SIR TREVOR LAWRENCEasked the Secretary of State for India, Whether it is a fact that service in a Queen's Regiment out of India does not count for pension in the Staff Corps, and that several officers who have discharged into or been transferred to the Staff Corps in ignorance of this condition have found themselves deprived of all the advantages of their former service, so far as pension is concerned; and, whether any alteration of the Pension and Retirement Regulations is contemplated, so as to give officers in the position described the benefit towards pension of the full period they may have served, whether in or out of India?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONThe rule is that an officer's service for Indian pension counts from the date of his first landing in India; but he is only then entitled to pension after the fixed periods laid down for Indian retirements if not less than one half of the required period shall have been passed in the Staff Corps. There is no present intention of making such alteration in the Staff Corps pension rules as to admit as Indian service for the Indian pension service performed before an officer's arrival in India. All officers are fairly supposed, before joining the service, to have made themselves acquainted with the conditions under which they do so; but I will make inquiry whether they are subject in this respect to any disadvantages which require consideration.