§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for India whether, as the 56th clause of the Government of India Act, 1858, transferring the direct Government of India to the Crown, guaranteed to the Officers of the Indian Army, the rank, privileges, &c, they held at the time of the passing of the said Act, it is the intention of Her Majesty's Go- 1118 vernment to cancel or alter the rank held by the Field Officers of the Artillery and Engineers of the Indian Army at the time of passing the said Act.
§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, he believed it would be necessary to explain the circumstances under which this question arose to make his answer intelligible. Previous to the late mutiny the Royal Artillery never served in India, and there was a difference of rank between the Officers of the Royal Artillery and those of the Indian Artillery. There was no rank of Major in the former, but there was in the Indian Artillery. When those two forces became associated in service in India, in order to put them both upon an equality, it was decided to abolish the rank of Major in the Indian Artillery, which did not exist in the Queen's Service, and to make the Officer rise at once from the rank of Captain to that of Lieutenant Colonel, in the same manner as in the Royal Artillery. But in the endeavour to place the Officers then holding the rank of Major on an equal footing they went a little too far, because they gave back rank and made them Lieutenants Colonel dating from the day they became Majors. The result was not that any injustice was done to the Royal Artillery, but that it became a great injustice to the Officers of the Cavalry and Infantry of the Indian Army. In one case, an Officer became a Major General over the heads of a great number of other Officers who had been promoted before him. The matter was brought to the notice of his (Sir C. Wood's) predecessor (Lord Stanley), who determined to cancel so much of that order as gave back rank, and to give the rank of Lieutenant Colonel only from the date of the order. He did not consider there was anything in this which was inconsistent with the clause in the Act transferring the Government of India. The true meaning of that clause was that by the change all officers were to be left precisely in the same position as if the rule of the East India Company had continued, and it was not intended to prevent the Government from correcting a mistake in the same manner as the Company might have done.