§ MR. H. BAILLIEsaid, that in reference to a statement made by the Under Secretary for War on Friday evening, that none but combatant officers were to receive the Sebastopol clasp, he would beg to inquire whether the War Office had decided that surgeons attending the wounded under fire or Commissariat officers bringing up supplies during action were non-combatants? He asked the question because he understood that those medical and Commissariat officers who were still at Sebastopol had received the clasp, while those who had returned since the city was taken had been refused it.
§ MR. FREDERICK PEELsaid, he could only repeat the answer which he gave on Friday, that, as a general rule, none but combatant officers were to receive clasps commemorative of actions, but added, that it had been decided to make an exception in favour of medical officers, on the ground that they were obliged, in the performance of their duty, to go under fire with their regiments.
§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONsaid, he would remind the hon. Gentleman that he had not answered that portion of the question which referred to the distinction made between the medical and Commissariat officers remaining in the Crimea and those who had returned home.
§ MR. FREDERICK PEELsaid, he must beg to explain that before the general rule which he had described came into 1326 operation a number of Commissariat officers received the Sebastopol clasp, which they had not since been requested to return, although the same distinction had not been conferred upon the remaining officers in the same department.