At a meeting of Members of Parliament interested in the
Auxiliary Forces held in the House of Commons on Thursday it was stated that it was the intention of the War Office to reduce the Imperial Yeomanry by a hundred and twenty per regiment, the Militia by sixty-four battalions, and the Volun- teers by eighty thousand men. According to the Daily Mail report, this statement "was made by Sir Howard Vincent, while Sir Hermon Hodge corroborated it so far as the Yeomanry were concerned." Upon the motion of Colonel Williams, seconded by Major Seely, it was resolved unani- mously: "That a deputation wait upon the Prime Minister in order to urge upon him that it is essential that the Auxiliary Forces of the country should be placed under an independent Department at the War Office, communicating direct with the highest authority; to point out that a pledge to this effect was given by the Secretary of State for War on March 12th, 1900, and that in spite of this promise the Auxiliary Forces are now placed under the Adjutant-General's Department ; and, further, to submit that, in the judgment of this meeting, any reduction in the establishment of the Auxiliary Forces is highly undesirable.—a course already taken, to their regret, in the case of the Imperial Yeomanry."
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