§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, he would also beg to ask the Secretary of State for India upon what grounds Deputy Inspectors- 1119 General of Hospitals in the British forces of less than five years' service, doing duty at home or in the Colonies, with the relative army rank of Lieutenant Colonel, are to have the local rank of Colonel while serving in India from the date of their arrival in that country, agreeably to Her Majesty's Warrant of the 1st of February, 1859, in supersession of Surgeon Majors and Deputy Inspectors of Hospitals of Her Majesty's Indian Forces who rank as Lieutenant Colonels only, although of twenty to thirty years' service?
§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, that there had been two or three changes in the rank and designation of these officers. In the Indian Army there were two different ranks, which corresponded with only one in the Line; that was to say, there were two classes of Deputy Inspectors- General in the Indian Army, whilst there was only one in the Queen's Forces. The fact was that it was quite impossible, so long as they had two ranks in the one service corresponding with one in the other service, to make the ranks move in precisely parallel lines. There must be inequality one way or the other; and he believed that, on the whole, the arrangement which had been made after mature consideration between the Indian authorities and the Commander-in-Chief was less unequal than any other that could he made, unless the two ranks in the Indian Army were merged into one, which the Government of India did not think advisable for the efficiency of the service there.