HC Deb 17 March 1859 vol 153 cc246-7
SIR DE LACY EVANS

said, he would beg to ask whether any accounts have reached the War or Colonial Departments relating to the sickness and mortality to a detachment of two Companies of the 41st Regiment, detached to Trinidad, and said to have been left there unrelieved for a very long period; and, if so, whether there will be any objection to lay the same before the House; also, if there are any soldiers of the 41st Regiment who have completed their ten years' service, why they are not permitted to avail themselves of the option they are entitled to by their completion of service.

GENERAL PEEL

said, in reply, that the visitation of yellow fever at Trinidad was reported to the Adjutant General in November, 1858. There were then twenty-eight casualties, of which three were officers, but immediately on the outbreak of the fever the troops were removed from the barracks and encamped in a healthy situation. There was no objection to lay the Report upon the table. In reply to the second part of the question, he begged to say that there were men in the 41st Regiment whose period of service—ten years, had expired; but by the 5th clause of the Limited Enlistment Bill the hon. and gallant Member would see that power was given to an officer in command on a foreign station to retain the services of those men for two years. That power had been exercised during the pressure of the war in India; but that emergency having now passed away, the power would not be exercised any longer.