ME. JUSTIN M'CARTHYasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether 614 Captain of Orderlies C. Cook, "late" Army Hospital Corps, has authority to exercise the prerogative of command within the Medical Staff and the Medical Staff Corps respectively, in the like manner and to the same extent as, by virtue of his commission, he had within the "late" Army Medical Department and the "late" Army Hospital Corps; whether the rate of pay which this officer is now in receipt of, viz. 10s. a-day, is considered a fair and reasonable compensation for the duties and work Performed, or adequate remuneration for any officer of the Medical Department or Medical Staff who has over eleven years' commissioned service; and, whether it is a fact that Captain of Orderlies Cook is the only officer now serving in the Army who has risen from the ranks for whom no increase of pay is provided; and, if so, whether the Secretary for War will take this exceptional case into consideration?
§ SIR ARTHUR HAYTER,who replied, said: The officer referred to exercises the same command in the Medical Staff Corps that he exercised prior to the issue of the recent Warrant in the Army Hospital Corps. He has the pay assigned to his rank by former Royal Warrants, which Warrants did not provide for an increase of such pay; but it is open to him to accept the terms first offered in 1881, in which case he would attain to the same rates of pay as the other officers who were his contemporaries as Captains of Orderlies, and who have accepted the new terms.