HC Deb 27 July 1871 vol 208 cc309-10
COLONEL ANSON

asked the Secretary of State for War, When he intends to bring in the Bill alluded to in the Correspondence laid upon the Table of the House on the subject of the Supersession of Colonels in the Royal Army?

MR. CARDWELL

According, Sir, to the interpretation put by Lord Cranworth's Commission upon the Acts of 1858 and 1860, and to the Report of Lord Cairns' Commission of 1870, there is no power to give effect to the Report of the Select Committee of last Session without the interposition of the Legislature. The intention of the Bill is to afford the opportunity of dealing with that Report with a qualification agreed to by the India Office. That Bill has been prepared, and I shall be ready to introduce it when a suitable occasion offers.