MR. BODKIN (Roscommon, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if his attention has been directed to the case of Edward Taffe, now residing in great poverty in Boyle, County Roscommon, who was discharged from the Army in 1872 without a pension after three and a-half years' service in the East India Company, and 12 years and two months in the Imperial Service: is he aware that Edward Taffe was during almost the entire period on active service; that he joined the East India Company's Service (the Madras Fusiliers) in June, 1856; that he was transferred to the Imperial Service in January, 1860; that he was in active service all through the Indian Mutiny in No. 9 Battery 4th Brigade Artillery, as volunteer; that he afterwards went to New Zealand, and served in the Maori War; that he was sent to England in 1868, and was transferred to No. 91 Battery 2nd Brigade for foreign service; and that he was sent again to India (Singapore), where he remained until discharged; and will he give the matter his most favourable consideration, with the object of providing, if possible, that this man, after arduous and distinguished service in the Imperial forces, may have some provision beside the poor-house for his old age?
* THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (Mr. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN,&c.) Stirling,E. Taffe's conduct in the Service was recorded as "very bad," and he was discharged in 1872 under sentence of Court Martial. It is not a case in which any pension can be granted.