with the number of Serjeants in mess who are presumed to have drank it. An impossible average is occasionally arrived at. Nothing could be easier than to do what is done in every officers' mess : namely, to keep a score and set down, against each consumer's name, what he consumes. But, unfortunately, there is a very strong freemasonry feeling against adopting this wholesome practice. A system of accounts which should show how the liquor has been distributed is most unpopular. Some Commanding Officers cannot make up their minds to believe that such things go on. Others are careless Gallios. Others, again, are more than half aware of it, but shrink from looking closely into the matter, on account of the difficulties and scandal which beset any effectual method of remedy. And, indeed, it is not very much that an isolated Com- manding Officer can do. The measure we have suggested is no doubt a good one, and should in any case be adopted ; but unless it be so universally, that is to say, unless the central authority of the Horse Guards would insist on its adop- tion everywhere, and would prescribe along with it some other rules to be rigidly enforced,^ a single-handed Commanding 1 Among other rules it would be an excellent thing if the War Office would make it peremptory that all purchases of liquor for the Serjeants' mess should be made through the medium of the canteen, instead of leaving this point to the discretion of the Commanding Officer. This practice would furnish a check on an unlimited supply of 414 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTKATION. Officer would probably only start the malpractice into some other channel, so easy is it to cook accounts when the moral sense of evil has been once blunted. Along with his futile attempted remedy, the Commanding Officer would probably bring his regiment into open disrepute, by publicly washing dirty linen which others kept unwashed, would try by court- martial non-commissioned officers for doing that which in other corps they might continue to do without interference, would earn unpopularity without preventing his men getting elsewhere (if not still at home) that which was forbidden. Nevertheless, this evil is now so notorious, and is fraught with so much mischief of all kinds to both non-commissioned officers and men, that it is impossible not to notice in this book so flagrant a flaw in our Administration, albeit it has arisen, not from bad regulations, but rather from the fact that their imperfection in a few points has rendered them to a great extent abortive. ii. Forage. A table printed in the Allowance Regulations shows the number of horses which each mounted officer is required to keep up. For these he draws either forage in kind or a money allowance in lieu of it. Forage or forage allowance can only be drawn if the officer actually keeps the horses for which he draws it and if these horses are hondjide his own property. Officers of mounted corps, when doing duty with these corps, always receive forage in kind. On the other hand, officers of the Staff, mounted officers of departments, of Infantry, and of other dismounted troops are usually given the allowance in money. However, they may, if they wish it, be supplied in kind at those stations where regular issues are made, as, for instance, at stations where Cavalry is quartered. liquor findins: its way into the mess ; for, although the rules might still doubtless be evaded, some extra danger would certainly be created for the unscrupulous. Also, it is to be remembered that all bills for goods supplied to the canteen are (or ought to be) paid personally by an officer » REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 415 Troop horses and draught horses are always provided for by an issue of forage from (or under the direction of) the Commissariat Department. This issue, which is usually made daily, is conducted in almost precisely the same manner as that of rations. The daily ration of forage for each horse is the follow ing:— Oats Hay Straw- lbs, lbs. lbs. In quarters ..... 10 12 8 In encampments . . . . 12 12 — When employed on draught work] (extra) . . . . . ) Draught horses of the Commissariat \ and Transport Corps of 16 hands [■ and upwards (extra) , 2 — Officers' horses get the same ration as troop horses. Contracts for oats stipulate that they shall weigh not less, than 38 lbs. to the bushel. Contract hay is always that technically known as ' old. ' A load consists of 36 trusses, which should weigh 56 lbs. each. Wheaten straw is that preferred for bedding horses when- ever it can be procured. It is longer than barley straw, which, moreover, often begets skin disease. Oaten straw, on the other hand, is objectionable because the horses eat it. The ration of forage is assumed to be sufficient, on an average, for a horse of the class used in the service. But the Commanding Officers of mounted corps may distribute the total rations drawn for the corps as seems most suitable to the needs of individual horses, giving some perhaps a trifle less and others a trifle more than the actual ration, according to the size, the age, the state of health, or the amount of work done by each. Variety of food being occasionally necessary for horses, a stipulation is also made in contracts which allows Commanding Officers to demand other articles of forage instead of a portion 416 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. of the regular issues of oats and hay, according to the follow- ing scale of equivalents : — each equal to 1 lb of oats. Barley . lib. Bran . IJlb Malt fib. Oatmeal . ilb. Hay 2 lbs. Carrots . 12 lbs Green fodder . 36 lbs > each equal to 12 lbs. of hay. An officer absent on leave may dispose of his horses for -the time as he thinks fit. But he must cease to draw forage or forage allowance for such of them as he does not leave at the station, available to be employed for the public service, which means that a horse so left is available for the use of that officer only who performs the absent officer's duty, and not, as is often supposed, for that of any officer whom it may be desirable to mount. The horses of General Officers ^nd of officers of the Horse Artillery and Cavalry who may be on leave are exempt from this rule, and forage may be drawn for them during their owner's absence, although they <;an only be ridden by permission of the owners. We have seen how rations of bread and meat for soldiers are demanded by corps of troops on a ration return (Army Form F 746).^ The same form has, on the back, columns provided, under the heading of ' Extract of Adjutant's Roll,' showing the number of horses for which forage has been drawn. In the Infantry and other dismounted services, the officer's forage is accounted for, when drawn in kind, by enumerating the officers down one column and entering, at the end of the month, against the name of the officer, in other columns, the number of horses' rations drawn by him during the month. The officers thus drawing forage sign a certificate against their names that the account is correct, that the horses are their own, and that they have not received any money allowance in lieu of forage. 1 Army Form F 744 is similarly used to account for issues in kind to Staff and departmental officers (see p. 114). REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES, 417 It has already been stated that the ration return is made out in duplicate. The Commissariat olSicer is thus provided with a voucher on which, as regards this forage, every officer concerned has certified that he has not drawn the money allowance. The Commissariat officer keeps one copy of the return as an office copy and sends the other with his supply account to the War Office. In the mounted services, where, of course, the number of horses in each corps is very great, a form distinct from the ration return is used. This document (Army Form F 718) is also headed ' Extract of the Adjutant's Roll showing the number of horses for whom forage has been drawn.' Like the ration return it is made out in duplicate. At the end of the month, this roll, signed by the Com- manding Officer, is sent in to the Commissariat officer in charge and treated by him in the same way as the ration return. The certificate on Army Form F 743, which, as before stated, the Commissariat officer sends in monthly to Pay- masters of corps concerning rations, also includes, in the case of Cavalry and Horse Artillery, an account of the forage rations issued for officers' chargers. It may be here remarked in anticipation, that the claims of officers for money allowance in lieu of forage, must be signed by the Commissariat officer in charge of the station, who certifies that they have not been provided with forage in kind. These claims and the above mentioned forms used when forage in kind has been supplied, therefore, check one another. Hi. Paillasse Straw. Straw is not only necessary as part of the forage ration for use as litter for horses, but a further supply is required and issued for the purpose of filling the paillasse and bolster cases used by the men, and thus to serve as bedding for them. Also, when troops are occupying tents, straw is often issued without any other bedding. The straw thus issued is either wheat, barley, or oaten straw. The last is the best for bedding purposes, especially 418 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. if used without paillasses in camp. A load of straw consists of 36 trusses, each truss being computed to weigh 36 lbs. The regular issue of paillasse straw to troops in barracks is made every 90 days ; the allowance being at the rate of 24 lbs. for each paillasse together with its bolster. This rate is that of 2 trusses to 3 beds. When one corps relieves another in barracks, the straw left behind by the out-going corps is taken over by the in- coming one, unless' it has been in use for 30 days. In the latter case, an inspection is held by the Commanding Officer and Commissariat officer in charge, and if they consider that fresh straw is necessary, it may be issued. Troops in camp may be supplied with straw, unless waterproof sheets be issued. Paillasses and bolsters may or may not be issued. In camp, therefore, the allowance of straw varies accord- ing to the following circumstances. When waterproof j No straw allowed save under very sheets are issued ( exceptional circumstances. I 36 lbs. (or 1 truss) for every 2 men ; When paillasses refreshed at the end of 16 days with and bolsters are^^ 18 lbs. (another J truss) ; the whole issued removed at the end of 32 days, when \ fresh bedding is issued as at first. 72 lbs. (2 trusses) for every 5 men; refreshed after 8 days with 36 lbs. (1 truss) ; after another 8 days with an- other 36 lbs. ; the whole removed at the end of 24 days and fresh bedding issued as at first. For a night or two spent in camp on the line of march, no straw is, as a rule, issued for bedding. But if the state of the ground renders it necessary, in the opinion of the senior Medical officer, that straw should be provided, a quantity not exceeding two trusses for every 5 men may be issued on the order of the Officer Commanding, supported by a certificate for the necessity from the senior Medical officer. When straw alone is issued REGIMENTAL SUPPLIES. 419 The regulations recommend that, when loose straw is issued, it should be woven into mats. It is then less liable to waste, and causes less litter in camp. When this is done, the Commanding Officer has discretionary power to order that the first issue shall be increased, so long as not more than 4 trusses (or 144 lbs. ) of straw for 5 men are supplied for the full period of 24 days. It is also within the discretion of the Commanding Officer i;o withhold the refreshing straw if the camp is likely to break up shortly after it is due ; and, in any case, no more straw than is absolutely necessary should ever be drawn. The actual issue of paillasse straw in barracks or other quarters takes place simultaneously with the issue of clean j)aillasses and bolster cases as follows. The quantity of straw, at the rate of 24 lbs. per bed, having been computed by the regimental Quartermaster, is demanded by the Commanding Officer from the Commissariat officer in charge, who arranges with him for the time of issue, and instructs the Barrack-Serjeant in charge of the straw-yard. This subordinate first serves the corps out with the number of clean paillasse and bolster cases equal to the number of beds to be refilled, and then gets ready the necessary number of trusses of straw. Meanwhile, regi- mental orders direct that each troop or company shall provide a fatigue party of all men not on any other duty, to refill beds. The Quartermaster or Quartermaster- Serjeant, having taken over and distributed to troops or companies the clean cases, attends at the straw-yard. The parties from each troop or company march thither under non-commissioned officers, carrying the paillasses and bolsters which have been in use. The old straw is emptied out in the place set apart by the Commissariat Department for the collection of this refuse, and the men then carry the empty paillasse and bolster cases back, and hand them in to the non-commissioned officers in charge of their rooms, who issue the clean ones in exchange. The men are again marched to the straw-yard, carrying the clean cases. The Quartermaster-Serjeant dis- tributes the trusses in the proper proportion, and from them. E E 2 420 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTKATION. the men fill the empty cases, after which each party carries back the beds to its barrack-rooms. The Quartermaster- Serjeant collects the dirty paillasses and bolster cases from^ the several troops or companies and hands them back to the Barrack-Serj eant. The issues of straw are accounted for monthly on the same vouchers as, and together with, fuel and light, that i& to say At home stations 1 ^^ ^^a^^ers . Army Form F 727 (In camp. . . „ ,, F 747 Abroad „ „ F 726 Single copies of these vouchers are sent by Commanding Officers to Commissariat officers in charge of home stations ; abroad, the return is in duplicate. iv. Fuel and Light. Allowances of fuel are used regimentally for cooking, for warming rooms, for drying purposes in stores, harness-rooms and similar buildings, in laundries, for warming water for ablution purposes, for purposes connected with the work of repairs by artificers, &c. The substances used as fuel in the British Army are coal, coke, turf, and at some foreign stations wood. Coal, how- ever, is, as a matter of course, the staple commodity, and the prescribed fuel rations are expressed in sea-borne coal, a table of equivalents being used when the other substances are substituted for it. The use of coal and coke necessitates the issue of a certain proportion of kindling wood or turf. ^ A ration of fuel normally consists of 1 lb. of sea-borne coal. The following are the equivalents when other sub- stances are used. 1 The use of turf, either for fuel or for kindling, is restricted to certain localities (chiefly in Ireland) where, in some places, it is issued as part of the fuel ration, in combination with coal. Properly dried, it is better for kindling purposes than wood. REGIMENTAL SUPPLIES. 42 1 1:1^ lbs. of inland coal 1 lb. of coke 1 lb. of wood i cubic foot of turf. The kindling ration is f lbs. of wood : where turf is* issued for this purpose, the equivalent is jf 3 of a ' kish ' <20 cubic feet). As regards fuel and light, however, it must be clearly understood that the term ' ration ' does not mean the daily allowance to each man. It is simply the U7iit on which all the allowances are based. Barracks are lighted, wherever it is possible to do so, with gas. But, even when gas is used, the officers' in- dividual allowances of light are almost invariably issued in the form of candles. For with gas the only means of limit- iug the supply, after the barracks have been fitted up with a certain number of burners of a certain size, is by turning the gas off at certain hours. It is not considered advisable to limit the supply to officers in this way ; for the hours at which the gas is turned off in barracks are usually earlier than those during which officers require light in their •quarters, and the hours during which the gas is turned on ■are generally those during which the officers are either in the mess or out of barracks. If, therefore, gas were supplied to officers' quarters as a general rule, either hardship would be- inflicted on the officer who could get no light except just when he did not want it, or else it would be necessary to give him an unlimited supply, which the War Department is not prepared to do. Consequently, officers are usually supplied with candles, even in gas-lit barracks. Nevertheless, gas is sometimes and in certain exceptional cases laid on to officers' quarters, such as Commanding Officers' houses and similar buildings. It is usually optional with officers occupying such quarters to use the gas or have it cut off ; but, if the officer takes advantage of the convenience, he pays for all gas consumed and for the hire of a separate meter (where the War Office hires meters). On the other 422 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTEATION. hand, he receives a money allowance in lieu of the light he^ is entitled to. Gas is supplied gratis to officers' messes up to the hour of 11 P.M., after which it is passed through a special pipa provided with a meter which thus records the amount of gas burnt by the mess after that hour. This amount is paid for by the officers. All gas burnt, at whatever hour, in billiard rooms, canteens y skittle alleys, or shops, passes through special meters and is paid for by the persons for whose benefit it is burnt. Gas bills not chargeable to the public are assessed and notified by the Commissariat officer in charge at the sta- tion. Wherever it is possible, arrangements are made for the payment of these bills by the persons concerned direct to the gas company every quarter. When this cannot be done, the bills are settled in the manner stated on p. 105. The gas is turned on to the barracks generally by the direction of the Commissariat officer in charge daily, half an hour before sunset, and to the buildings within barracks 7iot earlier than sunset. Changes of a quarter of an hour at a time are made by the Commissariat officer, who notifies each change to each Commanding Officer concerned. The gas in soldiers' buildings may not be lighted until half an hour after sunset. The gas remains turned on at the main stop-cock all night, but it is turned off from all soldiers' buildings half an hour after the second post of watch-setting, except from recreation rooms and Serjeants' messes. The gas is kept burning until sunrise in guard-rooms, latrines, and urinals, and at barrack and hospital gates. Other exterior lamps are kept lighted during certain months only from 5 or 6 o'clock (according to the season) until 11 p.m. On the requisition of the Commanding Officer, the gas may be turned on, on winter mornings, in the barrack-rooms and stables and turned off again not later than 7.30 a.m. When gas is not used, the 'ration' (or unit) of light consists of : — REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 423 Candle . • . , . 1 oz. Oil, mineral (for schools, libraries, \ reading and recreation rooms), j-^ gill. per hour per lamp . . . i Oil, colza (for lamps and lanterns) f gill. Oil, colza (for moderator lamps) | o per hour, per lamp, . . , \ Wick for mineral oil . . . ] ^ ^l'^^'^ *« ^ giUs I of oil. Wick for moderator lamps . . ] ^ ^^^^^^ P^^ ^^^^^ ^ I of oil. The candles used for officers, warrant officers, and offices are paraffin or stearine. For other purposes, candles, when used, are of tallow. Candles are never issued for use in any building lighted with gas, except that a small allowance is made for visiting stables thus lighted after the gas has been turned off. For the purposes of the supply of fuel, the year is divided into periods or seasons called 'winter,' 'summer,' and ' intermediate,' thus {November, December, January, February and March. InUrrmdiats ... J ^P"\' ^^y> September j and October. Summer .... June, July and August. For the purposes of the supply of light, there are two seasons or periods only : April to September inclusive, and October to March inclusive. The allowances of fuel and light for home stations are determined by certain tables printed in Section Y. of the ' Allowance Regulations ' which prescribe what number of rations (or units) of each may be drawn for each individual, room, purpose, &c., during each of the periods or seasons above mentioned. These tables are far too lengthy to introduce fully in this place. That given below contains the information most frequently necessary to regimental officers. 424 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Daily Rations For Fuel Candles Winter Inter- mediate Summer is si ■ci -1 I J_ 1 i 1 o Regimental. Lieutenant-Colonel in Command 111 3 51 1 40 1 8 3 Lieutenant-Colonel and Major 74 2 51 1 40 1 5 3 Captain and Lieutenant "Warrant oflBcer . . . . ■ 37 1 26 1 20 1 3 1 Non-commissioned officer, Class I. Non-commissioned officer, Class 11. & ^ III Serjeant allotted a separate room, 18 1 12 1 12 1 H i Soldier on married roll .... Every 12 rank and file, or fraction over " that number in each barrack 37 1 19 1 4 1 occupied For small rooms con-^ ^ .^ - __ structed for less thanlS lYi 5°^®° men — when occupied T^qJ^^^ » 18 28 37 1 1 1 12 14 19 1 1 1 — — 2 3 4 1 1 1 Detachments. To non-commissioned officers in charge ; if not drawing allowance • 18 1 12 1 12 1 H I in any other capacity To 1 man quartered singly at a) station, or necessarily placed in a - 18 1 12 1 12 1 H I room by himself . . . j To 2 men so quartered 37 1 24 1 24 I 3 1 To 3 to 12 do. do 50 1 26 1 24 1 4 1 Officers' Messes. / 2 to 3 74 2 74 1 74 1 4 3 4 to 7 . . . 148 3 111 1 111 1 9 5 8 to 15 185 4 148 1 148 1 11 5 Number of 16 to 23 260 4 185 2 185 2 14 7 Officers in ^ 24 to 39 297 4 222 2 222 2 16 7 mess 40 to 60 . over 60, the preceding ^ quantity,with an addition [ 334 1 4 260 1 3 260 1 2 20 9 for each officer over 60 in V number, of . . ) In barracks where no regimental mess \ is established, for each regimental officer (not exceeding 3 in all) who - 17 17 17 would ordinarily be a dining mem- 1 berofamess . . . . ; Officer's guard 140* 2* 80* 2* — — 8* 4* Non-commissioned officer's guard 75 1 40 20t 6 1 40t It 4 2 Commanding Officer's office 12 Orderly room and other offices . 25 1 12 1 — — 3 — * Half these quantities are for the men's guard-room, t For cooking. KEaiMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 425 Deviations from this scale may be allowed as follows, by- order and at the discretion of the General Officer Command- ing the District or Officer Commanding, at isolated stations in unusually cold weather. No increase of cooking fuel can .be sanctioned. . , , _ fAn increase of \ To troops m wooden huts or wooden 1 ^^ ^^^ regular barracks at all home stations . ( i, ^ . , 1 T . /An increase of 4- To troops m permanent barracks, mj ^^ ^^^ regular Ireland only . . . . | aUowance. To every guard-room grate in per- /An increase of manent barracks at all homej 10 lbs. of coal stations . • • . . i daily. A reasonable extra issue of fuel for such sudden emer- • gencies as drying damp rooms or the clothes of men coming oflf the march may also be made on the same authority. On wet days occurring in the months when no fire is . allowed in guard-rooms, a guard may be supplied with extra fuel, if it be considered necessary, on a requisition signed by a Staff officer ; or, if there be no Staff officer at the station, by the field officer of the day ; or, if there be no field officer of the day, by the Commanding Officer. The quantities • thus allowed for a day are : — For an officer's guard 80 lbs. of coal and 2 lbs. of wood. For a non-commissioned officer's guard 40 lbs. of coal and 1 lb. of wood. Other deviations from the scales may be specially allowed on a representation of the emergency of the circumstances, but only under the authority and sanction of the Secretary of State, for which application must be made by the General (if necessary by telegraph). The scale above given is that of the allowances made in barracks or other quarters ; a special scale of very small quantities is prescribed for troops under canvas. The quantity of fuel allowed for cooking depends on the -apparatus with which the cook-houses are fitted. 426 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Honorary members of an officers' mess, even when they are regular dining members, may not be counted in com- puting the allowance of fuel and light to be drawn for the mess. In computing the numbers of men in a room, no deduc- tion is made for men temporarily absent for less than 14 days (whether on duty, with leave, or without leave) ; nor for men in hospital nor for prisoners in barrack cells. But, of course, detachments, men on recruiting duties, prisoners in civil or military prisons, and all men separately provided for in a permanent way are deducted from the strength on which the allowance is made. Special scales of allowances of fuel and light apply to the several military stations abroad. These scales are approved by the Secretary of State for War arid printed in the local standing regulations. The General or other Officer Com- manding may allow deviation from this scale only if, in his- discretion, he considers the circumstances urgently require it ; and when he does so he must report the fact to the Secretary of State at once. Separate stores of fuel and light are kept by the Com- missariat Department in each distinct barrack, and all such supplies once delivered in a barrack, must be consumed within its walls. Therefore, if an officer lives in one barrack and has an office in another, he must get the necessary fuel from two different sources and it is accounted for in two distinct places. A money allowance instead of an issue in kind of fuel and light is paid to the following persons. All persons entitled to fuel and light who live out of barracks in private houses by reason of there being no quarters available for them. ^ All similar persons, living in 'Government quarters, out of barracks, or in barracks where no store of fuel or light is kept. Married officers for whom quarters are available in 1 These persons also draw lodging allowance. REGIMENTAL — SUPPLIES. 427 barracks, but who may be allowed to live in private lodgings. ^ An officer to whose quarters in barracks gas is supplied, is provided with fuel in kind, but gets a money allowance in lieu of light alone. As before stated, he has to pay for the gas he consumes. We shall speak of these money allowances further, under the head of ' Regimental Finance.' Fuel and light are demanded from the Commissariat. Department, on a manuscript form of indent, weekly in advance by Officers Commanding, the amount being com- puted and the form presented to the Commanding Officer for signature by the Quartermaster in corps where such an officer exists. The issues to regiments or other corps are as a rule made weekly, excepting those to guard-rooms which are made daily ^ on account of the guard being relieved every day. The work of * coal carrying ' generally occupies all the available men of a corps for a whole morning or afternoon in the week. The men are marched to the coal-yard in parties by non-commissioned officers. Every two men carry between them a wooden box with handles which is assumed to contain 80 lbs. of coal when filled. The Quartermaster or Quarter- master-Serjeant (on behaK of the corps) and the Barrack- Serjeant in charge of the coal-yard (on behalf of the Com- missariat Department) witness and keep account of the boxes filled. Weighing-machines are provided in all coal-yards, by which the weight of any boxes may be tested ; but to weigh every box as issued would, of course, take up far too much time. The kindling wood is issued in bundles computed at a certain weight and given out in proportion to the coal. When turf is issued, it is usually so in conjunction with coal, and each room draws so many boxes of coal and so many sods of turf which are generally given out simul- taneously and carried away together. Over and under issues are adjusted from week to week 1 These officers are not entitled to lodging allowance. 428 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. SO as to compensate for one another ; but, according ta regulation, all quantities of fuel and light not drawn by the time the fuel return is closed on the last day of a month become * back rations ' and cannot be drawn. Over-issues are, at the end of a month, charged for at contract price. At the end of the month, each corps sends in to the Commissariat office its ' fuel return,' as it is commonly called, but which is more accurately termed the * account for issues to regiments of fuel, light, and straw.' The forms used and the number of copies prepared vary, as follows : — At home stations, f in quarters . Army Form F 727 1 copy of (in camp . . ,,5, F 747 Abroad, 2 copies of . . . ,, ,, F 726 The account for fuel and light issued to the Staff and departments drawing allowances in kind goes in on Army Form F 744, both at home and abroad. All consumable supplies for Staff and departments are combined upon this voucher. Where gas is in use, no mention is made of it in the above-mentioned accounts. From the nature of the supply, there is no necessity for any corps to send in any return of what has been consumed. The self-acting meters furnish, so to speak, a return at any time ; and these are in Com- missariat charge. The reading of the meters, periodically taken by the gas company in the presence of a member of the Commissariat Department, when incorporated in the company's quarterly bill, is the written expression of this account. We have already seen (p. 105) how sums due from messes, canteens, individuals, &c., are recovered from them by the Commissariat officer in charge in those cases where they do not pay direct to the gas company. It will have been noticed that the issues of fuel in barracks follow a uniform scale throughout the United Kingdom, and that there is no difference between the allowances drawn at Fort George in the Highlands of Scot- land and those drawn in Jersey or Plymouth. The system KEaiMENTAL — QUAKTEKS. 42 9^ followed in France is far more equitable. The French War Ministry divides the country, for fuel supply purposes, into three zo7ies : the warm, the temperate, and the cold. A different scale of issues applies to each zone. A disposition has recently aj)peared to prevail to adjust in a precise manner the cost of these allowances in various parts of the country. If the needs of the soldier be fairly considered, a uniform money expenditure in each district would, on the whole, be a far more equitable arrangement ; for it so happens that the parts of the country where fuel is. cheap are precisely, in the main, the northern or colder portions. The commuted money allowance for fuel and light will exemplify the state of the case. Because an officer or soldier is quartered at Newcastle, where coal is cheap, he gets a far smaller allowance (under the new system) than one stationed in the Isle of Wight, where coal is dear. This is fair only on the assumption that the climate at Newcastle is the same as that of the Isle of Wight. As a matter of fact, unless extra issues are granted, the soldier quartered in the north, oftener than not, has no fire in his barrack- room for a day or two days preceding the weekly issue ; and, in many corps stationed in these parts, extra coal is purchased, out of the small pay of the soldier. VI. QUARTERS. General Eemarks. In times of peace, officers and troops are quartered in I Barracks. Detached War Department buildings. Lodgings. Standing camps. _ f Temporary camps (under canvas). Temporary quarters | -g.^^^^^^ Under the head of barracks, we include, not only the 430 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. extensive inclosed premises commonly so called, but all portions of permanently fortified works set apart for dwelling purposes and the requirements connected therewith. Detached buildings, belonging to or hired by the War Department, exist in some places outside the limits of any regular barracks. Sometimes these are purely quarters (such as Commanding Officers' houses ; more frequently they are established or utilized for other and various purposes and have quarters attached to them for the accommodation of such persons as it is thought right should reside on the spot. The term lodgings includes all house accommodation provided by officers and soldiers themselves, either when they are required to do so, on account of there being no quarters available for them (in which case they are compen- sated by receiving a money allowance), or when they do so for their own convenience by permission (in which case they sacrifice their quarters and receive no compensation). Standing camps are collections of huts (usually con- structed of wood), not as a rule inclosed, and usually covering much ground. They serve to accommodate concen- trations of troops for training purposes. But, for most of the practical purposes of Administration, standing camps are but another form of barracks. Temporary camps are formed when men are sheltered under tents or in field huts constructed by the men them- selves. Except, however, occasionally, for training purposes, field huts are seldom made in peace time. Tents • are frequently used, both for manoeuvres and to provide accommodation at other times where no barracks are available. Billets are resorted to on the march to house the troops at the end of each day's journey. The persons on whom alone troops may be billeted are licensed victuallers (publi- cans or hotel-keepers). Section 104 of the Army Act gives the exact definition of the persons who are thus liable to receive officers, soldiers and horses. EEGIMENTAL — QUAETERS. 431 Permanent Quarters. In discussing the Commissariat Department, we saw that as soon as barracks are constructed, they are handed over to the charge of that department by the Royal Engineers, to whom, however, the Commissariat remains responsible for the state of the fabric and fixtures so long as the barracks remain empty. It was also stated that the Commissariat Department, having equipped the barracks and handed them over to the troops for occupation, washes its hands of responsibility towards the Royal Engineers, by passing that responsibility over to the troops. Troops in barracks, therefore, are answerable to the Commissariat Department for the expense stores which form its equipment and for the proper appropriation of the quarters, but are directly responsible to the Royal Engineer Department for the fabric and fixtures. Consequently, when the General Ofiicer Commanding a District receives a notification from the War Ofiice that a corps of troops will arrive in his command to be there stationed, the Assistant-Quarter-Master-General signifies the fact to the Senior Commissariat Officer, and also to the Commanding Royal Engineer, who give the necessary direc- tions concerning quarters to their respective representatives at the station where the corps is to be garrisoned. When a corps or detachment moves from one station to another in the same District, the same course is followed without any War Office notification. The Commissariat officer in charge of barracks, apprized as he is of the strength of the body of troops about to arrive, and of the detail of all composing it, prepares to hand over the necessary amount of barrack accommodation, in the computation of which he is guided by the authorized scale of quarters. Every building in barracks and standing camps is appro- priated to a definite purpose which is painted over the door. 432 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. As regards the accommodation of regimental officers, the following scale of quarters is prescribed. Lieutenant- Colonels Commanding ) are each allowed . . . J Lieutenant-Colonels and Majors are ] each allowed i Captains and Lieutenants are each ) allowed ' Quartermasters and Riding- Masters, "j when rooms are available, are each r allowed j Rooms Personal Servants' 4 2 1 2 2 1 i 1 The term ' Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding ' is defined as including Lieutenant-Colonels Commanding Cavalry regi- ments, the Cavalry Depot, Infantry battalions, Infantry regimental districts, divisions of Field Artillery, districts of Garrison Artillery, and the senior Lieutenant-Colonels of each Engineer district and sub-district. The Allowance Regulations, however, qualify the pre- scribed scale by stating that special emergencies may arise when it may become necessary for officers to occupy quarters of less extent without having any claim to lodging allowance. Unless the emergency alluded to be that of active service, it is difficult to see how this very limited scale of accommoda- tion could be decently contracted, or why such an untoward occurrence should give no claim to lodging allowance. Commanding Officers' quarters are marked over the door '0. 0. Quarters,^ those for other field officers, ^ F. 0. Quarters^; those for other officers, 'Officers' Quarters,' unless, as in the case of Quartermasters, special quarters are allotted, in which case they are marked accordingly. The scale for regimental ranks below that of commissioned officers is the following. REGIMENTAL— QTJAETEES. 433 Rooms Kitchen Warrant officer Staff-Serjeant . . . . \ Troop- Serjeant- Major Battery- Serjeant- Major . Companj^- Serjeant- Major . . / Colour- Serjeant .... Schoolmistress . . . . , Each non-commissioned officer and man \ on the married roll . . . ) 2 1 1 1 1 Schoolmasters and Schoolmistresses, when married with leave, are entitled to an extra room. Further, whenever spare rooms exist, a second room is to be allotted to the Regimental-Quartermaster-Serjeant (whether married or single), and also to married non-com- missioned officers or soldiers with large families. When the construction of the barracks allows of it, un- married Serjeants are given separate rooms in the same blocks as the men's barrack-rooms ; but this accommodation is not always available. For the unmarried Serjeants, Corporals, and men of lower rank, the capacity of a barrack-room is computed at the rate of 600 cubic feet of space per man, and that of a wooden hut at 400 cubic feet per man. Abroad, this point is determined by local standing regulations. The Commissariat officer keeps a record of the capacity of every room in each barrack in his charge on Army Form K 1251. The corps about to arrive sends on before it a party to take over the quarters. This party consists usually of an officer (sometimes the Quartermaster), a non-commissioned officer and a few Privates. The regulations state that three Privates ought usually to be sufficient ; but in any case the number is not to exceed that of the troops or companies. On the arrival of the party, the officer reports himself and is put in communication with the local representative of the Commissariat Department, who has already made arrange- 434 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. ments for the accommodation of the corps. This officer or subordinate accompanies the regimental officer and party to the barracks. A representative of the Royal Engineer Department also attends, except at one of those stations where the Commis- sariat Department has orders to act for both departments (see p. 135). The marching-in inspection then takes place. The officer taking over charge and the representatives of the two depart- ments concerned all keep note-books. It will be recollected that in each room, stable, or other building there are two in- ventory boards : one of fixtures, the other of expense stores. Every building and room is examined. All damages and deficiencies in the fabric and fixtures (as shown by the buildings themselves and inventory boards of fixtures) are noted by the regimental officer and by the representative of the Koyal Engineer Department in their note-books which are both finally signed by both parties. Similarly, all damages and deficiencies in the expense stores forming the ^equipment (as shown by the articles forthcoming and the other set of inventory boards) are recorded in the note-books of the regimental officer and of the representative of the Commissariat Department, and these note-books both signed by both parties. The duplicates of the room inventories, kept by the Commissariat officer (see p. 117), are produced by him and are compared with the boards. Each inventory board is corrected, if necessary, by the officer of the depart- ment concerned, who initials the correction, after which each board is, in turn, after examination, dated and initialed by the officer taking over. The door of every room should be locked and the key taken away by the regimental non-com- missioned officer of the party as soon as it has been taken over. The officer taking over barracks or other quarters for a corps must be satisfied that the amount of accommodation is sufficient, and to this end he is furnished beforehand with all details as to the corps's requirements. Only the number of rooms exactly necessary for a corps is REGIMENTAL QUARTEES. 435 lianded over to it ; but, as a number of complete barrack- rooms, &c., must be taken over, the accommodation is seldom exactly fitted to the strength of a corps, which usually finds itself with a small surplus of accommodation and equipment. This is convenient to provide for slight increases in strength, for attached men, and other changes of every day occurrence. Properly speaking, however, when- -ever a complete room or officer's quarter becomes empty, it should be handed back to the Commissariat officer. The Commanding Officer receives from the Commissariat •officer a copy of Army Form K 1251 showing the appropria- tion and the capacity of all rooms and buildings. This docu- ment remains in his hands during the whole time that the corps occupies the barracks. As soon as possible after the corps has marched into the barracks or other quarters and after all undisputed damages and deficiencies have been made good, the Commissariat officer in charge submits to the Commanding Officer for his signature a certificate in duplicate on Army Form G 1062, by which he acknowledges himself in charge of and responsible for the buildings, rooms or other premises set forth on the certificate. Having signed the two copies of this document, the Commanding Officer keeps one copy and returns the other to the Commissariat officer. On arrival in a new quarter, the Commanding Officer of a corps sends in a requisition to the Commissariat officer in charge (in duplicate on Army Form F 704) for the authorized articles of bedding. The requisition specifies the composition of the corps in men of all ranks, married and single, and bedding is drawn at the rate of 1 set per single man and two sets per married man, as prescribed by the ' schedules of barrack furniture ' (see p. 117). Under the regulations for married soldiers, extra sets of bedding are issuable, if de- manded for the use of soldiers' families ; but, with this excep- tion, only the exact amount of bedding sanctioned by the schedules can be drawn. A set of ordinary bedding consists of : — F F 2 436 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. 1 Paillasse case, 1 Bolster case, 3 Blankets, 2 Sheets. The Commissariat officer, having checked the requisition ^ directs the Barrack-Serjeant to issue the necessary number of sets of bedding. This subordinate hands them over to the Quartermaster, the men being ordered to attend at the barrack stores to carry the articles away as issued. Entries of each number of articles are made on the issue side of the Barrack-Serjeant's bedding book and receipted by the Quartermaster ; and simultaneously corresponding entries are made on the receipt side of the Quartermaster's bedding- book and signed by the Barrack-Serjeant. The paillasse and bolster cases thus issued are empty ; the straw wherewith to fill them is separately issued as before described. When a corps is in possession of barracks, the appropria- tion must be strictly adhered to in allotting quarters. The rules before given as to allotting extra rooms to certain persons specified in the Allowance Regulations may be carried out, when the rooms are available, without any special sanction ; but no room or building may be even temporarily applied to a purpose for which it is not appropriated save by the sanction of the General or other Officer Commanding. Commanding Officers of corps are, however, at liberty ta suggest for the consideration of the General any permanent re-appropriation of buildings or rooms which they may con- sider convenient. When a Commanding Officer makes any such suggestion, it should be addressed to the Senior Com- missariat Officer, who passes it, with his remarks, to the General to be either rejected at once or dealt with as de- scribed under the head of * Commissariat and Transport Department ' (p. 119). Officers, on marching in, choose their own quarters by seniority from the number taken over for officers of their rank or class. But, once properly in possession of a quarter. REGIMENTAL QUARTERS. 437 110 officer can be made to give it up to another of corre- sponding rank or class, however senior he may be ; that is ta say :— A Commanding ( cannot be dispos- ) ^ , . .. ^, ^^ i J T. h Commandmg Officer. Officer ( sessed by a j * A Field Officer „ „ Field Officer. A Captain ,, ,, Captain. A Lieutenant ,, ,, Lieutenant. But, as Captains and Lieutenants occupy the same class of quarters, a Captain has not only priority of choice origin- ally, but may further dispossess a Lieutenant of his quarters, even after the latter is in possession, if the former should, by arriving afterwards, or for any other reason, be not already provided with quarters. No officer has a right to a quarter he does not occupy, excepting that a Commanding Officer who lives out of barracks (whether he draws lodging allowance or not) may keep one room in barracks, and every married officer, allowed for his own convenience to live out of barracks, also has a right to one room if he does not draw lodging allowance. Lodging allowance in money is granted when, and when only, quarters are not available in barracks. An officer proceeding on duty or on leave for a period not exceeding one month may retain his quarters. If he be sent on duty or proceed on leave for a longer period, his quarters may be utilized, but then only for officers of that class or rank who would otherwise be entitled to them, unless, indeed, the officer's absence be more than temporary. Thus, for instance, the Commanding Officer's quarter cannot be occupied by the officer in temporary command during the former's winter leave of 2^ months ; but the officer in tem- porary command might be allowed to occupy these quarters if the command was vacant. The articles forming the equipment of any room or speci- fied premises are not to be removed to any other part by the 'Corps in occupation. 438 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. The beds of men in hospital, in the guard-room or regi- mental cells, and those of men on furlough not exceeding a fortnight are considered as occupied and cannot be utilized for other soldiers. Every person having independent rooms or quarters is responsible for their cleanliness and good order. In the barrack-rooms, each soldier attends to the cleanliness of a definite space immediately around his own bed, while the soldiers detailed in turn as orderly men of rooms set in order those portions of each room which are for the common use of all the occupants and attend to the fires, ventilation, &c. The floors of the rooms themselves are not to be washed oftener than once a week : on other days they are dry- scrubbed. In former times, when floor- washing was carried on to an absurd extent, the atmosphere of a barrack-room was like that of a laundry, and the damp resulting from the steam was a fruitful source of rheumatism and other dis- orders. Every room is in charge of a non-commissioned officer who is responsible to his suj^eriors for its cleanliness and good order. The occupants of buildings and rooms having staircases and passages in common must divide the work of keeping them clean. Troops in barracks, may, so far as security goes, be made to take charge of the whole, although the corps may only occupy part. Each barrack forms, so to speak, a minor command within the garrison ; and the senior combatant officer quartered within it may, acting within the limits of any superior orders, establish and enforce his own rules con- cerning the general police, cleanliness and good order of those portions of the premises which are common to all corps or unappropriated. No such animals as cows, pigs, goats, &c. , are to be kept in barracks. Horses, dogs and poultry must be kept within due limits and not allowed to stray. Most of the barrack services are performed by the inter- vention of the Commissariat Department. Such are the washing of bedding, the regulation of the gas and water supplies, the lighting of exterior lamps, the removal of EEGIMENTAL QUARTERS. 439 refuse and the sweeping of chimneys. Clock-winding is an Engineer service (performed by a contractor secured by the Commissariat Department). The Royal Engineer Depart- ment also attends to and supervises the removal of snow from roofs, the troops actually performing the work under its direction. Where there are gas chandeliers, the periodical watering is an Engineer service. The bedding in charge of a corps is periodically ex- changed for clean bedding from the Commissariat Depart- ment. Thus, paillasse and bolster cases are exchanged every 3 months, sheets every month, and blankets every year. But when the proper time for an exchange occurs shortly before a corps is about to leave a barrack, the exchange of bedding may be deferred until the departure of the corps, if the Commanding Officer has no objection. When clean bedding is required, the Commanding Officer sends the Com- missariat ofiicer a requisition (or ' certificate of exchange ') on Army Form F 704, and when the exchange takes place entries are made on both sides of both the Barrack- Serjeant's and Quartermaster's bedding books. If, by the fault of any soldier, any article of bedding has been unduly soiled or must necessarily be washed before it has been in use the proper period, it is sent in separately from the rest, or is separated by the Commissariat sub- ordinate. The washing of such articles is carried out and paid for separately, the cost being charged against the corps. This charge is entered on the right hand side of the inspec- tion report (Army Form P 1956). Ash-pits, as a rule, are emptied daily. Soil-pits and sewage-tanks, on the requisition of the Officer Commanding the corps or barracks. Disinfecting pits, drains, latrines, urinals, &c., is done by the troops, the materials being re- quisitioned from the Commissariat Department. Lime is used for pits and surface drains and requisitioned quarterly on Army Form F 732. Carbolic acid and cupralum or terebine powder are used for latrines and urinals. The articles are demanded by the Officer Commanding in the barracks from the Commissariat Department on a requisition countersigned 440 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. by the Medical officer in charge of the barracks who certifies to the necessity of the supply. Urine tubs are coated with, tar every 4 months. Every chimney for which fuel is drawn is swept monthly. The sweeping must take place in the presence of some person belonging to the corps ; therefore, when the contractor is about to attend at any barracks for the purpose of carrying out this service, he gives the Commissariat officer 24 hours' notice of his intention, so that the corps may be prepared. When the work is done, the Quartermaster (or some other officer on his behalf) gives the contractor a certificate which specifies in words and figures how many chimneys were swept and that a witness duly attended. The contractor's claim is certified for payment by the Commissariat officer on the production of this certificate from each corps. The Regulations for the Royal Engineer Department prescribe that (except by special permission of the Secretary of State) ordinary interior walls in barracks should be white- washed not oftener than every six months, but 7iot less frequeyitly than once a year. Exceptionally, latrines, urinals, sick horse-boxes, and rooms which have contained sick cases may be more frequently lime-whited. When, therefore, the Commanding Officer thinks any lime-whiting is required, he applies to the Commanding Royal Engineer of the Engineer sub-district. If the application comes in at the period when the usual quadrennial painting is to take place and if this painting is to be done by contract, the Commanding Royal Engineer informs the Commanding Officer that the contract includes the work of whitewashing. But this can only happen occasionally ; at other times, the Commanding Royal Engineer satisfies himself that the whitewashing is necessary and allowable according to the rules above given and then complies with the Commanding Officer's requisition which is made out on Army Form O 1778 and contains a demand for the requisite materials, brushes, &c. He returns tho requisition to the Commanding Officer and makes the neces- sary issues. The whitewashing is then carried out by the troops. When the work is done, the Commanding Officer REGIMENTAL — QUARTERS. 441 - once more sends the requisition to the Commanding Royal Engineer with what may remain unexpended of the materials, brushes, &c., and this form O 1778, properly filled up after the work has been inspected, serves as a voucher for issuing the working pay to the men. Every man should whitewash 80 yards a day with ^ a cubic foot of lime. The Officer Commanding the troops occupying any barrack or standing camp, or an officer not under the rank of Captain deputed by him, inspects the whole of the pre- mises occupied by the corps during the first week in each month, except in those months when the Royal Engineer and Commissariat quarterly insjDections occur. The Quarter- master attends the inspecting officer throughout these inspections. Officers commanding troops, batteries, and < companies are present during the inspection of their own rooms, out-buildings and stables ; the Riding-Master attends at that of the riding-school and the Veterinary Surgeon at that of the infirmary. At these monthly inspections the buildings and fixtures -are examined and also the expense stores and bedding. Note is taken of all repairs necessary to the fabric and fixtures, distinguishing between those chargeable to fair wear and those to be paid for by the troops. Similarly, damaged articles of stores which it is proposed to exchange or repair and articles which are deficient are noted. As regards the stores in rooms, they are generally laid out -on the floor for comparison with the inventory boards. After this inspection, requisitions are made out on the Royal Engineer and on the Commissariat Departments respectively to set right the damages and deficiencies : those concerning the fabric and fixtures are sent to the Divisional Officer of the Royal Engineer Department, while the requisitions concerning expense stores go to the Commis- sariat officer in charge. When it may be essential that repairs to buildings or fixtures should be carried out without any delay, interme- • diate requisitions for immediate and urgent repairs may be 442 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. sent to the Divisional Officer. But these requisitions should only be put in when absolutely necessary. Separate requisitions are made out for those repairs necessitated by fair wear and for those to be paid for by the troops. The forms used for requisitions on the Royal Engineer Department are the following : — I Army Form K 1307, at stations with varying rates of percentage. Army Form K 1309, at stations with uniform rates of percentage. ^ . ^. /Army Form K 1309, at stations with For immediate • x r x J varying rates of percentage. and urgent i^^^y Form K 1306, at stations with repairs [ yj^^f^j-j^ rates of percentage. If the Commanding Royal Engineer considers that any of the repairs for damages attributed to fair wear should have been classed as chargeable to the troops, he communi- cates with the Commanding Officer of the corps, and if the matter cannot be adjusted between the two officers, reference is made to the General or other Officer Commanding whose decision is final. When the General decides against the Commanding Royal Engineer, the latter forwards the corre- spondence, through the General himself, to the War Office. So also, as regards the expense stores forming the equipment of the barracks or other premises : the Command- ing Officer sends in a requisition on Army Form F 765 to the Commissariat officer in charge for as many serviceable articles from the expense store as will replace deficiencies and articles returned as damaged or worn out. The de- ficiencies and damages are entered on the requisition as intended to be charged against the public or against the troops, according to the assessment made by the Commanding Officer or regimental inspecting officer. The regimental assessment of charges is either accepted or disputed by the Commissariat officer. If, in the latter- case, he fails in coming to an understanding about the REGIMENTAL QUARTERS. 443 matter in dispute with the Commanding Officer, he puts the case in the hands of the Senior Commissariat Officer who reports upon it to the General, in the same way that the Commanding Royal Engineer reports upon disputed barrack damages, and the General deals with the point in the same manner also. Once a quarter, occupied barracks and other buildings are inspected by the Divisional Officer of the Royal Engineer Department. Quarters at distant out-stations need not be in- spected by the Royal Engineer Department quite so frequently. At the quarterly Royal Engineer inspection of buildings and fixtures, the Engineer officer examines all repairs executed during the past quarter, and he assesses all damages to be paid for by the troops on his inspection report, which is drawn out in duplicate on Army Form P 1923 and which he passes up to the Commanding Royal Engineer of the District. The damages themselves are entered on the report ; but the cost of repairing them, not having been ascertained at this stage, is not yet entered in its place. The Commanding Royal Engineer sends the report in this form to the Commanding Officer of the corps concerned in order that he may acknowledge by his signature that the damages are set down correctly. This done, the report is returned to the Commanding Royal Engineer. Meanwhile, this officer has caused the value of the repairs to be ascertained. The cost is then entered in detail, item by item, on the report, and he causes two copies of Army Form K 1280 (' letter transmitting claim for barrack damages ') to be made out. He then notifies to the Com- manding Officer of the corps what this charge is by forwarding him a copy of K 1280 inclosing one of P 1923 (with the damages now moneyed out). The Commanding Officer keeps the copy of the inspection report, and acknowledges the re- ceipt of it on the copy of K 1280 which he returns to the Com- manding Royal Engineer. He may, of course, appeal against a charge in the usual way. The estimate of the cost of all Engineer repairs charge- 444 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. able to each corps is prepared for the District Paymaster by the Commanding Royal Engineer on Army Form P 1960. The second copy of K 1280 incloses the estimate. The District Paymaster signs K 1280 in acknowledgment of receipt and returns it to the Commanding Royal Engineer. He keeps P 1960 to vouch his accounts. When the repairs have been duly completed, the Com- manding Royal Engineer transmits to the Commanding Officers of corps, &c., the original copy of the inspection report P 1923. Each Commanding Officer can check this document by his duplicate. He signs the certificate at the foot of the original that the repairs have been carried out, and he then returns the original copy of the inspection report to the Oommanding Royal Engineer. The Commanding Royal Engineer appends all the inspec- tion reports (bearing, as each now does, the acknowledg- ment of the Commanding Officer concerned that his repairs have been executed) to the contractor's bill when he certifies it correct. These documents thus vouch the bill when it is presented for payment. The bill, thus certified and vouched, is the intimation received by the District Paymaster that he may pay the con- tractor. As a general rule, the regimental Paymaster credits the War Office and debits himself with the amount due under the head of ' Paymasters' advances ' ; the District Pay- master debiting the War Office and crediting himself under the same heading. When the matter is thus adjusted, no cash passes. But, occasionally, it is found more convenient for the District Paymaster to obtain a cash payment. In either case he must state where credit will be found. The Commissariat officer in charge also inspects all occupied barracks, &c., every quarter, and himself assesses damages, being accompanied by a regimental officer detailed for the duty. The Commissariat officer signs this officer's note-book of damages, losses, &c. The officers who attend at monthly inspections are also present at the quarterly REGIMENTAL QUARTERS. 445- inspection and, each for his own portion of the charge, signs, the Commissariat officer's note-book. Both after his own quarterly inspections and after the monthly inspections held regimentally, the Commissariat officer makes out inspection reports in triplicate on Army Form P 1956, on which the value of all deficiencies and damages chargeable to the troops and the cost of any wash- ing incurred (as before stated) for bedding unduly soiled is made out. At this inspection, articles of expense stores found to be so damaged by the troops that they are unfit for further use are at oiice to he broken up in the j)resence of the inspecting regimental officer if no objection against the charge is made by him. The charge itself will be for the full value of the article if it is new or nearly so ; but, in the case of articles already worn before they became thus damaged, a rebate may be made in the charge assessed against the troops according to the wear the article had undergone. But at least half the price must always be charged whenever it is decided that an article is, by the action or part action of the troops, unfitted for further use. The three copies of the inspection report are sent to the Commanding Officer for signature. He either certifies to their correctness or appeals against some charge. If he ,thus appeals, the Commissariat officer in charge refers the matter to the Senior Commissariat Officer to be dealt with in the usual way. But, pending decision by the War Office, the corps must pay a charge persevered in by the Senior Commissariat Officer if the General Officer Command- ing has been unable to settle the matter. When no demur is made, or when the appeal is settled, or before the claim is settled (if the matter goes to the War Office), the three copies of the inspection report being signed by the Commanding Officer, he retains one copy and returns the two others to the Commissariat officer. The latter officer also signs them as correct if they are quarterly reports ; otherwise, he only signs the certificate of cost. He then sends both copies to the District Paymaster, who recovers. 446 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. the money by adjustment of accounts with the Paymaster of the corps or occasionally by a cash transaction, signs the receipt certificate upon the forms of report, specifies upon them where the sum will be found credited, keeps one copy of the inspection report as a debit voucher for the money he has obtained and returns the other copy to the Com- missariat officer to vouch his expense store account. Thus it will be observed that the sums due both for Engineer and Commissariat damages are usually credited to himself and debited to the War Office by the District Pay- master while they are credited to the War Office by regi- mental Paymasters, after the Commanding Officer has acknowledged the claims shown by the Engineer and Com- missariat inspection reports respectively. If, however, the Paymaster of a corps should exception- ally, for any reason, pay cash for damages to the District- Paymaster, the credit to the public is given by this officer and not by the regimental Paymaster ; and this credit is shown in the accounts of the former and not of the latter officer. It is necessary to observe that the sum to be credited to the public on the particular vouchers above described for either Engineer or Commissariat damages may be, in one instance, liable to a certain rebate. The regimental Pay- master, it has already been said, credits the public with sums due from soldiers on account of regimental articles damaged, lost, &c., such as equipment, clothing, &c., and occasionally this credit is given on account of the sentences of courts-martial, or of the orders of the Competent Military Authority placing men under stoppages. But stoppages thus awarded sometimes include (inseparably mixed up with those for regimental articles) stoppages for damages to buildings, fixtures, or expense stores. As it is ordered that these stop- pages are to be recovered by regimental Paymasters and shown in their accounts vouched by Army Forms P 1954 and P 1963, this much of any stoppages due by the corps for Engineer or Commissariat damages must be deducted from the sum to be credited to the public in the manner REGIMENTAL — QUARTERS. 447 before described ; otherwise the amount would be recovered from the corps twice. Therefore, when the inspection reports come in to the Commanding Officer for acknowledgment, that much of the amount due for damages which has thus been necessarily credited regimentally is stated by him in a certificate which he appends to the claim, and that amount is abated from the sum credited. In the same way, the public must bear the cost of damages caused by, and definitely charged to, some specified soldier become non-effective, on a certificate that it is impossible to recover the value from his estate. Also, it must be stated that when a corps is about to embark for foreign service, the Engineer and Commissariat damages are sent to the re^imetitoZ Paymaster and credited by him to the public. If the troops themselves have the means of repairing the damages which are chargeable to them, there is no reason why such damages should appear in the Engineer inspection reports, as anything which is injured can be at once repaired by the regimental Artificers as soon as the damage is noticed. The corps would, in that case, pay its own workmen its own prices for the labour and materials, and the amount would be recovered from the men or from the troops, batteries or companies chargeable. But it is still necessary that the Royal Engineer Department should inspect all such repairs in order to ascertain that they have been properly carried out ; and therefore, whenever this method of repairs is adopted (which it should be whenever it is possible), the Commanding Officer of the corps sends in to the Commanding Royal Engineer a monthly return of all repairs thus executed, on Army Form K 1278. Even fair wear repairs may be executed by the troops, and should be so to the extent practicable. In this case the Commanding Royal Engineer applies for the working parties who work under their own non-commissioned officers, the execution being supervised by a member of the Royal Engineer Department. These repairs being chargeable to 448 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. the public, the men get working pay. Individual Artificers: may also be employed to work for the Royal Engineer De- partment by arrangement with the Commanding Officer. Whenever regimental labour is not available, the current repairs are executed by the workmen of the Royal Engineer triennial contractor. As to the repairs for damages to expense stores, assessed by the Commissariat Department, they are executed, and the work paid for, under Commissariat rules. The usual rule is for the Commissariat officer to issue serviceable articles from the expense store in lieu of all assessed deficiencies or articles- damaged, the latter being taken into the expense store to be passed on for repair to the Ordnance Store Department workshops, where any such shops are conveniently available. But where this course cannot be followed, the Commissariat Department may make other arrangements as previously mentioned (p. 131) ; one method being to utilize regimental workshops. Therefore, if the troops execute this class of" repairs, they do so only indirectly, paying the damages to the Commissariat Department, their own Artificers afterwards working for that department and being remunerated for the work done. The marching-out inspection takes place when troops are leaving a barrack or other quarter. An officer not under the rank of Captain and a party similarly composed to that detailed for taking over barracks at marching-in inspections- is told off by the Commanding Officer of the corps to hand over the quarters and other premises. When a corps is pro- ceeding by sea from Great Britain to Ireland or vice versd, it often takes some days to perform the journey. In this case, the party left behind to hand over barracks may often have time to carry out that duty and (travelling by rail and steam packet) yet arrive at the new quarter before the corps, where it may proceed to carry out the marching-in inspection,, thus obviating the necessity for detailing two parties. The marching-out inspection is, in most respects, the converse of the marching-in inspection. But, of course, at a marching-in, there are no damages to assess ; whereas at a REGIMENTAL — QUARTERS. 44^ cnarching-out, there always are. In this respect, therefore, the marching-out inspection rather resembles the quarterly- inspections of the Royal Engineer and Commissariat De- partments, both departments being represented, as at the marching-in. Of course, however, officers commanding troops or companies, Riding-Masters, &c., cannot be present as at quarterly inspections. When one corps relieves another in one set of quarters, the marching-out inspection of the one corps is usually, as a matter of convenience, proceeded with simultaneously with the marching-in inspection of the other. When a corps leaves one quarter at home for another also at home, the Commissariat inspection reports (Army Form P 1956) in triplicate are sent to the Commanding Officer as at quarterly inspections, notwithstanding that he may have left the station ; and he returns the two copies signed, as usual, to the Commissariat officer in charge at the station he has left. But when a corps is moving between a home station and a foreign station, the officer left behind to hand over barracks signs the three copies of the inspection report. The copy for the Commanding Officer is then sent after him. He, seeing that his officer has signed to the correctness of the charges, countersigns this copy and passes it to his Paymaster to serve as his authority for recovering the money from the in- dividuals, troops, companies, &c., who may be chargeable, and as a voucher for crediting the public in his accounts under the head of ' Paymasters' advances.^ Of the two copies of the inspection report remaining in the hands of the Commissariat officer in charge at the station quitted by the corps, that officer forwards one, through the Senior Commissariat Officer, to the Accountant- General at the War Office and retains the other to vouch his own store account. If the corps quits the station without leaving any officer behind to hand over quarters, the Commissariat officer him- self makes a careful inspection, draws out the triplicate reports and certifies to the correctness of the assessment of I. G a 450 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTKATION. damages. He keeps one copy for his account, and sends the other two to the Senior Commissariat Officer, who forwards one copy to the Commanding Officer of the corps and the other to the Accountant-General. The District Paymaster of the District or command quitted by the corps credits himself and debits the War Office with the amount chargeable to the corps under the head of ' Paymasters' advances,' the account being thus ad- justed, as before, between him and the Paymaster of the corps. Temporary Quarters. Under the head of ' Equipment ' it was stated that a corps demands camp equipment only when required. When, how- ever, troops are placed under canvas, the shelter is com- posed entirely of tents which have a number of accessory stores, such as buckets, lanterns, mallets, &c. &c., all of which articles are held on charge by the corps itself in the same way as it holds arms and similar stores ; therefore the Engineer and Commissariat Departments have not the same duties of supervision over temporary camps which they have over barracks and their equipments. Damages to camp equipment are damages to the regiment's own stores and are not treated as those to the fabric and fixtures of barracks or as those to expense stores. It may here be stated that, in times of peace, one regulation circular tent ^ is usually allotted to every 8 or 12 men. When tents are used simply to eke out insufficient permanent accommodation and movement is not anticipated, the former number is that generally put into a tent ; but at manoeuvres, 12 men at least would be put into it. The full complement on active service is 15 men, and it has been made to accommodate as many as 20. We do not purpose, however, to discuss in this place the question of temporary camps. What has been said above is 1 Interior height, 10 feet ; diameter of base 12^ feet ; diameter of pin-circle, 15^ feet; weight (with pole and pins) when dry, 73 lbs. when wet, about 90 lbs. REGIMENTAL QUARTERS. 451 sufficient as regards the capacity of tents when used as sup- plementary to permanent quarters or in lieu of them ; the further use of temporary camps in peace at manoeuvres, &c. , is an imitation, for training purpose, of field encampments, concerning which we shall have something to say in the Second Part of this book when dealing with active service. A few words are necessary concerning billets. According to law, officers, soldiers and horses may be billeted only in the houses of licenced victuallers as defined by Sect. 104 Army Act. Billets are demanded at the police station from the senior police officer in charge of the town or village. He has a right to see the route under authority of which the party is travelling. Practically, it is usual, before starting on a march, to make out ' billeting rolls ' of all officers, men and horses who are actually to march with the corps or body of troops proceeding. An officer (often the Quartermaster) or a trust- worthy non-commissioned officer with a small party of a few men precede the corps by one day, carrying with them the route and the billeting rolls. The officer communicates with the police officer in charge of the place and obtains the necessary billet papers. He allots the billets on the rolls so that the men and horses composing the several fractions of the corps (troops, companies, divisions, sub-divisions, &c.) shall be near to one another. The officers and staff of the corps are usually placed as centrally as possible in the town, the several portions of the corps being placed in succession all round. All billets are to be within a mile of the place mentioned in the route unless, at the request of the commander of the corps or party, a justice of the peace orders the distance to be extended. Whenever suitable accommodation can be found in victualling houses near at hand, these are to be utilized instead of those more remote. Whenever it is possible, a soldier is to be billeted in the same place as his horse. Except, also, in cases of necessity, one soldier at least is to be billeted wherever one or two horses are billeted ; two soldiers, at least, where there are gg2 452 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. four horses, and so on, in proportion. No horse should be more than 100 yards away from his rider. Also a Com- manding Officer may require, wherever it is practicable, that not less than two men shall be billeted in the same house. The commander of the billeting party, provided with his billeting papers and with the billeting rolls filled in, meets the corps on its arrival and hands over the rolls and papers to the Commanding Officer or Adjutant for distribution. The inn-keeper on whom an officer is billeted is bound to provide him with lodging and attendance only. The inn- keeper on whom a soldier is billeted provides him with lodging, attendance, and (on the day of arrival and each succeeding day, not exceeding two days if the soldier be halted) with a hot meal each day to consist of the ration ' in billets,' as prescribed on p. 375. On such days as the hot meal cannot be demanded the soldier still has a right to candles, vinegar and salt, and the use of fire and cooking utensils. Victuallers on whom horses are billeted must provide daily for each horse stabling and the usual forage ration of 10 lbs. of oats, 12 lbs. of hay and 8 lbs. of straw. For this accommodation the inn-keeper is entitled to a remuneration fixed from time to time by Parliament in the Army Annual Act. An officer proceeding in command of a party on the march takes money with him (which he obtains on imprest from the Paymaster) wherewith he settles the claims of all persons on whom officers, soldiers or horses have been biUeted, before he leaves ; or, if the corps be detained in the place, at the end of periods not exceeding 4 days each. If he should run short of cash or fail for any reason to settle accounts, he must, before leaving, make up each person's account and transmit the bill, acknowledged by his signature, to the Secretary of State for War. REGIMENTAL TRAYELLING AND TRANSPORT. 453 VII. TRAVELLING AND TRANSPORT. The movement of bodies of troops, or of individual officers and soldiers within the United Kingdom is effected by rail, by sea, or by march. The sea voyage is of course the only means available of travelling to foreign stations. Under certain circumstances, individuals and small parties are con- veyed inland by such wheel carriages or m eans of conveyance as may be available. This is the case for certain persons who are not expected to march, when other means of conveyance do not exist. Mounted officers are required to use their horses as a means of conveyance for distances not exceeding 10 miles, unless the service be urgent or of a nature which prevents their returning the same day. In the case of bodies of troops, it may be said that, at home stations, the most frequently used method of locomotion from one station to another is, for Infantry, the railway, and, for mounted corps, the route march. From seaports and their neighbourhood, however, sea passages, being cheaper than railway journeys, are preferred, even at the cost of long detours ; and, of course, movements to Ireland and the Channel Islands must necessarily be, in part at least, by sea. Obviously also, two or all three of the methods of travelling may be combined during one movement, each being applied to a certain stage or to certain stages of it. The order to a corps or body of troops to hold itself in readiness for a movement, whether it originally emanates from the Horse Guards or from District head-quarters, always reaches it from the latter, being inserted in District orders by the Assistant- Adjutant-General, and copied thence into regimental orders. The Assistant-Quarter-Master-General makes all the necessary arrangements which cannot be carried out regi- mentally. When small parties are leaving a station (or even considerable bodies, if they are proceeding on some temporary duty from which they are to return), there is little else to do than to issue a route. But when a corps is about to leave the station permanently, many other things must 454 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. be done. Notification must be made of the movement, as early as practicable after the definite day of departure is known, to all heads of departments ; arrangements may be necessary with railway companies or the naval authorities ; it may be necessary to give directions concerning the baggage ; &c. &c. The heads of the Royal Engineer and Commissariat De- partments take the proper steps concerning the marching-out inspection. The Commissariat officer in charge also has to get in all the final vouchers connected with his supply accounts, and, unless the corps itself is ordered to arrange for the convey- ance of baggage, this duty will also devolve on the Commis- sariat and Transport Department. The Senior Ordnance Store Officer gives the necessary directions for receiving back all ammunition except 20 ball cartridges for men of guards and escorts. He also counter- mands any issue upon requisitions received for equipment stores, &c., which may not yet have been complied with, signing the list of such stores which the Officer Commanding has submitted to him in acknowledgment that the requisi- tions have been received, but issue withheld. He may also have to arrange for receiving bulky articles of equipment stores, which, on account of the expense of carriage, it may be advisable that the Commanding Officer should return to store and demand afresh at his new station. The Principal Medical Officer instructs the Medical officer in charge of the hospital to hand over to the Commanding Officer the medical history sheets of all men who are not to remain behind. Also, whenever a considerable body of troops is moving, he details a Medical officer to accompany the troops in Medical charge.^ 1 A Medical officer is detailed to accompany all parties of 200 men, by whatever method they may travel. Sometimes it may be necessary to send a Medical officer with smaller parties. Parties of 50 men and upwards, travelling by sea, are to be provided with a Medical officer, except for short passages in the United Kingdom, in H.M. troop-ships, when parties not exceeding 100 men in full health may be placed tem- porarily in naval medical charge. REaiMENTAL TRAVELLINa AND TRANSPORT. 455 And so on. When the Commanding Officer has received the route, it is filled in with the numbers of all ranks who are to travel and, if a movement by railway is contemplated, a warrant or warrants are obtained from the Paymaster. Whole corps, when travelling from one station to another by sea, do so in Her Majesty's ships under the arrangements of the Director of Transports at the Admiralty. Corps, drafts, &c., pro- ceeding between home and foreign stations, travel either in the same way or in hired or chartered vessels, also provided by the Director of Transports. For such sea passages no warrants are, of course, required. But small parties travel by ordinary packet boats. Steam packets are not under an .Act of Parliament compelling them to carry troops as rail- ways are, but the War Department has agreements with most of the lines frequented by troops and warrants may be given whereby to obtain passage at the Government rates. A party is at once detailed, composed as before described (see p. 433), to precede the corps and take over barracks at the new station, unless the corps is to travel by sea and will take some time travelling, when, as before stated, the party left behind to attend to the marching-out inspection may, after doing so, also carry out the marching-in inspection. These parties travel on separate routes. The medical history sheets of all men about to travel are procured from the Medical officer in charge of the hospital. The Commanding Officer, at those stations where no Stafi" officer exists, gives the station-master notice of any movement of troops by rail that may be ordered at least one day before the movement is to take place. The Quartermaster, as soon as the route is received, makes regimental arrangements for closing all ration returns and other supply accounts. In amove on home service. Army Form F 748 is sent to the new station demanding rations. The certificate on Army Form F 743 concerning rations supplied is obtained from the Commissariat officer in charge at the station which the corps is about to quit. The 456 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Quartermaster also makes arrangements as to the convey- ance of the baggage. The actual operations of moving troops by rail, as appli^ cable to each arm of the service, are detailed in Section XVI. Queen's Regulations. It may be said here, however, that a compartment constructed for 10 ordinary passengers is esti- mated to accommodate 8 soldiers, and those for 8 passengers accommodate 6 soldiers. The soldiers' valises and arms travel in the men's possession and are stowed in the compartment,, with the exception of lances which are collected before the men enter the train and are carried in separate carriages. The details of the points to be observed in the embarka- tion and disembarkation of troops and during sea passages are given in Section XYII. of the Queen's Regulations. These details are too voluminous to be here repeated, and moreover refer more to discipline and good order than to administrative matters. When officers travel on duty alone, or with their servants only, they obtain no route. They simply pay their own ex- penses and recover the amount afterwards from Government. Or they may obtain money ' on imprest ' from the Paymaster and account for its expenditure afterwards. Railways being compelled to carry officers on duty at the rate of 2d. per mile in first-class carriages, officers may not charge railway fares in their claims at a higher rate. If the ordinary first- class fare be at a lower rate, they can charge no more ; but if it be at a higher rate, they can travel at the Government rate by producing a copy of the order to proceed at the time of booking. The Railway Act of 1844 contains no stipulation as to the conveyance by any particular class of carriage of any person under the rank of a commissioned officer further than that such persons are entitled to carriages * provided with seats with sufficient space for the reasonable accommodation of the persons conveyed, and which shall be protected against the weather.' Therefore warrant officers and non-commissioned officers (for instance) cannot claim, as a matter of right, second-^ class accommodation. KEGIMENTAL TRAVELLING AND TRANSPORT. 457 But the arrangements of the War Department with steam packet companies are open agreements not regulated by any Act of Parliament ; and here a warrant officer and non- commissioned officer of Class I. may claim second-class accom- modation, provided it he available. Section XI. of the ' Allowance Regulations ' gives the rules as to the free conveyance of married soldiers' families. Usually, the families of all men on the married establish-- ment are provided with conveyance at the public expense, and subsistence allowance is granted to them when travelling-^ without troops for railway journeys exceeding 20 miles, or a mileage allowance for journeys necessarily performed on foot. An allowance is also made for detention, or when the soldier is billeted whose family is travelling with him. In certain very exceptional cases, the families of men not on the married roll may also receive travelling expenses and allowances. Officers' families are not, as a general rule, allowed to travel at the public expense. Exceptionally, however, free sea passages may be granted to the families of regimental officers under the following circumstances, it being understood that sons over 16 years of age (unless bodily or mentally infirm) and married daughters may not be included as part of a family. The families of Quartermasters are always allowed to ac- company them by sea, except on those special voyages when no women and children are permitted to travel with the troops. The families of officers promoted from the ranks while serving abroad are allowed free passage on the first voyage after the officer's promotion. The families of officers doing duty with troops embarked upon a ship belonging to, or wholly chartered by, the Govern- ment may, as an indulgence, be given free passages if they ba allowed to accompany the troops and spare room exists on board the ship. In all cases, however, the messing of the ladies, sons, and daughters is not included in these free passages and must be paid for, as well as that of any female servant (not otherwise entitled to a passage) who may be allowed to accompany the family. 458 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKT ADMINISTRATION. It is necessary to say something on the returns forwarded on embarkation and on disembarkation. Previous to an embarkation of troops to or from a foreign station or at one foreign station for another, a return on Army Form B 144 is sent to the Quarter-Master-General at the Horse Guards, as soon as it may be called for, giving the numbers to be embarked. Any casualties which may occur, altering the figures, are immediately notified by forwarding amended copies of the return on the same form to the Quarter-Master-General. Corresponding details of numbers to those entered on Army Form B 144 are, in the case of drafts and detachments, however small, entered at the last moment before proceeding to embark on duplicate copies of Army Form B 143, by (or under the direction of) the Officer Commanding the corps or depot from which the party is despatched and handed to the officer or non-commissioned officer proceeding in command of the draft or detachment. When a whole corps is about to proceed by sea, an ' em- barkation return' is prepared beforehand in triplicate on Army Form B 141 by the Officer Commanding, who carries it with him on board the ship. An officer of the Quarter-Master-General's division of the Staff always superintends the embarkation of every corps or draft. When a complete corps embarks, he receives from the Commanding Officer the three copies of the embarkation re- turn B 141. When smaller parties embark, he receives from the commander (or several commanders) the two copies of B 143 and, after checking them with Army Form B 144, from them himself fills in Army Form B 126 {' em1)arkation returns for drafts and detachments '). The three copies of the embarkation return thus obtained by the Staff officer superintending an embarkation are handed in by him to the General Officer Commanding the District in which the embarkation takes place. These returns contain an enumeration of all persons em- barked, specifying the rank and condition of each officer, soldier, civilian servant, lady, soldier's wife, and child, cor- rected up to the moment of embarkation. REGIMENTAL — TRAVELLINa AND TRANSPORT. 459 The General keeps one copy and sends on the other two immediately to the Quarter-Master-General at the Horse Guards. Independently of the embarkation returns, officers in charge of drafts proceeding to India hand over to the Staff officer superintending the embarkation a nominal roll of all the men composing the draft, showing the age and date of enlistment of each man. This roll (which is previously pre- pared at the depot) is made out in duplicate on Army Form B 167. The officer in charge is responsible that all changes since the draft left the depot are duly entered. The Staff officer forwards the roll to the Adjutant-General. The Officer Commanding the troops must, on embarka- tion on board of one of H.M. ships, hand over to the Naval Officer Commanding the following returns : — 1. A nominal seniority list of officers embarked, showing the appropriation of the cabins. 2. A numerical list of Staff-Serjeants. 3. A numerical list of non-commissioned officers and men not including Staff-Serjeants. 4. A list of temperance men and women embarked, noting those who wish to receive tea and sugar instead of porter. 5. A return of all ammunition which may accompany the troops on board. When the embarkation is on board a hired ship, the following documents must be handed to the master : — 1. Duplicate copies of the embarkation return, on Admiralty Forms. 2. Detailed list of children, showing ages. 3. A list of temperance men and women embarked, noting those who wish to receive tea and sugar instead of porter. A careful medical inspection is held of all troops previous to embarkation for foreign or home service. Soldiers' families are provided with a health certificate on Army Form 460 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. B 155, without which they cannot be embarked. Every officer whose family is allowed to embark must produce a . medical certificate that every member of the family is free from infection and otherwise fit to be embarked. On disembarkation, an officer from the Quarter-Master- General's division of the Staff meets the ship to superintend the operation. He receives from the Officer Commanding the troops (who has previously prepared them) triplicate copies - of the disembarkation return (Army Form B 135 for regi- ments, B 125 for detachments). These copies he hands over to the General Officer Commanding, who retains one copy and forwards the other two to the Quarter-Master- General. The Commanding Officer also delivers to the Staff " officer any reports which he may have occasion to make con- cerning occurrences during the voyage, and, specifically, in the case of passages in hired ships, the voyage report. Concerning the conveyance of the baggage, the arrange- ments depend on the means by which the troops are moving and partly also on the resources at the station. Thus, when organized Commissariat and Transport convoys are available and it is not inconvenient to use them, they may be utilized by the Senior Commissariat Officer for the purpose of conveying the baggage of troops proceeding by march or to and from ships. When troops proceed by railway, organized transport, when available, may again be made use of to convey baggage to and from railway stations. Otherwise, the Quartermaster of the corps arranges him- self concerning the conveyance ; and, in any case, he takes all steps concerning the conveyance of the baggage by railway. But, before any transport is hired or impressed, care must be taken to ascertain from the Commissariat and Transport Department that organized transport is not available. The Army Act, Sect. 115 to 121, provides for the impress- ment of carriages for Army transport purposes when it may be necessary ; and Schedule III. of the same Act details the prices to be paid for this kind of transport and various regu- lations to be observed with respect to it. The use of impressed carriage is forbidden, except : — REGIMENTAL — TRAYELLING AND TRANSPORT. 461 1. In cases of emergency, where delay would be caused by hiring. 2. When transport cannot be hired. 3. When the charges for hired transport are excessive. In ordinary times, transport can only be impressed by requiring a magistrate to issue a warrant to a constable, who thereupon produces the vehicles. The Act confers on the Queen and, in Ireland, on the Lord Lieutenant further powers to impress carriages in cases •of great emergency, which powers, in these cases, extend to the impressment of boats, barges, and other means of inland- water carriage, which may be used to convey the troops them- selves, as well as baggage and stores. Baggage-guards are always supplied by the corps to convoys of organized military transport as well as to those composed of civil transport. The men of the Commissariat and Transport Corps are not responsible for the loading and unloading of any baggage which they may be ordered to convey. This work must be done by the troops. Civilian drivers, in the same way, are only responsible for the business of conducting and do not assist in loading or unloading. The Railway Act stipulates that the loading of baggage upon trains and the unloading it from them is to be per- formed by the troops ; fatigue parties are therefore sent to the railway station, before the troops march or after they have arrived, to carry out this duty. If the corps moving cannot provide the necessary fatigue parties, they must be obtained from other corps in garrison upon the representation of the Commanding Officer. Heavy baggage is embarked on board ship the day before the troops whenever it is possible to do so. The labour of getting the baggage on board and stowing it away is done by the troops, with the exception of the slinging, which is done by the seamen. The actual quantities of baggage allowed to be carried at the public expense are fixed, for regimental officers and men and their families and for regimental stores of all kinds, by 462 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. the scale given below. Staff and departmental officers are^ allowed somewhat greater quantities than the corresponding regimental officers of equal rank. Individual Allowances {Regimental). Lieutenant-Colonels, each 18 cwt. | including 8 cwt. for fur- Majors ,, 15 ,, ) niture. Captains „ 10 ,, | including 5 cwt. for fur- Lieutenants ,, 9 ,, j niture. In addition, mounted officers are allowed extra for horse equipment 2 cwt. for the first horse and 1 cwt. for every other horse for which they draw forage. Warrant officers . . . (ea^h 2 cwt. if single,. ( 3 cwt. if married. Non-commissioned officers ranking \ with Regimental-Quartermaster- 'each 2 cwt. married or Serjeant . . . . j single. Schoolmistresses . . . ^ other non-commissioned officers| ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ranking higher than Lance-Ser4 cwt. if married. jeants j Families on the establishment, of^ all married soldiers below the I each 1 cwt. above ranks . . . j Other soldiers are only entitled to their kits (which they carry on their persons and which are therefore not computed as baggage) and what may be carried for them in the troop, battery or company arm-chests as given below under the head of ' stores.' Stores. For a Regiment of Caimlry or Battalion of Infantry, Cwt. Quartermaster (including "j signalling stores, arti- 1 ficers' tools,old clothing, | &c.) ... J Paymaster Actual weight. For books. REGIMENTAL TRAVELLINa AND TRANSPORT. 463 For a Regiment of Cavalry or Battalion of Infanti^ (contJ). Orderly room Hospital . Armourer Shoemaker Tailor Band Recreation roor Officers' mess Serjeants' mess Q Cwt. 10 18 2 2 12 5 50 15 f Or 13 if attestations are con- t veyed. When necessarily conveyed. Actual weight. Special to Ca/oaVry. Riding-master . Saddler, Farrier, Saddle-tree Maker Arm-chests School . Veterinary stores and) 3 1 7 6 8 Each. Each troop, and 1 J cwt. addi- tional for every 10 men ( over 60 per troop. Special to Infant'i^y. Arm-chests 13 [Each company, and 1^ cwt. additional for every 10 School 8 men over 60 per company. Royal Artillery. (For each battery.) Quartermaster' Arm-chests Officers' mess Serjeants' mess School . Veterinary stoi Hospital . s stoi •es es . 13 9 3 2 5 Actual weight. jAnd 3 cwt. additional for 1 every£lO men over 60. f For each battery of Horse or I Field Artillery. (Actual weight when neces- t sarily conveyed. 464 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Royal Engineers, Commissariat and Transport Corjys and Ordnance Store Corps. (For each troop or company.) Quartermaster — viz.^l Cwt. spare necessaries, de- y — Actual weight. serters' kits, &c. • j For arm-chests, accou-] rAnd 3 cwt. additional for every 10 men over 60 in ( each troop or company. trement - chests, sta- |- tionery-chests, &c. j 13 School .... 2 For each company of Royal Orderly room, pay office, |^ &c. . . . J 2 " Engineers. The weight of the arm-chests includes that of the follow- ing articles : — Waterproof -bags, Squad-bags, Black-bags or kit-bags, Stationery-chests, Troop, battery, or company store-chests, Spare arm-chests. When a detachment of less strength than a troop, battery, •or company, but not less than 20 men, moves, it is, of course, not accompanied by the arm-chest ; and therefore each soldier is allowed an extra 20 lbs. weight of baggage. In smaller parties the men must carry their own kit-bags. The charge against the public for the conveyance of the actual weight (not to exceed 32 cwt.) of certain specified extra stores is allowed to a battery of Artillery, when they must be necessarily conveyed ; the charge being supported by a list of the stores. When troops are proceeding by sea, further rules are enforced as to the dimensions of the packages in which the baggage is to be packed. All baggage, with certain specified exceptions, must be packed in rectangular boxes of patterns fixed by the War Office. There are four patterns, which may be inspected at the Royal Army Clothing Depot, Pimlico. The outside measurements are : — EEGIMENTAL- — TRAVELLINa AND TRANSPORT. 465 ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. cub. ft. cwt. No. I. 3 6x22 „ 11. 3 4x1 10 x2 X 1 8 15 or 3 of baggage. 10 „ 2 „ III. 2 6x2 X 1 5 ,, 1 „ lY. 2 2 x 1 2 X 1 2i„ i The exceptions are— Arm-chests, Musical instrument cases, Lance-chests, Tool-chests, Chests or cases supplied by- Government, Forge, Officers' bedsteads, Valises for officer's bedding, The baggage of soldiers' families when proceeding at home, on coastwise Officers' tubs, Bullock-trunks, passages, or on passages to or from Ireland or the Portmanteaus, Channel Islands, or short Tin uniform-cases, distances by water abroad. The cubic measurement of each of the above packages must be marked in paint outside. Baggage for sea voyages must be packed so that the bulk of every hundredweight shall not exceed 5 cubic feet. When officers' families proceed, under the circumstances before stated, in vessels belonging to or hired by the Govern- ment, they are allowed the following weight of baggage : — Each officer's wife together with children ] under 14 years of age . . . . j ^^ ' Each officer's son or daughter over 14 years \ of age (limited in number to those be- I ^ cwt. fore described) J The regimental baggage travelling by railway or sea is divided into 'light' and 'heavy' baggage. The former is a small quantity of articles more immediately necessary than the rest ; while the heavy baggage contains the bulk of the regi- mental stores and heavier goods. In the case of railway journeys, the amount of light baggage is not to exceed that which is carried free by rail- way companies with each passenger. This amount travels in the same train with the troops and is computed at the rate of I. H H 466 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. 1 cwt. per officer and ^ cwt. for every other person. The 1 cwt. thus allowed to the officer is deducted from his allow- ance as before given ; but the soldier's ^ cwt. is not abated from the allowance prescribed for him. Wlien travelling hy railway, but then only, he may take the benefit of this allow- ance to carry extra articles, but the Government will not be at any cost for carrying such extra weight, as, for instance, for carting to or from a station. The heavy baggage travels at a charge recovered from the Government and fixed by the Railway Act at 2d. per ton per mile. When troops proceed by sea, the light baggage is limited ^to small parcels. Every officer is allowed two No. III. boxes ; every soldier's wife one box not higher than 14 inches ; these articles go into the cabins. The men have access at all times to their valises (or, if embarked without valises, to their kit- or waterproof -bags) and to the bags con- taining their sea-kits. All the rest is heavy baggage and goes into the ship's baggage-room ; but on long voyages certain packages containing changes of clothing are specially marked and stowed near the baggage-room door so as to be occasion- ally accessible. All baggage for sea voyages must be carefully marked and labelled as laid down in the Queen's Regulations, Sect. XYII. The amount expended by a corps for the carriage of its baggage is debited to the War Office and credited to himself by the Paymaster in his pay-list, the entry being supported by a voucher showing, when the baggage is conveyed by land, the actual weight under each heading, and, when conveyed by water, the weight and raeasurement. The voucher is itself supported by receipted sub-vouchers and must bear a certificate signed by the Commissariat officer in charge, that organized transport was not available for use. The form of the voucher is, For Cavalry . . Army Form P 1903 Artillery Engineers Infantry P1902 P1904 P1905 All bodies of troops and individual officers and soldiers. REGIMENTAL — TRAVELLING AND TRANSPORT. 467 moving on duty, are exempt from the payment of any tolls on roads, over bridges, at dockyard entrances, &c. ; and so are all vehicles conveying baggage and stores. Officers and soldiers, while marching or travelling in •other ways or while temporarily detained at stations while they are moving or where they have been sent on duty, are entitled, under certain circumstances, to travelling alloioances or marching cdloivances. These allowances (which vary according to the circumstances) are awarded, over and above the expenses, to indemnify the persons concerned for extra cost of messing, accommodation, &c. It is, therefore, well to remember that travelling expenses and travelling alloivances are distinct things. When officers travel with troops, the cost of any convey- ance by railway or sea will evidently be covered by the route and warrants, and also the cost of the conveyance of baggage will be included in the general charge for the whole corps or party proceeding and will be vouched, in the same way, by the route or warrants. But when officers travel on duty alone or with only their servants, they never obtain routes or warrants, and the charges for railway tickets, steamboat fares, &c., and for conveyance of baggage as well as for travelling allowance are all entered for recovery on a claim made out on Army Form O 1771. This claim is sent to the regimental Paymaster of the corps to which the officer belongs or is attached. Cab-hire is allowed to an officer travelling alone or with only his servant to and from railway stations, wharves, &c., whatever be the distance, if baggage is necessarily carried, and also when no baggage is carried, if the distance exceeds 2 miles. The Paymaster can check the correctness of the fares charged by the known local rates, consequently, no sub- vouchers are required to the claim for ordinary cab- hire. Reasonable petty expenses, if clearly necessary, are Also entered on the claim unvouched ; but all other entries of items of money spent must be supported by receipts. The claim becomes a Paymaster's voucher and is sub-vouched by the receipts attached. As regards the necessary travelling expenses, and regu- H H 2 468 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. lated travelling allowances and marching allowances of war- rant officers, non-commissioned officers and men, and those of their families, they are advanced to the commander of the party by the Paymaster of the corps to which he belongs. The Paymaster debits the amount to the War Office, supporting the entries by reference to the number of the route under which these persons travel. Warrants are granted to soldiers proceeding on or return- ing from furlough, in order that the soldier may not have ta pay cash for travelling. The value of the expenses covered by the warrant or warrants is recovered from the soldier's pay ; for, on these occasions, he is travelling for his own pleasure or convenience. It is, obviously, advisable to pro- vide a warrant instead of its money value, because a soldier might apply a sum of money to some other object or might lose it or be robbed of it ; whereas the warrant can only be used for the specific purpose for which it is issued ; for this purpose (and this only) it is as good as money. The general rule concerning warrants is that their values are credited to the War Office in the accounts of the Paymasters who issue them ; but in the case of a warrant granted to a soldier on furlough to enable him to rejoin his corps, it is usually issued by some Paymaster at a station where the man finds himself on furlough and is made payable by the Paymaster of the soldier's corps, in whose accounts credit is given to the public. Therefore, the Paymaster issuing such a warrant immediately notifies the fact to the Paymaster of the corps and also enters a note of it on the soldier's furlough. At foreign stations, the Commissariat and Transport Department makes all arrangements for the conveyance of troops and their families and baggage by land or inland- water routes. Also, the travelling claims of all officers or other persons must be sent to the Seniqr Commissariat Officer at the station for his sanction and signature before they can be accepted for payment. The Commissariat officer sanctions only those claims in which the charges do not exceed those fixed by the local or other regulations. The various methods of conveying consignments of stores REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 469 have been alluded to in discussing District Administration. Small parcels are usually sent by the ordinary means of car- riage available to the general public, the cost when charge- able to the Government being recovered by the Paymaster, who debits the War Office with the amount expended in payment and supports the entry by a voucher on Army Form P 1911 (' account of disbursements for carriage of stores '), on which all sums expended in this way during each half- year are entered and totaled. VIII. REGIMENTAL FINANCE. In discussing regimental finance, we shall have to deal ^ith the sums due by the public to corps of troops and the individuals composing them, and, on the other hand, with the sums that may become due by these corps or persons to the public. We must then glance at the system by which these disbursements and recoveries are made. The sums due to individuals may be those for the remu- neration of their services, or they may be allowances in lieu of issues in kind due to them, or they may be meant to cover <;ertain expenses incurred by them on behalf of the service. On the other hand, money may be recoverable from corps or from individuals from a variety of circumstances. Therefore, in the following pages, we shall first briefly state the rates of pay and allowances, then the sums payable or recoverable. After this, we shall examine the system of troop or company accounts, and, lastly, look into the proceed- ings of regimental Paymasters and their accounts. Public Disbursements. The rates of ordinary pay of all officers, soldiers, and other persons connected with the Army are fixed by the ' Royal Warrant-for the Pay, Promotion and non-effective Pay of the Army,' dated 11th March 1882. This Warrant also fixes the rates of extra-ordinary pay which may, under certain cir- cumstances, be granted to individuals and the stoppages to which they may be liable. Alloivances, which are determined 470 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. by the ' Allowance Regulations,' are concessions to corps, officers, soldiers, and certain other persons connected with the Army, of benefits which are awarded, in certain cases, in hind, and, in other cases in money. Money allowances are not to be confounded with pay ; the latter being granted for services rendered, the former for the provision of necessary articles not issued in kind, or to meet expenses incurred ia the performance of duties. Pay. We think it is unnecessary to mention here the rates of pa,y granted to officers. They are very well known, as they have remained the same during the greater part of the XlXth century. It may be said, however, that, when these rates were fixed, the pay of the highest paid soldier did not exceed two- thirds of that of the lowest paid officer. The officer has relatively sunk considerably in the scale in the progress of time ; for now almost all warrant officers, and even some non-commissioned officers, receive higher rates of pay (not to mention their allowances) than certain ranks of officers. We do not think that discipline would suffer if, by some increase made to the rates of officers' pay, the Government upheld the idea that it holds him in the same consideration that it formerly did. The following tables give the rates of daily pay at present in force for all soldiers regimentally employed in the Cavalry> Artillery, Engineers and Infantry. Warrant Officers. Master-Gunner 1st class ..... ,, 2nd „ Regimental-Corporal-Major, Household Cavalry . Regimental-Serjeant-Major, Foot Guards . ,, ,, Infantry of the Line , ,, ,, Cavalry of the Line . )) ,, Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Engineers 6 Daily 6 5 a 5 10 5 2 5 5 4: BEGIMENTAL — FINANCE. 471 Daily s. d. Brigade-Serjeant-Major, Field and Garrison Artillery- 5 10 Trained Bandmaster, Infantry . 5 ,, Cavalry . 5 6 ,, Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers , . • 6 Household Cavalry and Foot Guards. Life Guards and Horse Guards Foot Guards s, d. s. d. Quartermaster-Corporal-Major 4 6 Quartermaster-Serjeant — 4 Troop-Corporal-Major .... 4 — Colour-Serjeant . . . . . — 3 2 Corporal-Instructor of Fencing and Gymnastics 3 3 — Corporal-Trumpeter .... 3 2 — Serjeant-Drummer or Serjeant-Piper . • — 2 6 Corporal of Horse 3 — Serjeant . . . ' . ' . — 2 6 Lance-Serjeant — 2 2 Corporal 2 8 1 9 Lance-Corporal — 1 4 Private 1 9 1 1 Boys, until they attain the age of 18 years ...... 8 8 Kettle-Drummer 2 4 — Trumpeter, Bugler, Piper, Fifer or Drummer ...... 1 11 1 2 Farrier-Quartermaster-Corporal . 4 3 — Corporal-Rough-Rider .... 4 — Corporal-Saddler 4 — Corporal-Farrier 3 4 — Shoeing-Smith 2 5 — Saddler . . . „ . 2 ^ — Saddle-tree Maker . . . . 2 4i — 472 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Cavalry and Infani/ry of the Line. Cavalry Infantry s. d. s. d. Quartermaster-Serjeant . . ' 4 2 4 Troop-Serjeant-Major . 3 10 — Colour-Serjeant .... . - - 3 Serjeant-Instructor in Fencing and Gymnastics .... 3 3 — Serjeant-Trumpeter 2 8 — Ser j eant-Drummer, Ser j eant-Piper, or Serjeant-Bugler ... - - 2 4 Serjeant 2 8 2 4 Lance-Serjeant .... 2 4 2 Corporal 2 1 8 Lance-Corporal . . . 1 7 1 3 Private 1 2 1 Kettle-Drummer (when authorized) 1 9 — Boys, until they attain the age of 18 years 8 8 Trumpeter, Bugler, Fifer, Piper or Drummer 1 4 1 1 Farrier-Quartermaster-Ser j eant 4 — Serjeant-Rough-Rider . 3 10 — Saddler-Serjeant . 3 8 — Serjeant-Farrier . 2 10 — Corporal-Saddler . 2 — Saddler .... 1 H — Corporal-Saddle-tree Maker . 2 — Saddle-tree Maker 1 n — Shoeing-Smith 1 10 — Boyal Artillery, Horse Field Garri- Brigades and son and Biding Coast Establishment Brigades Master-Gunner 3rd class _ _ s. d, 4 6 Brigade-Quartermaster-Serj eant . 4 4 4 2 KEGIMENTAL FINANCE. 473 Horse Field Garri Brigades and son and Biding Coast Establishment /7 Brigades Serjeant-Instructor of Gunnery 4 2 4 O' Battery- Serjeant-Major or Battery- Quartermaster-Serjeant (Horse and Field Brigades) . . . 4 4 4 2 Battery-Serjeant-Major (Garrison and Coast Brigades) .... - - 3 9 Ser j eant-Trumpeter 3 4 3 2 Serjeant 3 4 3 2 Corporal 2 8 2 6 Bombardier . 2 5 2 3 Acting Bombardier 2 1 1 11 Gunner 1 4 1 2i Driver . 1 3 1 2i Drummer or Trumpeter 2 1 ^ Boys, until they attain the age of 18 years 8 8 Farrier-Quartermaster-Ser j eant 4 5 4 3 Collar-Maker-Quartermaster-Serjeant . 3 11 3 9 Wheeler-Quartermaster-Serjeant . 3 11 3 9 Battery-Armourer-Serjeant . 3 3 3 1 Serjeant-Farrier and Carriage -Smith 3 9 3 7 Serjeant-Collar-Maker .... 3 4 3 2 Corporal-Collar-Maker .... 2 8 2 6 Bombardier-Collar-Maker 2 5 2 3 Serjeant- Wheeler 3 4 3 2 Corporal- Wheeler . . . . . 2 8 2 6 Bombardier- Wheeler .... 2 5 2 3 Shoeing and Carriage- Smith . 2 2 T 2 Serjeant of the Band . S. . 3 6 1st Corporal ,, .... . 2 9 2nd „ „ .... . 2 6 Musician . 1 5 474 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Boyal Engineers. Quartermaster- Serj eant Troop-Serjeant-Major or Troop-Quarter master-Serjeant. . . ... Serjeant-Bugler .... Company- Serjeant-Major or Company Quartermaster-Serjeant 3 9 4 Serjeant 3 3 3 6 Corporal ..... 2 6 2 9 2nd Corporal 2 2 2 5 Lance- Corporal 1 10 2 1 Sapper or Driver .... 1 u 1 4 Bugler or Trumpeter ... 1 li 1 4 Boys, until they attain tlie age of 1^ years . . . . 8 8 Farrier-Quartermaster-Serjeant — 4 G Serj eant- Artificer .... — 3 8 Corporal- Artificer — 2 11 Artificer — 1 11 Royal Engineers s. d. 4 6 4 6 Boyal Engineers Troops &c» s. d. 5 3 4 4 Schoolmasters are at first non-commissioned officers, but after 12 years' service become warrant officers ; their daily pay is :— Warrant officer, Qs. Oc?., increasing every 3 years by 6dJ. up to 7s. Od. Non-commissioned officer, 4s. Ic?., increasing every 3 years by Q>d. up to 5s. ^d. As before stated, the canteen Serjeant draws pay as a private soldier only from Army funds, his services in the canteen being paid for out of the canteen fund. Paymaster-Serjeants and Orderly-Room-Serjeants are paid at the following rates : — KEGIMENTAL FINANCE. 475 On appointment . After 3 years in receipt ] of next lower rate of Y pay . . . . j After 3 years in receipt "l of next lower rate of - pay . . . . J After 3 years in receipt of next lower rate of pay .... Rank Household Cavalry Serjeant 3 Colour- \{ o C: Serjeant! ) Quarter- 1 ) master- ! r 4 Serjeantj J Do. 4 6 Cavalry of the line and Artillery Infantry .S-. (/. 2 8 3 2 3 8 4 2 s. d. 2 6 3 3 6 4 Deferred Fay. Deferred pay is a sum of money which accumulates during the soldier's service for his benefit, when he takes his discharge, passes to the reserve, or becomes a warrant or a commissioned officer. The issue of this pay is, as will be seen, subject to certain conditions. It is granted only to non-commissioned officers and private soldiers. With three exceptions, deferred pay is payable only in respect of the first 12 years of a soldier's service. The first exception is that the pay continues to accumulate in respect of non-commissioned officer's service in any rank not lower than that of Serjeant which may be rendered after the 12 years and up to 21 years. But if the non-commissioned officer is reduced to the ranks, or resigns non-commissioned rank, and is discharged to a pension less than that of a Serjeant, before completing the 21 years' service, he does, not, on leaving the service, receive deferred pay for any period after the first 12 years' service. The second excep- tion is the case when the soldier's service has been prolonged under Sect. 83 of the Army Act ; deferred pay is granted in respect of this prolonged service. The third exception is. that of the Reserve man recalled to Army service on mobilization. 476 ELEMENTS OF MILITAKY ADMINISTRATION. Before the 1st July 1881, the rate of deferred pay was 2d, per day. Since that date, the sum to be paid to the soldier on discharge, &c., has been fixed at the rate of SI. for every complete year of service and 5s. for every 30 days or part of a period of 30 days over the complete number of years, up to the limit of years above mentioned. The men who enlisted before the 1st July 1881 have a right to the deferred pay at the old rate. When, therefore, they become entitled to receive the sum, it is computed for these soldiers at the rate, new or old, which in the particular in- stance may be the more favourable to the man. If a man dies in the service, any deferred pay which has accumulated is paid to his heir. In computing the amount of deferred pay due to a soldier, 2d. is deducted for every day's service forfeited towards pension (see p. 281). If the forfeited service should be re- stored, no deduction is made. A soldier Discharged with ignominy by sentence of court- martial. Discharged as incorrigible and worthless, Discharged for misconduct. Discharged for giving a false answer on attestation, Discharged on conviction by the civil power, Sentenced to penal servitude, forfeits all claim to deferred pay as a consequence of the sentence or award. Further, a General or District court-martial may specially sentence a soldier for any ofience to forfeit his claim to all or any specified portion of the deferred pay which would other- wise be due to him. If a man who, for any reason, improperly enlisted in the service is held to serve, he counts the service towards deferred pay ; otherwise, if discharged or re-transferred to the Reserve, he has no claim. As to men who purchase their discharges, those enlisted previous to the 1st July 1881 can claim deferred pay ; those enlisted since that date are not entitled to it. REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 477 Good Conduct Pay. Good conduct pay is granted only to soldiers under the rank of Corporal, 2nd' Corporal and Bombardier. The first grant of good conduct pay to a soldier is marked by a badge of a chevron on the left arm, additional bara being worn for every successive increase. Except in the case of soldiers belonging to certain Colonial corps, the good conduct pay attached to, and marked by the possession of good conduct badges, is fixed at the rate of Id, a day for each badge. Good conduct badges and pay are granted to soldiers who- fulfil two conditions : — 1st. A certain length of total Army service is fixed for each number of badges as the shortest which the soldier must have to qualify for that number of badges. 2nd. Apart from qualifying as to total service, the soldier's conduct must also satisfy certain conditions before he can obtain his first and successive badges. The following are the periods of service after which the soldier who has fulfilled the requirements concerning good conduct can ordinarily hold his first and subsequent good conduct badges. After 2 years' service ... 1 badge. „ 6 ,, ... 2 badges. „ 12 „ ... 3 „ ,,18 ,, . . . 4 )) And, after 18 years' service, if a soldier continues to serve on, and satisfies the conditions of good conduct, he may earn additional badges after terms of 5 years for each badge. The condition concerning good conduct which a soldier must fulfil to earn his first good conduct badge is that he shall have served since enlistment a ' term of good conduct ; * that is, that he shall have served two years continuously with- out his name appearing in the regimental defaulters' book. In order to obtain subsequent badges, the soldier must have 478 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. lield the preceding number of badges for a similar * term of good conduct/ Combining the requirements as to total length of service with those respecting conduct, it will appear that a soldier may obtain his first badge at 2 years' service or as soon after he has completed that period as he may have served his ^ term of good conduct.' Similarly, to earn his second badge, he must not have less than 6 years' total service and, moreover, must have been in possession of 1 badge for the 2 years' * term of good conduct.' For the third badge, he must have not less than 12 years' service and must, besides, have been in possession of 2 badges for the ' term of good conduct. ' And so on for successive badges. But, by a special rule, if a soldier has served continuously 14 years loithout an entry in the regimental defaulters^ hooJc, he obtains the next badge he is entitled to 2 years earlier than he would otherwise obtain it, and the periods necessary for obtaining subsequent badges are also thrown forward 2 years. A soldier who is in possession of one or more good conduct badges necessarily loses a badge for each entry in the regi- mental defaulters' book which he may incur. Moreover, if a soldier be Discharged with ignominy, by sentence of court- martial, Discharged as incorrigible and worthless. Discharged for misconduct. Discharged on conviction by the civil power. Discharged for giving a false answer on attestation. Sentenced to penal servitude, he, from that fact alone, necessarily forfeits all his good con- duct badges. And a General or a District court-martial may further, for any ofience, specially sentence a soldier to lose any good conduct badges he may possess. So, also, if a soldier confesses to desertion or fraudulent en- listment and his trial is dispensed with, he nevertheless for- REGIMENTAL — FINANCE. 47 9 feits all good conduct badges of which he may be in posses - ision. A soldier sentenced by a civil court to a term of imprison- ment exceeding 6 months forfeits all his good conduct badges. A Reserve man who has illegally enlisted in the Army and is re-transferred to the Reserve, also forfeits all good conduct badges of which he may be possessed. We have said that good conduct pay is not granted to any soldier higher in rank than Lance-Corporal or Acting-Bom- bardier. But if a non-commissioned officer of higher rank be reduced to the ranks, he is assumed to have been, so to speak, in latent possession of as many badges as he would have held had he not been promoted ; and, consequently, when he is reduced, he assumes that number of good conduct badges less one, which is held to have been forfeited by the effect of the court-martial or other award which has reduced the man to the ranks. Good conduct badges which have been forfeited may be restored under certain conditions which may be fulfilled by the soldier in order to regain them. Under ordinary circumstances, it is easier for a soldier who has once held badges to obtain the restoration of those he may have forfeited than it is for the soldier who has not lield badges to earn them originally. Thus, as a general rule, if a soldier has forfeited one badge, a * half-term of good conduct ' (that is, a single year's service passed without entry in the regimental defaulters' book) served by him entitles him to its restoration. And if a soldier who has held several badges, loses one of them and then, before he has regained it, again commits him- self and loses another, he must serve a ' half-term of good conduct,' dating from the last loss, to regain one badge, and then another half-term to regain the other forfeited badge. But, evidently, if a soldier who has (say) two badges, for- feits one of them before he has earned his third badge, he will, on completing a half-term of good conduct after the date of forfeiture, regain his second badge and then must serve on a 480 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. fidl term of good conduct to earn the third badge which he has not held before. He will then receive the third badge if he has in addition the qualifying 12 years' total service required. The following special rules, however, apply to those men who have by a single offence forfeited all their good conduct If the service which a soldier has forfeited by desertion or otherwise be restored to him, the effect of this restoration, for the purpose of good conduct pay, is to reduce the offence he committed to one entailing a simple regimental entry. He is, therefore, re-assessed for good conduct badges and is granted all those he would have held if, instead of the punish- ment involving forfeiture of service, he had been awarded one entailing an ordinary entry in the regimental defaulters' book. Otherwise, in all cases where the soldier forfeits previous service towards discharge and all his good conduct badges, he is, if retained in the service, as regards the earning of future badges, in the position of a recruit ; his badges are not re- stored to him, but have to be earned afresh, his service for this purpose reckoning from the date of his conviction, or of the order dispensing with his trial. Extra-Duty Pay. Regimental officers acting in the appointments of Adju- tant, Riding-Master, Quartermaster, or Adjutant and Quarter- master combined, are entitled, under various circumstances detailed in Para. 226 of the * Royal Warrant for Pay and Promotion,' 11th March 1882, to extra-duty pay (over and above their regular pay) at daily rates, varying, according to the circumstances, from 2s. to 3s. The cases detailed in the paragraphs mentioned include those of the officers acting for the permanent holders of the appointment at the head- quarters of a corps, and also those of the officers acting for detachments, mixed bodies of troops, &c. Non-commissioned officers and other soldiers who may be employed temporarily in performing certain specified duties or acting in certain specified situations receive, in some cases EEGIMENTAL FINANCE. 48 1 absolutely and in others conditionally, under certain pre- scribed circumstances to be fulfilled, certain rates of extra- duty pay over and above their ordinary pay. The enumeration of all the rates themselves and the details of all the conditions under which they can be respec- tively drawn would be too lengthy a matter to introduce into this book. We shall therefore restrict ourselves to giving the several headings with a few words of explanation, and, for the rest, refer the reader to paragraphs 640 and 641 of the * Royal Warrant for Pay and Promotion,' 11th March 1882. The duties for which extra-duty pay may be drawn are, then, the following : — 1. Acting Serjeant-Major to a de- ^ ^^ ^,^^_^^ tached portion of a corps or mixed t , - , , , ^ rm 11 . 1 r according to cir- detachment. The body must be , ® - . • . .1 cumstances. of a certain strength . . . ; 2. Acting Paymaster-Serjeant or Act- \ ing Orderly-Room-Serjeant to a I corps or to detachments of a | * ^' certain strength . . . . j 3. Soldiers employed as clerks in \ orderly room, pay office and I ^^- ^^ ^^; ^ ^^Y Quartermaster's office. One only [ according to in each office is allowed pay . ) office. 4. Acting Schoolmaster at the head-\ quarters of a corps in the absence of a trained Schoolmaster. The rate depends on the number of adult scholars . . 5. Acting Armourer at the head- ^ quarters of a corps in the absence [ -j ^^ of the Armourer-Serjeant, under f * certain specified circumstances . / 6. Soldiers doing the duty of non- \ commissioned officers above the I Qd^ a day. rank of Serjeant, or of non-com- ) I. II Is., Is. Sd., or Is. Qd. a day. 482 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. missioned officers of any rank detached on certain specified , duties J 7. Soldiers acting as non-commissioned ^ officers on voyages to and from | India, under certain circumstances | only . . . . . . i 8. Soldiers acting as Artificers in cer- ] tain specified cases . . .J 9. Non-commissioned officers keeping accounts of a troop, battery, com- pany, or of a division of Garrison Artillery or of special bodies of troops. The rate depends on the strength of the body and on whether the non-commissioned officer is or is not a Colour-Ser- jeant or a Troop-, Battery-, or Company-Serjeant-Major . 10. Acting Ser j eant-Instructor of Gun- nery. Under certain circum- stances ..... 11. Ser j eant-Cooks and Cooks to wings and detachments 12. Eough-Riders. The rate depends on the rank of the soldier, and on the corps or detachment with which he is serving. It is not issued during voyages 13. Schoolmasters to detachments, or on board ship in the absence of a trained Schoolmaster 14. School-Assistants. Number al- lowed limited according to number of scholars attending school 15. School orderly .... Qd. a day. Pay made up to that of acting rank. 6d. a day. 6d. to Is. Qd. a day. 6d. or Is. a day. 6d, a day. - 6d. or Is. a day. ■ 6d. a day. t Senior Assistant - Qd. a day, others 4:d. a day. Is. a week. REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 48 3 16. Savings bank clerks in1 s. d. Under 50 accounts 2 6 From 50 to 74 3 6 ,, 75 to 99 4 6 „ 100 to 149 6 „ 150 to 199 7 6 For every 50 additional 2 6 each battalion or equi- valent command of the other arms. The rate varies according to the number of bank ac- counts kept during each month 17. Soldiers employed with regimental/ Infantry:— transport according to rank and ^f ^^^.^^ . * ^ ' -iv/r • J. J • Shoemg-smith 6a. arm. More is granted m war J ^ . ^ ^ , time, or when troops are mobi*- ^ , ' lized Cavalry :— ' ~ ' * ' * ^Driver . . 2d, Rates of extra-duty pay are also laid down for Drill- Instructors to Engineer Volunteers, for Librarians on board ship, for acting Garrison-Gunners, for soldiers employed as auctioneers to sell Government stores, for orderlies in charge of lunatics on voyages, for telegraph clerks or signalmen at fixed stations, and for soldiers employed in the lobbies and practice ranges at Woolwich ; but these are, clearly, quite exceptional positions. Further, it is provided that, when non-commissioned officers and other soldiers are employed on the duties of the regimental staff, the rate to be drawn for a single acting appointment is not to exceed 6c?. a day, and, if the same soldier holds more than one appointment, the extra-duty pay for the combined duties is not to exceed 1j. a day. Working Pay, When the issue of working pay has been authorized for working parties, officers, in a proportion not exceeding one officer to 50 men, may be detailed to superintend and com- mand the party ; and officers thus detailed may, if they re- main with the party throughout the working hours, receive working pay. The rates are the following : — Ii2 / 484 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. For an officer superintending 100 men or more, 4s. a day. For an officer superintending less than 100 men, 2s. Qd. a day. When the officers employed exceed the proportion of one officer to 100 men, for each officer, 2s. Gd. a day. When a working party works for less than 4 hours in a day, the officers receive half-rates. Non-commissioned officers superintending working parties receive working pay at rates varying from 8d. a day (or Id. an hour) to Is. 4:d. a day (or 2d. an hour) according to circum- stances detailed in paragraph 683 of the * E-oyal Warrant for Pay, &c.' If they be specially employed at their crafts, they may receive special rates. But no non-commissioned officer may be paid working pay for working at his craft in addition to working pay for superintending parties. Superintending pay is not, as a rule, granted in respect of working parties of less than 20 men. The non-commis- sioned officer of such a party is expected to work as one of the party and receives ordinary working pay. No non-commissioned officer can receive at the same time pay for superintending and also pay for working him- self. As regards private soldiers and non-commissioned officers not superintending, the rates of working pay vary according to the skill or the nature of the employment. Five rates are prescribed as given below. Hourly Daily First rate . Second „ . . . Third „ . . . Fourth „ . . . Fifth „ . . . d. 2 I' Of 0^ s. d. 1 4 1 8 6 4 The first rate is issued to skilled artificers when employed at their crafts. The second rate is issued to REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 485 Unskilled artificers. Skilled excavators or miners, Superior labourers, and a few other men employed on work requiring rather more than ordinary intelligence (paragraph 659, ' Royal Warrant for Pay, &c.'). The third rate is given to ordinary labourers and to men specially employed as detailed in paragraph 660 of the ' Royal Warrant for Pay, &c.' The fourth rate is issued to inexperienced labourers. The fifth rate is for men employed in such services as whitewashing, forming drill-grounds, constructing butts, moving stores not belonging to the corps, acting as boats' crews, &c. The men of the Royal Engineers, in addition to regimental pay, receive, whenever they are employed on works (which they usually are), working pay which, in the case of this corps, is termed Engineer pay. The rates are the same as those above given for ordinary working parties, except that there are, in addition, two special rates (the A and B rates) which maybe granted respectively to 'very superior' and 'superior' craftsmen specified in the Royal Warrant. The A and B rates may also be granted to soldiers of the other arms if, being otherwise qualified, they are employed in work of a superior kind by the Royal Engineer Department. It may be remarked that, while the other arms only incidentally receive working pay, with the Royal Engineers, it is the exception if a man be not drawing Engineer pay. Special rates of working pay are granted to divers and men connected with diving operations ; also to the coxswains of boats' crews, and to the Gun Lascars. Double rates are allowed to soldiers, who, in the absence of civilian workmen, are necessarily employed in emptying stagnant wells and cesspools. Working pay is, as a general rule, issued at the hourly rates, no pay being granted for fractions of an hour. The daily rates are applicable to those men who, although perhaps not actually working all the day, must necessarily be in 486 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. attendance when they are required. Men working at daily- rates must, with the exception of boats' crews, be in attend- ance at least 8 hours a day. Overtime is not recognized. The time is reckoned from the moment of jjarading at the place where the working party is required. But if the party has, in marching to and from tliis place, to pass over a dis- tance in the aggregate greater than 3 miles, the time neces- sary to march the excess may be paid for as working time if the General or other Officer Commanding specially sanctions the issue. Working parties may also be employed by piece-work or task-work, the officer in charge of the work dividing it among the men, and allotting to each such portion as will be equi- valent to the work which, using due diligence, he might accomplish in a certain number of hours. The man is then paid, according to the quantity and quality of the work done, that which is held to be the equivalent at the hourly rates. Soldiers are not entitled to working pay for fatigue duties. Working pay cannot be drawn simultaneously with extra- duty pay. Frizes for Skill at Arms, d)C. The qualifications to be fulfilled in order to entitle men to prizes for skill at arms are detailed in paragraphs 934 to 950 of the ' Royal Warrant for Pay, &c.' (amended by Clause 103, Army Circulars 1883). The prizes are : — For good swordsmanship in \ non-Lancer Cavalry regi- _, . - ^^ ments l^^'^^' ^^ ^^^ ^^'^ ^^^ For good lance practice in * ^' Lancer regiments . . . , For good swordsmanship '^^\-p^^^ oill. lOs. Lancer regiments . . ) I Infantry, Cavalry and Engi- For good shooting . . A neers, prizes of 5L, 3L, I 21. 10s., 21., andl?. REGIMENTAL — FINANCE. 487 I Infantry and Engineers, ^ . - . ,. , I prizes of 11. and 10s. For judging distance . . i ^^^^^^^ ^^.^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ I bs. Prizes of 11. 55., 1^., 156-., and 10s. For signalling For ffood gun practice and effi-x ^ . „ .. ^. , ., . n f ^ri. ) Prizes of 41., 3?., and H. ciency among Gunners of the [ ^^^ Royal Artillery . . .J For skilful driving among Drivers I Prizes of 21., U. 10s., and of the Poyal Artillery . .} 11. Obtaining these prizes (excepting those for judging dis- tance) also entitles the soldier to wear a certain badge on the left arm. Rewards for Valour, Meritorious Service, cbc. Certain rewards, which are accompanied by a decoration in each case, are awardable to soldiers for valour, for meri- torious service, for distinguished conduct, and for long ser- vice and good conduct. The full details as to these rewards will be found in Sect, XX. of the * Royal Warrant for Pay, &c.' Colonial Allowance to Officers. At some (but not at all) stations abroad, a colonial allow- ance is made to oflficers. It varies according to the station. In some places it is meant to cover the value of rations, fuel and light, servants, forage, and travelling allowance within 10 miles, and also to compensate to a certain extent the officer for the special expenses of the command. At other places, it is issued for one or more of these items, the rest being separately allowed either in kind or according to the usual or local rates. Servants^ Alloivance. Although General Officers, officers of the Staff and depart- ments of the Army, and officers of the Royal Engineers, are, at all times, allowed to draw a money allowance in lieu of the soldier servants to which they are entitled if they should 488 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. elect not to employ soldiers in that capacity, other officers are not allowed this privilege, except under special circum- stances. These circumstances are the following : — 1. Any regimental officer may, at a7iy station, draw an allowance of Is. a day in lieu of each soldier servant to which his rank entitles him, if the special authority of the Secretary of State has been obtained to the allowance being made. But this authority is only granted in very exceptional cases. 2. At certain foreign stations, soldier servants are not allowed, and an allowance is made to officers in lieu of black servants. These stations, and the rates for each, aie the following : — Windward and Leeward Islands . \ Is. 6d. a day for Jamaica . . . . . .1 each servant and Honduras . . . . .J groom allowed. West Coast of Africa . . .Is. do. do. Mauritius 80 cents do. In other foreign stations, either soldier servants are allowed without the option of commuting their services for money or else the special colonial allowance is intended to cover this expense in combination with others. At those foreign stations where servants' or colonial al- lowance is granted, these allowances cover the cost of any groom or grooms the officer may be entitled to ; but at home and at those stations abroad where no money allowance is issued, the officer entitled to the services of a soldier or soldiers as grooms must either avail himself of those services or forego them without receiving any compensation in money. Allowances in respect of Clothing. An officer promoted from the ranks receives an * outfit allowance ' of 150?. in the Cavalry and Horse Artillery, and of 100?. in other corps. It was before stated that, under certain circumstances, a recruit may receive a money allowance in lieu of his free kit (seep. 323). Men may also obtain money compensation for the wesjc of clothing due to them. REGIMENTAL — FINANCE. 489 Boot-money is granted to certain warrant and non- commissioned officers in lieu of issues of boots. The amount is fixed from time to time. Also, imder certain circumstances, soldiers discharged or passing to the Reserve may be allowed the money-value of the plain clothes they would otherwise receive. The amount of this allowance is published from time to time in Army Circulars. Master-Tailors of Infantry battalions receive a yearly allowance determined in Army Circulars for first fitting of new clothing which is made up, and, in all arms, an allowance, at rates similarly fixed, for making, up unmade clothing (see p. 340). Similarly, the rates allowed for the marking of clothing are variable and published from time to time. Under certain circumstances, however, the soldier is chargeable with the marking. Allowances in respect of Suhsistence. It has already been said that, in certain cases, soldiers may be granted an allowance of 6d. a day in lieu of rations. Also on the line of march, when rations are not issued, Qd. a day is allowed to every soldier entitled to a ration in lieu of the issue in kind, except on such days as an allowance in respect of hot meals is made to licensed victuallers on whom the men may be billeted. When soldiers are prisoners in the guard-room or at large in barracks, they do not come under the rules for the issue of prison rations. Still, they must be subsisted ; and yet it may be doubtful whether they will or will not forfeit their pay, or it may be that they have already done so. Under these circumstances, a ration is drawn for these men or 6d. in lieu of it and, in addition to this sum, the Government allows against the public a charge for the same amount daily as the man, if free, would have paid for his extra messing. It depends on circumstances if the amount may or may not be subsequently recovered from the soldier (see p. 499). For men awaiting trial by court-martial in billets, the 490 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Government allows 10c?. a day, which includes the value of the free ration. When soldiers on the married roll are, under ordinary- circumstances, compulsorily separated from their families on duty, the Government makes the following daily allowance to the several members of it : — Wife ^d. Each girl under 16 years of age ) -. , , „ boy „ U „ ) * But when troops are ordered to embark for foreign service without their families, the latter are sent to their homes at the public expense and receive daily : — Wife Sd. Each girl under 16 years of age ) o^ „ boy „ 14 ,, ) * * ' The former and not the latter rate is issued to a family about to be sent home for such period as the family remains in barracks before proceeding. For further details, see Sect. II. * Allowance Regulations.' The allowance issued for travelling under the names of 'travelling allowance' and * marching allowance,' which we shall mention further on, are intended in part to cover any extra expense for subsistence entailed on individuals by reason of their moving. Forage Allowance. The cases in which a money allowance is issued to officers instead of forage in kind have been detailed in the earlier pages of this book. The amount of this allowance is fixed every half-year in Army Circulars for each District of the United Kingdom. Formerly this allowance was uniformly Is. lOd. a day. Much dissatisfaction existed as to the amount, on which it was impossible to feed and keep up a horse ; and the matter was taken up some years back, on the ground that the com- plaint was not without justice, by the Secretary of State. The result was the present system, which, instead of raising, has lowered the rate of the allowance in every District except KEGIMENTAL FINANCE. 491 one or two where a very small number indeed of horses are foraged at the public expense. The allowance has gradually- sunk, until now it stands at Is. 2d. in some Districts. To the rate of forage allowance, as fixed half-yearly, ofiicers may add a claim for stabling alloivance when public stables are not provided. This allowance is granted at the rate of 9d, a day for one, or the first, horse authorized and 6d. a day for every other authorized charger. Allowatice in lieu of Fuel atid Light. When fuel and light are not issued in kind (see p. 426), a money allowance instead of that in kind is made to officers and men. The rates are now fixed periodically in Army Circulars annually on the same principle that forage allowance is determined. Until recently the rates were fixed uniformly according to rank ; at the same time that these rates were made variable, they were very considerably reduced below the old uniform rates, and the Accountant-General was able to efiectuate a saving to the public of several hundred pounds annually from this source. This is the harder on the officers and soldiers receiving money allowances in that, while extra issues in kind may be made under due sanction, there is no provision for an increase to the money allowance, however strongly the circumstances may warrant it. The fuel and light allowance issued to officers is always distinct from any lodging allowance they may receive. In the case of certain non-commissioned officers and soldiers, the grant of lodging allowance covers and includes that for fuel and light. Also, when a distinct allowance for fuel and light is allowed to warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and other soldiers, it always includes the value of the allowance of paillasss straw which is not in that case issued in kind. Under certain circumstances (see p. 421), an officer may draw his fuel only in kind while he draws a money allowance for light. The daily rates thus allowed for light alone are^ for the regimental ranks : — ^^*«- :i-«rt - r TTWTVff»ttYnriT7 \ 492 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION, April to October November to March Field- Officer commanding a regiment Other Field- Officer .... Captain and Lieutenant d, 3 2 1 d. 6 6 3 Lodging Allowance. Lodging allowance, when granted (see p. 437), is issued at the rates given below to officers and soldiers of regiments and other corps at home stations. Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding , Lieutenant-Colonel Major . Captain Lieutenant . Warrant officer Non-commissioned officers and men /Class I Class II and III. A Class IILb, IV.andV.» s. d. 4 3 3 2 3 2 1 4 1 4 9 4 2 4 The rates at foreign stations vary according to the Colony. In Hong-Kong, they are revised annually : in the Straits Settlements, they are paid directly by the Colonial Govern- ment. Allowa7ices connected with Travellhig. Over and above the actual expenses of conveyance, &c. , to which officers and soldiers are put in making journeys on duty (which, of course, they can recover from the Govern- ment), fixed rates of allowances are made to cover the cost of 1 If married and on married roll. 2 If not married or not on the married roll. This rate is inclusive of the allowance for fuel and light. 5 When stationed separately at home stations and not provided with a billet. This rate is inclusive of the allowance for fuel and light. REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 493 their lodging and the extra expense of subsistence under these circumstances. As regards officers, when they travel V)ith troops^ quarters or billets are provided ; therefore they receive less in this case than when they travel without troops and when the allowance given is intended to cover the extra expense of lodging. With troops, the officer's travelling allowance is, irre- spective of rank, s. d. For the first day of march or railway journey . 10 For subsequent days, including halting days . 7 6 Also 5s. a day is allowed to officers — 1. On board ship coastwise at home, when not messed at the public expense. 2. For days, not exceeding 3, of detention beyond halt- ing days on the march or at ports of embarkation or disembarkation other than place of destination. 3. When detached singly for 7 days or less. 4. For periods not exceeding 7 days when called out in aid of the civil power. For longer periods, the sanction of the Secretary of State must be obtained to the issue of the allowance. 5. When they proceed on duty and return the same day provided the distance be outside a 10-mile radius from their station, or provided that, if called out in aid of the civil power, they have been 7 hours on duty. Travelling allowance to officers moving with troops is not issued during summer drills, manoeuvres, &c. When officers move vnthout troops, the allowance for each day they are absent from their corps or station, either travel- ling or during detention on duty, is : — For field officers .... 15s. a day ; For other officers . . . . 10s. ,, except for the last day of a journey, or when the journey is completed in one day, or when officers proceed in one day beyond a radius of 10 miles from their stations returning the 494 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION, same day, when only one-half the above allowances are ad- missible. No officer is entitled to travelling allowance for days on which he is messed at the public expense, whether on board ship or elsewhere. Warrant officers. Schoolmasters, and Schoolmistresses, travelling vjith troops, are given the following rates of travel- ling allowance : — For the first day of the march or railway journey 4s. For every subsequent day, including halting days 3s. When detained on the march for other than the \ halting days, or at ports of embarkation or f disembarkation other than the claimant's own i ^' station for a period not exceeding three days When a change of stations is accomplished in one day, half the above rates are granted. Warrant officers. Schoolmasters and Schoolmistresses, when proceeding on duty without troops, are entitled to travel- ling allowance at the rate of 4s. a day except for the last day of a journey or when they have proceeded to some place not less than 10 miles away from their stations and back on the same day. For these days they receive 2s. , as also on a change of station accomplished in a single day, irrespective of distance. This allowance is not granted when rations are issued, or when a money allowance instead, or the allowance for hot meals, or marching allowance is granted. The travelling issued to non-commissioned officers and men is called marching aUoivance. When soldiers proceed by route march, the allowance is : — For each day when not less than\ 10 miles is marched, or when I Mounted services Ic^. the soldier is absent 1 night [Dismounted ,, 3d. from his station . . . i During marches lasting several days, it is sufficient that the average distance marched each day should be at least 10 miles. The allowance is not granted for days of halt on a march or (as above qualified) for days when less than 10 miles REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 495 liave been marched, except that all soldiers proceeding on foot a distance of five miles to or from railway stations in connec- tion with railway journeys of not less than 100 miles are entitled to an allowance of ^d. , and also that all soldiers called out in aid of the civil power receive a day's marching allowance if they are absent on this duty for a period of 7 hours or more. For railway journeys, or for journeys partly by rail, by march and by water, soldiers are not entitled to marching allowance : — For days when rations are issued, „ ,, ration allowance is granted (see p. 377), ,, ,, billeted. Otherwise, they are entitled to the sums below given for continuous railway journeys, irrespective of the time occu- pied in travelling : — For journeys not under 150 miles 1 allowance of 10c?. ,, ,, 250 ,, 2 allowances of lOd 350 „ 3 „ IQd, 450 „ 4 „ lOd Four allowances of 10c?. is the maximum allowed for any railway journey. When the soldier travels on duty partly by road or rail and partly by sea, he can claim (when no provision is made for his being rationed) one allowance of 10c?., if the whole journey be not less than 150 miles and if he has been at sea less than 8 hours. For coastwise sea journeys, the soldier is granted no allow- ance if he receive either sea or shore rations or ration allow- ance or if the Government agreement under which he receives a passage provides for his being fed on board ship. Otherwise he is allowed : — n the estimated length of thej i allowance of lOi. voyage exceed 8 hours . . ) If it exceed 24 hours . . .2 allowances of 10c?. „ 48 „ ... 3 „ lOd There are also special rules concerning the allowances to be made when travelling, on account of recruits, deserters, 496 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. and discharged soldiers. These will be found in Sect. XI. of the 'Allowance Regulations.' Indemnification for Losses, In certain cases, specified in Sect. XYII. of the Allowance Regulations, officers and soldiers may receive sums at given rates (printed in tables in the same book), to indemnify them for unavoidable losses incurred in connection with the service. Allowances to Corps, (he. Besides the individual allowances enumerated above, certain sums of money are allowed to corps of troops or ta the officers commanding troops, batteries and companies for the purpose of covering definite expenses. Thus, we have the sums allowed for meeting the travelling expenses of bodies of troops and the conveyance of their baggage, which vary according to the occasion. Billet-money is also, obviously, another charge which corps bring against the public. A charge for postage of all letters on the public service is further made as a separate item. Letters directed to the War Office and certain other central Government offices travel free of postage. The following allowance is made to corps for the purchase of certain trifling and miscellaneous articles and stores : — £ *. d. Household Cavalry Cavalry of the f orderly room line . . l pay office Royal Artillery, batteries and Royal Engineer, troops and companies . Infantry I °'^'i«'ly'^°°'« (pay office 1 14 o| each troop annually. 1 2 »> 12 )9 each 2 5 annually. 18 0] each company 8 Oj annually. Another allowance made to corps is that mentioned on 359 for the repair of equipment. REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 497 When accommodation is necessarily hired for officers' messes, the following sums may be charged against the public by corps at home stations : — Regiments and battalions . . 30s. a day. Half -battalions and depots . . 156*. a day. Detachments or batteries . . 8s. a day. The allowance includes the cost of fuel and light. It cannot be claimed if the officers have the use of some other mess at their own station. An allowance is made to the officers' messes of corps at home stations and in Bermuda, China, Mauritius, St. Helena, West Coast of Africa and the West Indies in aid of officers' mess expenses. The sums allowed are : — £ s. d. For each troop of Cavalry or) ^^ ^ ^ nyr, F 25 00a ycar. company of Infantry . . j -^ For each battery of Artillery 37 10 ,, This allowance is made individually at the yearly rate of 61. 5s. to certain officers in detached positions. Corps maintaining bands of music receive an allowance to aid the officers in supporting them. The rates are 801. a year for regiments of Cavalry and battalions of Infantry. Higher rates are granted to the regiments of Foot Guards and to the Royal Artillery. A sum of 21. 10s. is allowed yearly to each troop, battery and company as a library allowance to meet the expense of purchasing and repairing books, supplying newspapers, periodicals and games, and the pay of librarians in garrison and regimental libraries and reading-rooms. The cost of soldiers' funerals is now borne by the public, and for each funeral a sum of 11. 15s. may be drawn. This amount may be increased on the authority of the General Officer Commanding to 21. when it may be necessary. Should any expense above 21. be unavoidable, the case must be re- presented through the General to the Secretary of State for his approval. A contingent allowance to meet certain petty expenses is I. KK 498 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. granted to each troop, battery or company, the sum varying according to its fixed establishment as follows : — Not exceeding 80 rank and file, SI. yearly. „ „ 120 „ „ m. „ ,, „ 160 ,, ,, 16/. „ „ „ 200 „ „ 201. „ The following expenses are chargeable to the contingent allowance : — Pay of the storeman, Repairs of arm-chests, Cleaning materials for barrack-rooms. Sundry other petty expenses, and Stationery (except -printed forms) for troops and com- panies of all arms other than Artillery. Batteries receive all stationery free in kind, as do the regimental offices in the other arms. Charges against Corps and Individuals. The pay of an officer may be stopped under the authority of the Army Act for any period during which he may be absent without leave. It may, moreover, under the same authority, be stopped to make good the amount of pay which he should have issued to any officers or soldiers under his command but which he has withheld. The pay of any officer or soldier is liable to be stopped, under the Army Act, to make good any expenses, losses, &c., occasioned by the commission of an oftence of which he is convicted by court-martial, if the court-martial orders the value to be made good in its sentence. The soldier is more- over liable to make good such expenses, losses, &c. , on the simple order of his Commanding Officer if they he occasioned to property belonging to the War Department or to regimental necessaries or decorations. A fine inflicted by a civil court upon any military person except a commissioned officer may be stopped from his pay. A soldier absolutely and necessarily forfeits his pay : — REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 499 For each day ^ of illegal absence exceeding 5 days, even if he be punished by his Commanding Officer and not tried. For each day of illegal absence of which he is convicted by court-martial, even if he be absent less than 5 days. For each day of imprisonment he may be awarded whether by his Commanding Officer or that of one of H. M.'s Ships or by a court-martial or civil court. For each day of detention on any charge on which he is afterwards convicted by a court-martial or civil court. For each day of detention on a charge of absence with- out leave for which he is afterwards awarded im- prisonment by his Commanding Officer. For each day spent in hospital on account of sickness certified by the Medical officer attending him to have been brought about by an offence committed by him. The soldier may or may not be ordered to forfeit his pay :— For every day of illegal absence not exceeding 5 days at the discretion of his Commanding Officer, when the soldier is not tried for the offence. For every day of detention brought about by his con- fession that he has been guilty of desertion or fraudu- lent enlistment, although his trial for the offence may have been dispensed with. In this case the Competent Military Authority to dispense with the man's trial may order the forfeiture. It need hardly be said that a soldier illegally convicted or acquitted of a charge suffers no deduction of pay on account of any illegal imprisonment or of any detention, and that any sum stopped or withheld is refunded to him on his rejoining for duty ; but he is liable to charges for his sub- sistence and to any hospital stoppages. 1 The time legally held to constitute a day's absence is defined in paragraphs 766 a and 766 b of the 'Royal Warrant for Pay &c.,' 1882. KK 2 500 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Prisoners embarked abroad for discharge at home get no pay for the period of the voyage, even if at large on board ship. In theory, a prisoner of war forfeits his pay for the time he is thus absent. But the Army Act gives power to the Secretary of State to restore his pay after the inquiry always held as to the circumstances under which the soldier fell into the enemy's hands ; and, practically, this would always be done if no blame attached to the man. In detailing the rules for the issue of good conduct pay, those concerning its forfeiture (which are inseparably mixed up with the former) were also given. The fines for drunkenness awardable either by courts- martial or by order of the soldier's Commanding Officer are recovered from his pay. The amount of these fines is limited by the Army Act and the Queen's Regulations. A court-martial may inflict a fine of IL or less, and a Command- ing Officer, fines varying from 2s. Qd. to 10s. A soldier is also liable under the provisions of the Army Act to be ordered to forfeit the liquor ration which may be issued to him on board ship and at certain stations abroad. It must be remembered that he pays Id. a day for this ration, and therefore men not drawing their ration may be ordered to forfeit Id. a day in lieu of forfeiting the ration in kind. This forfeiture can only be awarded for a period of 28 days. The Army Act authorizes such deductions to be made from the soldier's pay as may be necessary to make good any sum which he was liable to pay by reason of his quitting the Auxiliary Forces, if, at the time of Ms enlistment in the Regular Army, he belonged to those forces. This sum is fixed in the case of Militiamen who may enlist into the Regular Army without obtaining a ' Militia Release,' by the ' Royal Warrant on Pay, &c.,' as follows : — £ s. d. Ordinary Militiamen . . . .10 Re-enlisted ,, . . . . 10 Militia Reservemen . . . .10 Also, any stoppages which such a soldier was undergoing REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 501 when in the Auxiliary Forces may continue to be enforced after his enlistment in the Army until the necessary sum is recovered. Relief given as a loan to a soldier's wife or child and (after certain formalities) certain prescribed sums paid for maintenance of wife, child, or bastard child may be recovered from the soldier's pay, which, under the provisions of the Army Act, may be stopped to meet these claims by his Commanding Officer, on receipt of a special order from the Secretary of State. The sums which may be stopped from the soldier, after due proceedings have been taken, to repay a loan of relief or otherwise to support his wife or child (legitimate or other), are the following : — For a soldier not below the rank of Serjeant 6d. a day. For a soldier of lower rank . . . . 3d. sl day. But, although any private property a soldier may possess is as liable as that of a civilian for his debts, no other civil claims than those above mentioned can be recovered from his pay by stoppage through the military authorities. Also, under the authority of the ' Royal Warrant for Pay, &c.,' a soldier on the married roll who is separated by foreign service from his wife and family is made to contribute to their support at the following rates : — When supplied with a field ration : — c, . . T7. -r o^ (Maximum not to Serieants . J or wife . . . oa. T_ 1 -1 1 X 1. j-i. exceed Is. a day ,, . ,, each child not above the i , .,, .^-^ ^^n 11 J except with the age of 16 years . IM. . ■,. , ^ soldier s consent. Rank and file . For wife . .4c? Maximum not to ,, • jj each child not I exceed 6d a day above the age of [ except with the 16 years . Id.) soldier's consent. When supplied with an ordinary bread and meat ration or rationed on board ship : — 502 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Serjeants . For wife . , . 4:d\ Maximum not to ,, ,, each child not above' exceed 6c?. a day the age of 16 f except with the years . . ^d.) soldier's consent. Rank and file . For wife . . , 2d.\ Maximum not to ,, ,, each child not above [ exceed Sd. a day the age of 16 except with the years . . ^dJ soldier's consent. It is to be recollected that the Government also grants a separation allowance to soldiers' families in these cases (see p. 490). Further, under the ' Royal Warrant for Pay, &c.,' the pay of all persons in the Army may be stopped by order of the Secretary of State to make good any public claim against them. Thus, one claim against the soldier is that for his extra messing and personal washing, a charge which varies in the various arms of the service (see p. 397) but which the Royal Warrant orders shall not exceed 5|cZ. a day. It seems hardly needful to say that no charge appears officially in an officer's pay accounts in respect of his messing. Officers settle their mess-bills monthly in cash and no trace of the transaction appears in any public account. But all regimental officers, not seconded, are chargeable with the well- known mess and band subscriptions. These are charged, at home stations, against each officer's pay by the Army Agent who draws it and do not appear in the accounts of the regi- mental Paymaster unless, as is the case abroad, he draws the officer's pay. At those stations where there are officers' hospitals, an officer who is, on the recommendation of a Medical board, admitted into hospital is stopped 2s. Q>d. daily. When the soldier is admitted into hospital and dieted there, he is struck out of mess, and his pay is stopped, under ordinary circumstances, ^d. a day, to cover the cost of hospital dieting. Boys pay 6d only. A soldier admitted to a non-dieted hospital pays his usual messing charges and is messed from his troop, battery, or REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 503 company ; but for every day on which he may receive hospital comforts, his pay is stopped 6d. No charge is made against a soldier on the married roll for dieting his wife or child if she or it is admitted to a female hospital. When the wife or child of a soldier not on the married roll is admitted to hospital (in the exceptional cases mentioned on p. 235) the soldier's pay is stopped in respect of dieting For his wife . . . . Is. a day. For each child . . , 6d. a, day. No charge is made in hospitals for personal washing ; but a charge may be made against the soldier for washing articles of clothing found to require it when his kit is handed in on admission. An officer travelling by sea on duty is, of course, provided with a passage free, and the passage includes the cost of the hulk of the officer's messing. An officer, however, must pay a certain contribution towards messing and also for all the liquor he may consume on board. If an officer who is not entitled to a passage is, as an in- dulgence, allowed any available spare room on board a troop- ship for himself or family, that indulgence extends to the actual passage only, and he must pay, in this case, for the whole of the messing expenses. Also rates of contribution are laid down for officers' families when allowed to travel in troop-ships, with the right to messing at the public expense. Warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, and other soldiers on board ship are placed under stoppages for messing. As the men are entitled to their rations free, all they are stopped is the price of the grocery ration (see p. 379), or l^d. a day, and they are not, on the other hand, stopped their usual messing money. Warrant officers, being provided with better accommodation, pay higher rates for themselves and families. A liquor ration may be issued on board ship to those men who wish it. s. d. 2 Oa day. 5 5> 3 4 »> 2 6 )> Free. n J> 4 J> 2 >> 504 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. The rates of stoppages for messing on board ship for persons entitled to free passages are : — Regimental officer .... Lady over 16 years of age Officer's child, 7 to 16 years of age ,, ,, 1 to 7 years of age ,, ,, under 1 year of age Warrant officer .... Warrant officer's wife ,, ,, child above 2] years of age ( Non-commissioned officers and \ other persons entitled to free r . IJ ,, rations for the grocery ration ) All ranks under commissioned \ officer for liquor ration if - .01 , , issued . . . . ' When officers purchase rations at contract price under the provisions made for their so doing in the Allowance Regula- tions, they deal with the contractor directly and the transac- tion does not appear in any way in the public accounts. Rations sold to the men in recreation-rooms or elsewhere are paid for in cash to the regimental Paymaster, who pays the contractor, no entry being made of the transaction in accounts. The contract price of Commissariat supplies found to have been overdrawn at the end of a month is chargeable against the officer commanding the troop, battery, or company which has thus overdrawn. Gas bills due by officers' messes, regimental workshops, individual officers living in barracks and other War Depart- ment buildings are, whenever this course is practicable, settled directly by the parties concerned with the gas company. Otherwise, the sums due are collected in cash by the regimental Paymaster who adjusts with the District Pay- master. But these bills entail no charge against pay. In the event of officers purchasing articles of clothing or EEGIMENTAL FINANCE. 505 other Pimlico stores (see p. 300), they pay cash for them to the regimental Paymaster who accounts for the money in his pay-list. Sums due in this way by soldiers are stopped against their pay (most frequently in the form of a bill from the Master-Tailor). In the same way the value of clothing and necessaries purchased out of store by soldiers, whether compulsorily and by order (to replace losses, &c.), or voluntarily, is set down in their accounts as a charge against their pay. Drummers and Buglers of Infantry and Trumpeters of Cavalry are liable, in consideration of receiving a higher rate of pay than Privates, to a stoppage for the provision, when necessary, of new drumheads and bugle or trumpet strings. A charge of Id. a month is made against the soldier for hair -cutting. Damages to the fabric and fixtures of buildings, after they have been charged, as before described, by the Poyal Engineer Department to the corps, are recovered, if possible, from the several individuals who caused the damage, and, if this be not possible, from the individuals occupying the quarter or room. In the case of damages to portions of a building common to all portions of the corps or to several troops or companies, a fair proportion of the cost is charged to the men composing the whole corps or belonging to those troops or companies, unless the actual perpetrator of the damage can be traced. So, also, with the damages within a company or within those portions of it occupying a particular room. Thus a soldier may be charged special barrack damages, and at the same time have to pay his share of a general charge, and the general charge may be one general to the whole corps or made up of one general partly to the whole corps and partly to the soldier's own troop or company or room. Damages, losses, &c. , to barrack stores, assessed by the Commissariat Department, are treated in the same way. Also the cost of washing any bedding or other property on charge from the Commissariat Department, is charged against the soldier, if he has unduly soiled the article or articles. 506 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Both Engineer and Commissariat damages are recovered from officers by cash payments to the regimental Paymaster. Those recoverable from the men are charged in their accomits against their pay. The value of warrants issued to soldiers on repayment, to enable them to travel when proceeding on or returning from furlough, is recovered by stoppages from their pay. Certain voluntary subscriptions sometimes made by sol- diers are usually recovered from them, as a matter of con- venience, by stoppage. Those to libraries are collected from the several troops and companies by regimental Paymasters, and therefore appear in the accounts of these officers. Troop or Company Accounts. The system of accounts followed in batteries of the Royal Artillery, and in detached companies of Royal E^igineers is, of necessity, somewhat different from that followed in regiments of Cavalry and battalions of Infantry. For those batteries and companies are bodies too small to be provided with Pay- masters of their own, and the officer commanding one of them must do much of the Paymaster's work himself. We shall, therefore, restrict ourselves at first to speaking of troop and company accounts in the Cavalry and Infantry ; and, for brevity, we shall use the word ' company ' only, it being understood that troop accounts are kept in the Cavalry just as company accounts are in the Infantry. Further, to avoid wordiness, we shall use the title of ' Captaifi ' to designate the officer commanding the troop or company, although, under the present organization, those bodies may be com- manded by Majors and are often temporarily in charge of Lieutenants. The Captain, then, selects a Serjeant of his company to keep the accounts and otherwise assist him in the matter of payments. Usually this Serjeant is the Troop-Serjeant- Major or Colour-Serjeant, but the Captain, being responsible for the public money, need not necessarily select this par- ticular non-commissioned officer for the duty, and of course it may happen that the services of the Colour-Serjeant are REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 507 for some reason temporarily unavailable. The term * Pay- Serjeant ' is therefore a convenient one to apply to the non- commissioned officer thus employed. The Paymaster of each corps is provided with funds from the War Office to meet all the necessary and due expenses of the corps. We shall examine the operations in the regimental pay office a little later ; for the present it is sufficient to say that the Paymaster is in a position to meet the periodical demands for funds wherewith to defray all expenses when sent in by his sub-accountants, the Captains, provided he is satisfied that these demands are correct and warranted by regulation. The Captain receives in advance the money necessary for all the expenses of his company from the Paymaster in four instalments every month. Broadly speaking, the plan followed in company accounts, so far as the soldier is concerned, is to set all that a man has to receive in the way of pay, allowances, compensation, &c^ — against the stoppages which may legitimately be made from these amounts due, and to pay the soldier the balance in cash (unless there be none). As to the stoppages, some are for amounts owing to the public and are therefore left undrawn and simply accounted for ; others are for sums due to other parties or expended during the month on the soldier's behalf ; these are drawn from the Paymaster, but withheld from the soldier to pay the charges thus incurred by him. This costs but a few words to say, but it entails a con- siderable amount of book-keeping. The Captain keeps the company's money himself, giving out each day to the Pay-Serjeant the amount necessary for that day's expenses only. For this amount, and this only, a Pay- Serjeant can be held responsible. The Captain, how- ever, is by no means compelled to trust the Pay-Serjeant with this sum or any other. The men are paid weekly in arrear. Men who miscon- duct themselves may, however, be ordered to receive their pay daily. The issue of pay takes place in the presence of 508 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. an officer. In making cash payments to the men, officers take care to issue only so much as the soldier will be entitled to receive clear during the month after taking into account all the stoppages which will appear against him. It may happen that accidentally, through some damage or other un- foreseen circumstance happening at the end of the month, the soldier has been overpaid and will appear in debt. But all due precautions are taken to keep any debts as low as possible ; and if, at the end of the month, the total debts of the men of the company amount to £10 or more, the matter must be officially explained by the Captain. When unavoidable circumstances make it impossible for a time that the soldier should be paid regularly weekly, his Captain must settle with him as soon as possible. As a general rule, when a soldier is under stoppages, only such an amount of his daily pay can be withheld as will leave him at least Id. a day. But even this residue is not allowed to soldiers for days on which they forfeit their pay absolutely for illegal absence, for imprisonment, for detention, or for days spent in hospital on account of sickness certified by the Medical officer to have been caused by the commission of any offence under the Army Act. When a soldier is under stoppages to recover ^ fine for drunkenness, a stoppage of 3d. a day is imposed if the fine be less than 10s. , 4:d. is recovered daily when the fine amounts to 10s. or over, and also in the case of a soldier under stop- pages for two fines simultaneously. An advance of pay may be made, at the discretion of the Captain, to men proceeding on furlough not exceeding in amount that of their pay and good conduct pay for the period of the furlough granted. Cash payments to each man are entered at the time of issue against his name in the proper column of the ' pay and mess sheet ' (Army Form N 1500). A fresh copy of this sheet is begun every month in each company. The entries of cash payments on the pay-sheet are made by the Pay-Serjeant in the presence of the officer who attends to pay the men. They are totaled at the end EEGIMENTAL FINANCE. 509 of the month, and this total of cash payments made to each man should be such that, when they are entered in the ledger and there added to his debts and the other charges payable by him, the total will balance as nearly as possible that of all sums due to him that month. It is, however, impossible, at all times, with the most careful foresight, to balance the two sums exactly ; as, on the very last day of the month, the merest accident may throw the soldier into debt, and, on the other hand, his cash payments may have been under- estimated. But every effort is made to keep the soldier's debts and credits at the end of the month as small as possible. A soldier may request that all or any money due to him during the month shall, instead of being paid to him periodi- cally in cash, be lodged in his name in the regimental savings bank. We shall return to this point presently. The * pay and mess sheet,' besides containing the account of cash payments, also shows the number of days each man has spent in mess during the month, and therefore will show how much he must be stopped for extra messing. The pay and mess sheet is not in use in the Royal Artillery. The ' company messing book ' (Army Book 48 ; not issued in the Royal Artillery) is the book in which are shown the details of the expenditure of the money stopped from the men on account of messing. One page is used to show each day's receipts (according to the number of men in mess that day) and the manner in which the money was laid out that day. From day to day a balance debt or credit (which should be as small as possible) may be carried on. At the foot of each day's account is an explanatory table, showing that the number of men entered as in mess that day, when added to Serjeants, Bandsmen, Drummers (messing in separate messes), married men, and others drawing rations but out of mess, &c., tallies with the number for whom rations were drawn that day by the company orderly Serjeant. This number should, therefore, agree with that on Army Form B 289 (see p. 386) which is sent in daily by each company for the computation of the number of rations demanded each day for the whole regiment on the ration return. 510 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. The messing account is recapitulated at the end of the month, when all is balanced and closed. Sums produced by the sale of refuse are credited ; sums expended in nets, cook's clothing, mess-washing, &c., are debited. The account being balanced, the whole monthly expense should be covered as nearly as possible by the stoppages and other incidental receipts. Sometimes a small balance may remain in hand for the men's benefit, sometimes there may be a small deficit. A fresh book is used for each month's accounts. The bills for eatables, &c., may often be, and always should be, if possible, condensed into one canteen bill. This bill, which may include numbej's of payments made at any time during the month for the mess by the canteen, must be settled weekly. This and any other bills are usually paid by the Pay-Serjeant. There does not appear to be any good reason why a Captain should not pay these bills personally. The 'savings bank ledger' (Army Book 80), kept in every company, consists of as many accounts as there may be soldiers of the company who have chosen to deposit money. A separate page of the book is given to each depositor. The smallest sum which a soldier may deposit is Is. Interest at 3| per cent, is allowed on all sums above 6s. Sd. , reckon- ing always from the 1st day of the month following that during which the deposit was made or rose to the amount of 6s. Sd. Gratuities awarded to the soldier are credited to him in the savings bank ledger and can only be drawn out when he leaves the service. They are therefore carefully distinguished , when entered in the ledger, from any other sums which a man may have deposited. All other deposits may be drawn out of the bank by the depositor at any time, provided he gives a week's notice of his intention to do so. No man can receive interest upon a greater total sum than 200L, although he may have more than 200?. in a regi- mental savings bank, and no interest is allowed on any sum greater than 301. deposited in any one year. Therefore, if a REGIMENTAL- FINANCE. 511 man deposits more than SOL in a year (reckoned from 31st March to 31st March), the money will be kept for him, but no interest will be allowed on the excess over SOI. until after the next 31st March, when it will be treated, for interest purposes, as if deposited on the 1st day of the new year beginning 1st April. The interest on every deposit is calculated monthly. Every quarter, it is added to the capital and, becoming part of it, thenceforward itself bears interest. Deserters forfeit all money deposited in regimental savings banks. Although we speak of a deposit in the savings bank, no actual cash passes in the act of depositing. A soldier signi- fies to the Captain (or to the Pay-Serjeant) that he wishes to bank his pay or any part of it instead of receiving it. On this, the amount is credited to the man in the savings bank ledger, while the Captain, having anticipated paying the soldier, is left with a certain surplus in hand. The Captain, therefore, demands so much less cash from the Paymaster on the next occasion he requires money, and debits his own cash account with the amount of the savings bank deposit. When the soldier withdraws money from the bank, the con- verse takes place ; the Captain will pay money he would otherwise not have paid, he will want more next instalment from the Paymaster ; but as every man must give 7 days' notice before withdrawal, the Captain's cash account, which is credited with these amounts, can, as a general rule, yet be balanced before the end of the month, as the sums to be thus paid away, not being altogether unexpectedly so, there is time in which to get more money to meet the demand for payment before the month expires. The deposits and withdrawals occurring in the company during the month are reported to the orderly room at the end of the month by the Captain on Army Form O 1743. From the reports furnished by the several companies, the regimental savings bank ledger is posted up, and the regi- mental statement of deposits and withdrawals is made out on a single voucher (Army Form 1745) for the Paymaster. 512 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. The company's 'ledger '(Army Book 142a, 142b or 142c ^) is a book in which the accounts of each individual soldier are kept. Each page contains four forms, each for a month's accounts ; and each soldier in the company is allotted a page of the ledger. These pages will, therefore, take four months to fill, after which a fresh set of pages or, if necessary, a fresh book must be begun. The Pay-Serjeant keeps the ledger. He sets down at the end of the month to each man's credit in his account his pay, good conduct pay, &c., and, as they may fall due, any of the allowances or other sums before enumerated to which the soldier may become entitled. On the other hand, the Pay- Serjeant sets down, in the other part of the account, the total of the cash payments (shown by the pay and mess sheet), the charge the soldier has incurred for messing during the month according to the number of days in mess (shown by the pay and mess sheet), all that the man is chargeable with or all that must be stopped against him, such as forfeitures of pay, pay over-issued in error, charges for necessaries purchased, for repairs, &c., as before detailed. Any charges which come from outside the corps (as, for instance, charges from the hospital, &c.) are passed down to the company from the orderly room of the corps and entered with the rest. In balancing the ledger accounts of the men, the entries should be checked over by means of the pay and mess sheet, the entries in defaulter's books inflicting fines or stoppages, depriving men of good conduct pay or forfeiting their pay, the entries of deposits or withdrawals from the savings bank, the requisitions on the Quartermaster's stores for necessaries, charges for marking necessaries, for barrack or other damages, hospital charges sent down, bills from regimental Artificers or workshops, subscription lists, &c. After each man's ledger account has been balanced monthly, it is signed as correct by himself and the Captain, and the balance is carried into the soldier's pocket-ledger, for the man's own information. A day is appointed by the Captain for signing accounts, when the Captain is present and 1 According to the strength of the company. REGIMENTAL — FINANCE. 513 all men who can attend must do so. Men on duty sign as soon as possible afterwards ; those sick are visited in the hospital and their accounts are there explained to them and signed. Men in prison do not sign until they return to duty. The accounts of men on furlough are sent to them. Those of absentees are closed as soon as the men have been absent 21 days. Every soldier on attestation is given a 'pocket-ledger' (Army Form B 50, with additional * settlement sheets ' on Army Form B 51). This book, which the soldier is expected to keep in his own possession and produce at all necessary inspections, contains many matters connected with accounts, such as information for the soldier's benefit, records con- cerning him, a record of his next-of-kin, and forms of will. The soldier's accounts and the issues of clothing made to him are entered on the settlement sheets. The debt or credit of his account is copied into its proper place in this book from the ledger each month. If he be in debt or if his account balances exactly, he must sign in acknowledgment ; if he be in credit, the Captain signs to the fact. The state of his savings bank account, if he have any, also appears and must be signed monthly. The clothing issues accounts are entered on the settlement sheets and also signed after every issue by both soldier and Captain. When a man is transferred, his book must be carefully examined in order to see that it is properly signed up before he leaves his old corps. Transfers are, it must be remembered, almost invariably made after the completion of a month (see p. 246). No entry in the soldier's ' small-book ' (as the pocket-ledger is familiarly called) should be made except in his presence. The entries in these little books are for the men^s satisfaction (although they should be obliged to sign them), and the Captain's accounts should be independent of, and require no reference to, entries in the men's pocket-ledgers. We now come to the * balance-sheet and cash account ' (Army Form N 1474). This document consists of 4 forms : — 1. The Captain's cash account. 2. The Pay-Serjeant's cash account. 514 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. 3. The balance-sheet of the company. 4. The statement of gain or loss by errors in keeping accounts. The first form is a very simple account with a debtor and creditor side to it. On the one side, the Captain debits him- self with any amount he may have had left in hand from the last month's account ; with all sums he has drawn from the Paymaster (usually in four instalments) ; with all savings bank deposits ; and, in short, with all public money received by him during the month from all sources. On the other side, the Captain credits himself with any amount he might have been deficient last month, with all money he has paid out to the Pay-Serjeant, with all savings bank withdrawals, and all sums paid out directly by him. The outcome of the totals of the two sides of the account is a balance one way or the other : either the Captain is in debt (i.e. has got some public money left in his hands for which he must account next month) or else he is in credit (i.e. he has paid out for the public more than he drew ; and, therefore, can, the next month, get that much more than the next month's money). It is to be noticed that the ^Captain's cash account does 7iot show what he oitght to have drawn, or what debts he may have outstanding and ought to have paid. What it does show is, simply, what actual cash he did draw and what, in a sum- mary way, he actually did do with it. With the exception of savings bank withdrawals, all sums actually paid to the men of the company and those for company expenses, are all put down, in the Captain's cash account, as paid to the Pay-Serjeant. Therefore, it be- comes essential that another account should show, in further detail, how these lump sums have been expended by that non-commissioned officer. This is the object of the second form in the document, the 'Pay-Serjeant's cash account.' This form has also a debit and credit side. The credit side (in several columns) gives all sums received by the Pay-Serjeaut. In one column are repeated, as sums received from the Captain, the figures shown in the Captain's EEGIMENTAL — FINANCE. 515 cash account as paid to the Pay-Serjeant. In another, the sums received on behalf of the company from all other sources (such as refuse money, money in hand at the beginning of the month, credits of men transferred, &c. ). A third column totals all receipts. On the debit side, there are also several columns. One for cash issued each day ; another for messing paid out ; another for sundries expended ; and a fourth for the total expenditure. Other columns exist for dates, for signatures and for explanations of the details of certain items of receipt and ex- penditure. There is also a column which shows how much cash each day remains in the Pay-Serjeant's hands. At the end of the month, the total of the debit total column together with the amount (if any) left in the Pay- Serjeant's hands on the last day must be equal to the total of the credit total column ; which amounts to saying that the sum-total of what the Pay-Serjeant has had over from last month and of what he has periodically received from the Captain and others must be equal to the sum-total of what he has spent throughout the month with what he may still have in hand after paying the last day's expenses. This form evidently gives the full details of how the money issued by the Captain (as per Captain's cash account) and also that received from other sources has been expended by the Pay-Serjeant. But it does not tell us (anymore than does the Captain's cash account) whether the full amount issuable for the company's expenses has been overdrawn or underdrawn. This, then, is the object of the third of the forms of which Army Form N 1474 is made up : the balance-sheet. The * balance-sheet ' has a credit and debit side. On the credit side are entered all sums of money due to the com- pany but not yet received by it, such as money in the Captain's hands not yet given out to the Pay-Serjeant, money remaining in the Pay-Serjeant's hands, money overpaid to men of the company (which, of course, is part of the com- L L 2 516 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. pany's money), money due from the Paymaster ^ (such as any pay or allowance not credited), money due from other com- panies or corps (as, for instance, the debts of men who have been transfen-ed out of the company). All these sums are evidently recoverable from some person by the company ; thus they are entered as ' recoverable from Captain,' * recover- able from men of company,' * recoverable from Paymaster,^ * recoverable from men of other companies.' At the foot of the credit side is entered the * deficit ' of the company for the month if there be one. This sum will be the balance (if any) which the company would be short of money supposing it called in all sums due to it, adding to them any sums already in the Captain's or Pay-Serjeant's hands, and then applied the amount to paying up all that it owed. The debit side of the balance-sheet similarly shows all the company's liabilities under the heads of 'due to Captain,^ ' due to men of company,' ' due to Paymaster,' ^ &c. At the foot of this side of the account is entered the surplus (if any) which the company would have in hand if all its credits were realized and applied to paying its debts. Of course, in a month when there is a deficit^ there can be no surplus, and vice versa. And, if the accounts have been properly kept, there can be neither surplus nor deficit ; for the other items in the form provide for every legitimate means of balancing the account, if all the company's accounts have been correctly kept. The fourth form in Army Form IST 1474 is the * state- ment of gain or loss during the month caused by errors in keeping accounts.' It is only filled up in the event of a deficit or surplus appearing in the balance-sheet, and it exhibits the gain or loss, due to errors in account-keeping, since the balance-sheet for the previous month went in. The ' company's pay-list ' (Army Form N 1469) is the account furnished by the Captain at the end of each month to the Paymaster and the claim which the former officer thus sends in against the War Office for all public money due 1 That is, the * credit of the abstract * ( see p. 522). 2 That is, the < debt of the abstract ' (see p. 522). REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 517 during the past month to the company. Most, or all, or perhaps more than all, of this money has been advanced to the Captain and the bulk of it is already spent when the claim goes in. But up to the time the pay-list goes in, the instalments drawn by the Captain have been mere advances, to which (or to the bulk of which) he noio establishes his right. It may be that the Captain has drawn exactly the company's due or that he has slightly overdrawn or some- what underdrawn. Anything overdue to the company from the previous month is included in the amount claimed, and anything remaining over, as overdrawn the preceding month, is accounted for by admitting that it remains in the Captain's hands. This important document, in the preparation of which the greatest care must be taken, is made out in duplicate by the Pay-Serjeant, the first, or rougher, copy being retained in the company and the fair copy given in to the Paymaster's office directly after the expiry of the month to which it refers. The company's pay-list contains twelve forms ; namely : — 1. Roll (alphabetical, by ranks) of the men of the company, exclusive of recruits who have joined during the month. 2. Roll of recruits who have joined during the month. 3. Recapitulation. 4. Fines for drunkenness. 5. Stoppages due by men who have enlisted whilst belonging to the Militia. 6. Return of soldiers under sentence of forfeiture on account of pay for other reasons than that of absence without leave. 7. Return of soldiers who have died, deserted, or been discharged. 8. Return of soldiers mulct pay for absence without leave. 9. Statement of farriery allowance. 10. Abstract. 518 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. 11. Abstract of rations. 12. Specification of vouchers appended. We must now describe the purport and use of these forms in order. 1. The alphabetical roll. This form, which extends over several folios, is made up of a number of vertical columns. The first three of these are occupied by the rank, regimental numbers, and names of the men composing the company, by ranks, in alphabetical ordef in each rank. Then come columns showing the dates and number of days' ordinary pay that each man would be entitled to at each rate ivithout any deductions. Another set of columns give the number of days' good conduct pay at each rate (a column for each rate) for each man in the month. Another group of columns shows the number of days during which each man drew rations, marching allowance, and allowance for hot meals. After these columns, there are others in which are inserted the number of days during the month that each man may have drawn ration allowance or ship's rations, or which he may have spent in hospital. There are columns referring to prisoners which give the number of days during the month that each man has been a prisoner under all the various possible circumstances (i.e. in military prisons or cells, in civil prison, in the guard- room, with rations and without them), prisoners in hospital, and the number of days' ordinary pay and good conduct pay forfeited by reason of imprisonment. In this form, the men paid by other companies or corps are merely mentioned in their places ; no entries are made against them except (in the last column, that for ' remarks ') that they are thus detached from the company. On the other hand, a list of such attached men as are paid by the company follows the roll of the company itself. Thus, the totals of these columns show for all the men paid by the company (except for the recruits who have joined that month), in days, what would have been due without any deductions, and (also in days) what deductions have been incurred. Further, as regards pay and good conduct pay, the number of days at each rate is shown in separate columns. REGIMENTAL — FINANCE. 519 2. The roll of recruits. This form is identical with the preceding one, but refers to the recruits who have joined during the month. Therefore it supplements the 1st form in which these men are not taken into account. 3. The recapitulation. This form is made up of several tables. The first refers to ordinary pay. It has a line for each rank or rate of pay, and its columns show the number of days at each rate and the amount of these days monied out; as, for instance: Colour- Serjeant @ 3s., 31 days, £4: 13s. ; Serjeants @ 2s. 4:d., 93 days, £10 17s. ; &c. . From the total of these sums is deducted only the lump sum ^ of ordinary pay mulct for absence (but not that for- feited for other causes) ; and a certain sum comes out. The second table is a similar calculation with respect to good conduct pay. Only Lance-Corporals and Privates get good conduct pay, but still there will be several lines, because, although the men are all of one rank, there are several rates of good conduct pay. As in the case of ordinary pay, the lump sum^ of good conduct pay mulct /or absence is deducted from the total of the monied-out column ; and here again a certain sum comes out. A third table gives the ordinary and the good conduct pay forfeited by imprisonment. In the fourth table, the sums which come out as the result of the first and second are added together and also the total of such ration allowance as may be drawn (as explained in the 1st form). This makes up the ' gross amount of pay.' To this, again, are added the number of allowances for subsistence of men in confinement (so many days at so much explained by the 1st form) ; marching allowance (so many days at each rate, as explained in the 1st form) ; and so many * hot meal ' allowances. The addition of these items to the gross amount of pay converts it into the * gross charge.' From this, certain deductions must be made ; stoppages for 'grocery rations,' * hospital' stoppages (number of days chargeable to each man explained in the 1st form), certain 1 The items of this lump sum and their distribution among the indi- vidual men are afterwards explained in the 8th form. * Distribution of items among the men explained in the 8th form. 520 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. special forfeitures (afterwards explained in forms 4, 5, and 6), and, lastly, the total of the ordinary and good conduct pay forfeited by imprisonment which, as we have just said, is summed up in a table by itself. These deductions, being totaled, are subtracted from the * gross charge ' and the result is the 'total net expenditure.' That is to say, that when all that should be deducted has been so from the gross charge, the result should be what has actually been spent on the men, if all debts and credits are left out of account. The ' total net expenditure ' is thus the outcome of the recapitulation form. 4. Fines for drurikenness. 5. Stoppages due by men who have enlisted ivhUst belonging to the Militia. 6. Forfeitures for other reasons than that of absence. These three forms separately explain in detail the sums stopped from the men for the causes with which each deals ; their totals are themselves again totaled into one lump sum, which is that before mentioned as appearing in the recapitula- tion as one of the items deducted in arriving at the net ex- penditure. They are therefore, each for its own purpose, explanatory of that item. 7. The retur7i of non-effectives. — This form shows the credits of the men who have died, deserted, been discharged, &c. ; that is to say, any money still due to them or which has been produced by the sale of their effects, &c., after pay- ing their debts. Its total is not taken into account in ar- riving at the * net expenditure ' and therefore is carried, as will be seen, separately into the 'abstract,' and the Captain there debits himself with it. It is then treated as so much public money, available in the Captain's hands for the ex- penses of his company ; and, he having thus acknowledged that he has this sum in hand, the War Office becomes responsible to the men or to their heirs that they shall receive each the amount shown in detail by this form as his due. 8. The return of mulct pay for absence. — This form is a detailed explanation of an item included in the recapitulation in bringing out the net expenditure. It shows how the whole KEGIMENTAL FINANCE. 521 amount of forfeiture of pay (both ordinary and good con- duct) deducted for illegal absence is distributed among the men who have thus committed themselves. It will have been noticed that both ordinary pay and good conduct pay forfeited for imprisonment appear in the alphabetical roll and are deducted from the total ordinary and good con- duct pay before those items are added to the others forming the * gross amount of pay, &c.' The reason why the for- feitures for absence are treated differently in a separate table is that the imprisonment forfeitures are peremptory while the absence forfeitures are not always so (see p. 499). 9. The statement of farriery allowatice. — The use of this form (filled up only in mounted corps, or in corps pro- vided with regimental transport) is to account, by a statement of the number of the effective troop horses, for the allowance granted to Serjeant-Farriers for shoeing ex- penses. Its total is carried into the abstract and does not figure in making up the * net expenditure.' 10. The abstract. — This form shows, in a debtor and creditor account, the financial position of the Captain to- wards the Paymaster. Each month's abstract takes up the account where the last month's left it off. It shows, on the one hand, all the money the Captain has received on the public account during the month from the Paymaster or others and all he may have had (or should have had) over from last month : and, on the other hand, all that he may claim from the Paymaster for the month's expenses and for sums he was short of his rightful claim last month. So that the debtor side begins with any debt he owed the Paymaster last month and then acknowledges all receipts of public money, such as actual cash received from the Paymaster, proceeds of non-effective men's accounts lying in the Cap- tain's hands, money value of necessaries drawn from store (equivalent to a draft of money, for this value is recovered in cash by deductions from the men's pay), savings bank deposits, money stopped for damages (Engineer and Com- missariat), disallowances on the preceding pay-list. The other side of the account begins with any credit due 522 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. (according to last month's abstract) to the Captain by the Paymaster ; then we have the chief item, the * total net expenditure,' as shown in the recapitulation form. After this come the sums not included in the recapitulation, but ex- plained in forms 7 and 8 (non-effective credits and farriery allowance) ; then other sums not appearing in any other part of the pay-list, such as savings bank withdrawals, lodging allowance, fuel and light allowance, advance of pen- sions, contingent allowance, postage expenses, extra-duty pay, deferred pay, &c. ; ^ concluding with undercharges in the last pay-list. The sum of each side of the abstract is balanced either by a debtor balance or a creditor balance which is carried to the next month's pay-list and is the final statement of the position as to money in which the Captain finds himself towards the Paymaster at the end of the month. This balance is usually termed the *debt' or the ' credit ' of the abstract. 11. Tlie abstract of rations. — This form shows the number of rations which ought to have been drawn by the company during the month after making all additions for men of other corps rationed but not paid, and deductions for men in hos- pital, men absent in other ways, &c. , as described on p. 387. The form also shows the number of rations actually drawn during the month according to the ration return. The two numbers ought to agree, and any discrepancy between them must be explained by the Captain, who is chargeable with any rations overdrawn. This form aids the Paymaster in framing and checking the voucher on Army Form P 1949 (spoken of on p. 389), which he makes out for the whole corps half-yearly. It also shows the distribution by com- panies of all the rations drawn in bulk by the corps, and explains an entry on the debit side of the abstract, by which the Captain would debit himself with the value of any rations overdrawn. 12. The specification of vouchers appended. — This form is 1 Sums due quarterly (as allowance for repair of accoutrements, con- tingent allowance, &c.) are inserted in the pay-list for the last month of the quarter. REGIMENTAL — FINANCE. 52^ used only in the case of certain payments being entered in the abstract for which the Regulations require receipts. Extra-duty pay, for instance, would require to be thus, vouched by the receipt of any soldier entitled to it. A careful consideration of the company's pay-list will show that it in itself accounts, by various forms, for all the details of ordinary pay and good conduct pay, of ration, allowance, subsistence of men in confinement, marching money, hot meals allowance, as also other details of certain stoppages and forfeitures. For of these items is compounded the ' total net expenditure.' Further, by explanations on other forms, the pay-list gives the detail of non-eiFective credits and farriery allowance. But it will also be noticed that the abstract contains a variety of other items. Owing to the great diversity of ways in which the several allowances are to be paid according to regulation, it would take too long to describe how each entry of a credit or debt of this kind is explained (or vouched). It is greatly to be desired that this matter should be simplified, and that some clear way of ac- counting for the total sum of all things not included in the * recapitulation ' should be adopted. The Captain and the Paymaster having both of them signed both copies of the company's pay-list, each keeps a copy, and the company's accounts are closed for that month. At the end of each month the Captain sends to the Com- manding Officer a * certificate of settlement of company accounts ' (Army Form N 1522). In this document he cer- tifies that he has settled with his Pay-Serjeant and with each man of his company up to the end of the month. He reports- the total of the debts and of the credits of the men. He certifies that every man's credit has been carried to his next month's account ; that the men have been paid weekly ; that each man has his pocket-ledger in correct form ; that all offences have been duly recorded in the defaulter's book ; that the equipment is complete and serviceable ; and that the kits have been inspected regularly. The credits of the men should yield as small a total as possible, and the total of their debts should not exceed 101. 524 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. When the debt total exceeds that sum, the Captain must send in a special explanation. When a man in debt for a small amount is transferred to another company or corps, the soldier's new Captain must pay at 07ice to his old Captain the amount of the debt, and recover it from the man by degrees ; but if the debt exceeds 10s. in the Infantry or 15s. in the Cavalry, the man's new Captain pays that amount only from the company's money, and the soldier's former Captain must wait for the rest until it is recovered from the man. When a soldier becomes non-eflfective, a board of three officers is assembled, one of whom is his Captain. If the non-efficiency is due to death or insanityy the board is as- sembled within a month of its occurrence. If it be due to desertion or to detention ivhich results in a conviction of felony, the board meets within three months of the man's illegal or enforced absence. The soldier's accounts are made up to the satisfaction of the board, and all his property verified and realized by sale, the proceeds of which, together with any balance credit after paying all legitimate charges, are handed in to the Captain, who debits his abstract as before stated with the amount. The Captain uses the money as company's money, and the War Office settles with the man's next of kin if any money be due to them, or, when the law requires it, confiscates the sum. Eegimental Paymasters' Duties and Accounts. All sums due to the War Office by the regiment or by the officers and men composing it are recovered by the regi- mental Paymaster, and sums due from the War Office regi- mentally are paid out by him, very much under the same rules described earlier as those followed by the District Pay- master in the District. Much which was then said applies also to the work of the regimental Paymaster, and for these matters the reader is accordingly referred to the heading of * The Pay Department in the District.' Regimental and regimental district Paymasters are direct accountants to the War Office. Their rank in the Army Pay KEGIMENTAL — FINANCE. 525 Department is that of Paymaster or of Staff Paymaster. Attached to a corps of troops or to a regimental district, the Paymaster is under the command of the Officer Commanding it, and carries out his duties under that officer. The Com- manding Officer may at any time inspect the pay office and books, but if he does so, it must be in presence of the Pay- master himself or of the officer representing him. Moreover, except in matters of routine (such as transmission of estimates, pay-lists, &c.), the Paymaster has no right to correspond directly with the War Office or District head-quarters. All points referred, and all other matters not of a purely routine character must pass through the proper channel of the Com- manding Officer, who forwards the correspondence to the General or other Officer Commanding for his consideration, or, if necessary, for transmission to the War Office (see p. 73). The Paymaster of a regimental district adds to the duties of Paymaster of the regimental depot, those of ' officer charged with the payment of pensioners and Army Reserve men ' (except where a Staff Officer of Pensioners is still maintained), and he is, further, the custodian of the original attestations of the men of the Infantry regiment (see p. 27). He also draws all funds for Militia battalions in bulk and issues them to the several Quartermasters of Militia battalions who are his sub-accountants. In the Cavalry, the custody of attestations is the duty of the regimental Paymaster if the regiment be serving at home, or, if the regiment be abroad, of the Pay- master of the Cavalry Depot. At home stations, regimental officers do not draw their pay from the regimental Paymaster ; but all allowances are drawn through him. The pay is drawn by the regimental Army Agent in London ; except, indeed, for the staff of regimental districts, who draw pay also through the Pay- master. Abroad, the regimental Paymaster pays everything to all ranks. We saw in the earlier pages how District Paymasters estimate monthly for money, requiring sub-estimates from their sub-accountants. The regimental Paymaster acts on a smaller scole in exactly the same way, it being remembered 526 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. that his sub-accountants are the Captains of companies ; whereas the District Paymaster's sub-accountants are the heads of departments and others. In the case of regiments and regimental districts, the Paymaster's estimate is made out on Army Form M 1411, and, at home stations, this document must be furnished to the War Office not later than 14 days before the 1st of the month to which it refers. Abroad, it is sent to the officer of the Pay Department in charge of the Treasury chest by such date as may be ordered locally. The approval of the Officer Commanding must be obtained to the estimate before it is forwarded. The regimental Paymaster is provided with funds in the same way as the District Paymaster. The Captains of troops and companies receive the money they require for their monthly expenses in four instalments, accounting for the expenditure at the end of the month by the troop or company pay-list already described. The Paymaster is in a position to check the company pay-lists by independent information received from other sources. As regards pay, however, the company pay-list explains itself, and the only thing necessary to check it is to ascertain that the men really are present as charged for by the Captain : therefore each regimental Paymaster sends with his pay-list a statement showing how far the numbers of men for whom he charges pay agree with those returned by the Commanding Officer in the ' monthly return ' which he sends to the War Office. The orderly room furnishes the information concerning savings bank deposits and with- drawals, men mulct pay, the hospital stoppages charged from the hospital, charges for barrack and Commissariat damages, and all charges of a similar kind coming from without the corps. The documents embodying these charges have, many of them, been before alluded to in their proper places ; they become, in the Paymaster's hands, so many vouchers to his accounts. So, too, in the matter of money allowances ; the various claims in the Paymaster's hands will serve as vouchers to his accounts in issuing the money and allow him to check the company pay-lists in which such sums REGIMENTAL FINANCE. 527 {or portions of them) may be claimed for their companies by Captains. Any working pay due to the men of a corps is drawn by the Paymaster but is not accounted for in detail by him. TJnder the Financial Instructions, the Paymaster hands over the amount in a lump sum to an ofScer appointed by the Commanding Officer, and the officer thus appointed obtains the men's signatures in receipt. The working pay-list is prepared by the departmental officer in charge of the work done. The weekly total certified by this officer is sent to the Paymaster, and at the end of the month the weekly totals are added up and claimed from that officer, the pay-list serving as his voucher for debiting the War Office with the lump sum. Working pay does not, therefore, appear in the company pay- list. Any objections or remarks on company pay-lists, any requests for explanation of items, or any calls for vouchers are sent by the Paymaster to the Commanding Officer upon Army Form N 1503 within a week after the company pay- list has been received. The same office books ('ledger,' * general account-book,' * bank-book,' &c.) as are kept in District pay offices, are also used by regimental Paymasters for their accounts. The accounts of a regimental Paymaster are rendered to the War Office much in the same manner as those of District Paymasters (see p. 206) ; but, instead of using the form of account on Army Form N 1477, a regimental pay-list (Army Form N 1472 for Cavalry and Infantry) is filled up by him in duplicate ; and, instead of this account being rendered (as by Districts) monthly, one copy of the pay-list is forwarded half-yearly for the half-years ending 30th Sep- tember and 31st March. This regimental pay-list is a complete account to which all the vouchers obtained regimentally and from departments and persons outside the corps are attached. Compared with the periodical accounts rendered by District Paymasters, those from corps are simple and turn on far fewer points. They are, therefore, in the case of Cavalry 528 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. and Infantry allowed to run, before being rendered to the War Office, a much longer time than those from Districts, which, as we have seen, go in every month. Nevertheless, there is a rougher check every intermediate quarter-. An ' account current ' (on Army Form N 1502) is despatched to the War Office by regimental Paymasters not later than the 15th day of the months succeeding the 30th June and 31st December. The account current thus rendered is a sum- mary statement in which it is taken for granted, for the time (until the end of the following quarter, when the pay- list is forwarded), that all sums shown as paid out have been correctly paid out and all sums paid in or recovered have also been correctly accounted for. It shows, on this supposition (the full vouchers sent with the pay-list not being attached), the financial position of the Paymaster towards the War Office at the periods halfway between the two half-yearly renderings of the regimental pay-lists. Of course, the whole subject-matter of these accounts is sifted and the account reiterated, with details and vouchers, three months later, when the pay-list goes in. The pay-list itself takes up the account minutely for the whole period elapsed since the last pay-list went in, ignoring, so to speak, the fact that this intermediate * account current ' has been rendered. With the account current is, however, sent one set of vouchers : those on Army Forms O 1681, O 1685, and O 1686, referring to cash issues and to the ' Paymaster's advances,' cre- dited and debited, during the quarter (see p. 204). These vou- chers (' receipts for issues of cash ' and ' schedules of advances ') never await the pay-list, but are forwarded every quarter, being required at the War Office to check other pay-lists. As in the case of a District Paymaster, the regimental Paymaster forwards with his pay-lists a ' balance-sheet ' which shows his financial position towards the War Office and each of his sub-accountants at the end of the period to which the pay-list refers. It would obviously be impossible to give a complete list of all the vouchers which might accompany a regimental pay-list ; but it may be well to append a list of those most REaiMENTAL — FINANCE. 529 frequently sent. These documents, furnished to the regimental Paymaster from various sources, are vouchers for the lump sums due to or from the corps from or to the War Office. The distribution of their items among individuals, companies, &c., is not, in most cases, shown by the vouchers themselves. Also, it will be observed that certain sums, credited or de- bited to the War Office by regimental Paymasters are noted as being ' adjusted.^ When a Paymaster recovers or pays a sum as a mere matter of convenience for another he enters it (see p. 204) as a credit or debit to the War Office under the head of 'Paymaster's advances' and vouches the entry, to whatever it may refer, by Army Form O 1685 if a credit, by Army Form O 1686 if a debit. These forms are the ' sche- dules of Paymaster's advances' which have been already mentioned as being forwarded every quarter to the War Office with the pay-list for the quarters ending 30th Sep- tember a.nd 31st March, with the account current for the other quarters. Vouchers for Sums debited to the War Office. Debit. Voucher. Army Form. „, J, ,. „_, _„ f Muster rolls of companies . . ) -vr i^qq Charges for ordinary pay • | Quotation of orders of pi ciiot ion, &c,\ ^ ^^^^ Credits of men transferred . Transfer (No. 1) reports . . O 1770 Furlough pay . . . Eeturn of men granted furlough 1782 „ . , , -j-i 1 „„i„ (Statement of deposits and with-) r^i^AK Savings bank withdrawals .| ^j-^wals . . . . .j ^ ^'^^ /Individual statement of deferred \ nifliR-a;i+Ti pay, with certified copy of b 200 Tud Deferred pay . . . -4 soldier's record of service, and V ., , other sub-vouchers (see para. ^nnphpr^ [ 452, Financiallnstructions) .) ^^^^^^^^ {Individual statement from Com- \ S?^Sf;SiS?^^t^s ome^th book, with certified copy of ^ ^^^ soldier's record of service . . ) Working pay .... Adjusted with Bistr'ict Paymaster. I Musketry and ) Good shooting prizes, nominal ] rjovalrv 0171« Bounty on re-engagement, &c. Re-engagement schedule . . 1724 , , ,, , . (Payment of reward for appre-) Rewards for the apprehension J {^^^^^^^ ^f deserter or man ^ 01621 of deserters . . . . ^ fraudulently enlisted . I. MM 530 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Debit. Colonial allowance (officers) Servants' allowance Compensation f cr clothing not issued Allowance to men discharged, &c., in lieu of plain clothes Annual allowance to Master- Tailor of Infantry battalion for fitting . Charges payable by the publi« for other alterations (al arms) .... Charges for making up cloth- ing (Cavalry, Infantry, and Army Hospital Corps) Charges for completing cloth- ing (Artillery, Engineers, Commissariat and Trans port Corps and Ordnance Store Corps) Marking clothing and neces- saries (when chargeable to the public) . Washing and repairs to cloth- ing (when chargeable to the public) .... Voucher. Statement of issues (monthly) Certified claim [ at home, on abroad, on ) Retura of compensation in lieu ) f of clothing ) j Charges for provision of plain ) j clothes j [ Claim from Master-Tailor . } Claim for allowance for fitting ) clothing j" Army Form. 1611 1763 1679 P1917 H 1147 H1161 H1162 Money allowance in lieu of rations for men entitled or authorized to draw it . Subsistence money for pri-J soners in guard-room . . j Separation allowance charge- \ able to the public for sub- I sistence of soldiers' families ) when seoarated from them by reason of military service / Messing on board ship of] officer entitled to free pass- Voucher for making up clothing . P 1918 Charges for completing clothing . P 1916 Charge for marking, &c. Claim for washing or repairing ) clothing i Voucher for ration allowance, sub- vouched by authority of (General Officer Commanding when necessary Return of soldiers confined in guard -room, with certificate tliat the amount debited is not above the charge for messing paid by other men of the corps P 1961 P1948 1634 with certificate Separation allowances to families ) n itm of soldiers ) " ^^^^ Messing on board ship ofj officer and family indulged with passage or passages . ) Money allowance in lieu of 1 forage j Money allowance in lieu of) fuel, light, and paillasse straw (all ranks at home) . ) Money allowance in lieu of] lig?U alone at home (see p. I 427) or for officers of ftiel j and light abroad . . .J Lodging allowance (includes ^ fuel and light in the case of | soldiers of classes III., IV. andV.) . . . .J Lodging allowance for School- 1 mistress . . . .J Mess certificate receipted by Cap- ) tain or Paymaster of ship . . j Mess certificate receipted by Cap- ) tain or Paymaster of ship . . J Vouched with rations on Commuted allowance for fuel, ) light, and paillasse straw . . j Claim for money allowance in lieu ) of fuel and light . . . j Regimental claim for allowance] in lieu of barrack accommoda- y tion j Claim for allowance in lieu of ) quarters | 1669 O1670 F743 P1921 P1928 P1945 REaiMENTAL FINANCE. 531 Debit. Officers' travelling expenses, \ travelling and detention ( Claim for travelling expenses, with ) allowances,wlien proceeding [ receipts as sub-vouchers . . \ alone or with servants only ) Travelling expensesand allow- \ ances, marching money, | billet money, &c , due to ■ parties proceeding under routes (including those of officers when they travel with troops) Allowance for conveyance of soldiers' families proceeding without troops . Vox] CHER. Route (General, District, Sub- district or Deserter), with warrants and other receipted sub- vouchers i Charge for conveyance of authorized amount of bag- gage (at home) . Amounts expended in the' carriage of stores trans- mitted . . . . , Postage and telegrams . Army Form. 1736 1797 with sub-vouchers 1776 Conveyance allowance, wives and ) children of soldiers . . . j /- Cavalry P 1903 Detailed statement of con- J Artillery P 1902 veyance of baggage . . 1 Engineers P 1904 (infantry P 1905 P1911 P1940 with copies of telegrams Account of disbursements for] carriage of stores . . .J Certificate in support of payments for postage and telegrams (sub- vouched by copies of telegrams) /Officer's equipment &c. (claimed, ' on Army Form 1784) . . j Mess Property . . . . I Approved Non-commissioned officers and proceedings men's kits, «&c. (claimed on [_ of board of A -r, ^ -.nnc^s - i^yestiga- Sums paid as indemnities for losses (as authorized by Sect. XVIL, Allowance] Army Form 1788) . Begulations) . . . Public money (claimed on Army Form 1788) .... I Horses (claimed on Army Form O V 1785 or 1786) . . . ./ Sums expended in allowances \ Allowances to discharged soldiers \ to men discharged and their { and their families (sub- vouched f families and to those of non- | by receipts for warrants when \ ^. y. ^^\,!!i, „ effectives . . . . j granted) j suD-voucners - - - - . . . P1925 tion with claims 1622 with Cost of stores expended Allowance for repair accoutrements . Hire of mess accommodation when necessary . Outfit allowance for officers^ promoted from the ranks . Charges for repair of equip- ment Allowance to corps for mis- cellaneous stores fixed by Sect. XXIII., Allowance Regulations (see p. 496) Farriery allowance . Library allowance . Soldier's funeral expenses Troop, battery or company contingent allowance . General service expense voucher of ) Receipt for allowance for repair ) . j of accoutrements . . . j f Authority of General Officer Com- manding, with certificate of necessity signed by Command- ing Officer Receipt of the person entitled to ) draw the allowance . . . j P1900 In manu- script In manu- script M M 2 532 ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. Vouchers for tSums credited to the War Office. Credit. Issues of cash . Voucher. f Statement of cash received from ) 1 Paymaster j Debts of soldiers transferred . Transfer (No. 1; reports '*SSartiL "":''"" °*} Quarterly court-martial returns . / Monthly returns of soldiers im- \ Forfeitures of pay by reason L. ^/^^°^®'^4= \a- ' ' « 'a -'I of imprisonment. . ^ I^et™ of soldiers confined m) ^ civil prisons tor Military r prisons offences ; Forfeitures of pay by reason ) t> j. 4: i x of absence . . . . | Returns of mulct pay . . . Fines for drunkenness . . Returns of fines for drunkenness . Forfeitures of good conduct 1 Returns of good conduct pay for- ) pay j feiture ) Savirgs bank deposits . . | ^*^*^^Ss ""^ ^^^'^^^ ^""^ T^^"^'. ] {Statement of effects of a non- ) effective soldier . . . . j Monthly returns of deaths, and\ effects and credits (sub- vouched I by pocket-ledgers of deceased [ men) ) Abstract of sums received inci-\ dental to clothing and neces- I saries (sub-vouched by receipts of officers, &c., and by 2 copies of >■ Army Form P 1915, one for clothing, the other for neces- 1 Sums due for clothing and necessaries sold (see p. 339) saries) . Army Form, 01681 O1770 A 14 1714 1712 1675 1624 1632 1746 1625 B273 with pocket- ledgers P1914 with P 1915 and other sub- vouchera 340) Sums due for clothing lost, \ destroyed, &c., not charge- [ Return of stoppages for articles a.ble to the public (see p. [ lost, &c ' Ration abstract ; sub- vouched by ' the return of soldiers attached from other corps (but not paid), the account of hospital stop- pages, soldiers' mulct pay, men on l^oard ship, imprisoned in military prison, imprisoned in civil prison, in guard-room (unrationed), drawing ration allowance, employed as hos- pital orderlies, and attached to other corps (but paid from tbeir own), ration certificate showing actual rations issued ^ Sums due for rations over- drawn (see p. 391) Certificate of issues of rations to \ regiments j Stoppage for grocery ration' Sums for rations issued on re- payment .... Value of liquor ration (when issued) ^ Voluntary remittance by) o i^- , -xi. i soldier . . . ) Soldier s remittance voucher Stoppage of pay for main-\ tenance of families of men I ^ u- . -ij. i, % on the married roll when I ^^^^^^^^ remittance voucher compulsorily separated from I (^arkoi 'compulsory remit- them by reason of foreign ^^^^^ > ' service, &c J P 1949 sub- vouched by 01643 P1950 (original) 1625 1671 ■ 1714 1712 1634 P1948 1645 P1950(copy) F743 1726 1726 REGIMENTAL — FINANCE. 533 Credit. Voucher. Army Form. Stoppage of pay for main-\ tenance of wife or child Soldier's remittance voucher ] under order of the Secretary V (marked 'compulsory remit- I 1726 of State, by authority of tance') ) the Army Act . . . j Forage rations overdrawn . | ^'^^e^fments^^ ''^"^^ ^^ ^^^'"^'^^ ^"^ \ ^ ^^3 Stoppage for gas supplied \ (when not paid by the con- ' vlrf;?«^^if icith the District Puy- suraer direct to the gas f master. company) (see p. 105) . ) Warrants for travelling on ) .^, , ( I^eaves from repayment . . 7 .[ The warrants j Army Book Value of equipment stores "^ lost, df-stroyed, &c. (when I Return of stoppages of articles) ^ ,^,. not chargeable to the [ lost, &c 1" public) j Value of hides and carcasses ) Return of amount received f or ) ^ , ^-o oi horses . . . . j" hides and carcasses of horses . ) Value of Engineer barrack n damages Value of Commissariat I ^j. , , .^i r.. . . ^ r. (Vimao-p to 1 flrrapk Pvnpn