The following rational method of dealing with the reduction of a singular matrix pencil to canonical form has certain advantages. It is based on the principle of vector chains, the length of the chain determining a minimal index. This treatment is analogous to that employed by Dr A. C. Aitken and the author in Canonical Matrices (1932) 45–57, for the nonsingular case. In Theorems 1 and 2 tests are explicitly given for determining the minimal indices. Theorem 2 gives a method of discovering the lowest row (or column) minimal index. Theoretically it should be possible to state a corresponding theorem for each of these indices, not necessarily the lowest, and prior to any reduction of the pencil. This extension still awaits solution.