§ GENERAL SHUTEasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether, as regards those purchase officers who, since the issue of the Warrant of the 13th of August 1877, have by the introduction of a system of forced retirement been placed in a worse position than previously to the abolition of purchase, he will consider the justice of allowing them to bequeath to their widows and children, or other representatives, the amount which in strict accordance with the Queen's Regulations had actually been paid for their Commissions; and, whether the sums so expended may be at once paid to the executors or administrators of those gallant officers lately killed in Zululand whose professional interests had been affected by the said Warrant?
§ COLONEL STANLEY, in reply, said, he must adhere to the answer given by his noble Friend his Predecessor in 1875, and again in 1877, to the effect that officers could not be allowed to bequeath 445 the value of their commissions. In the case of officers killed in action the sums actually paid for commissions at regulation prices were payable to their representatives in lieu of any pension to which they might be entitled under the Articles of the Royal Warrant.