(To TIM EDITOR OF TII• “SPIOP1TOR:1 (To TIM EDITOR OF
TII• “SPIOP1TOR:1 6. nt,—Your correspondent " Quinque Filii" in last week's "sae is, I think, in his estimate of a subaltern'. expenses, quoting from experience of a very expensive battalion. In bay opinion, a, complete and full outfit in an infantry battalion should be covered by £60, which would include full and mesa dress and boots, so that after deducting the Government outfit allowance the first expense on joining would not be more than £40 at the outside. I quite agree that occasions for wearing full or mess dress are rare, but no officer cares to be absent from a function where custom decrees they are correct, and even a civilian thinks a frock-coat necessary for divine service when his ordinary lounge-coat certainly should not prevent him attending. A subaltern's messing expenses at camp are nearly all covered by his pay, and I consider that an annual allowance of £10 will well cover the annual regimental dinner and any other subscriptions be may be fairly called upon to give. In my battalion half this sum would easily do it. Surely this is not a heavy annual outlay for a youngster holding a commission, and if his spare time was occupied in other directions I doubt if his out-of-pooket expenses would be less. I am writing from long experience of a provincial battalion whose commanding officers have neither encouraged extrava- gance nor, parsimony.—I am, Sir, Ste.,
MESS PRESIDENT, HAMPSHIRE BATTALION.
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