COLONEL NORTHsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary of State for India, if there is any truth in the report that the Wives and Families of the Soldiers of the 67th Regiment, who wore sent out to India to join their Husbands, have been ordered, on their arrival in India, to be sent back to England. He (Colonel North) hoped that this report was not true; but if it was true, he felt assured that his right hon. Friend (Mr. Sidney Herbert) must have had some strong reasons for giving those orders.
§ MR. SIDNEY HERBERTsaid, that in answer to the question of the hon. and gallant Officer who had just spoken, he had to state it was true that when it was understood that the 67th was to be one of the regiments to go to China, orders had been given to send back the women and children as a matter of course. Afterwards it was found that the 67th was not to be one of the regiments for the Chinese expedition, but was to return to England, and then a telegram was sent out to India countermanding the previous order. He trusted that that telegram reached India in time to prevent the embarkation of the women and children, but the authorities there, knowing that the regiment in question was coming to England, would no doubt have exercised their own discretion in the matter, as they had the power to do, in not sending the women and children back.
With regard to the question of the hon. and gallant Member for Wigan (Colonel Lindsay) who had stated the case of the officers referred to very fairly, the recommendation of the Commissioners was of course a general one, based upon simple principles, and could not have been made with reference to special cases. The officers referred to by the hon. and gallant Officer were no doubt gallant and distinguished members of the service; but whatever the effect of the rule in their particular case (and upon that he need not state his own private opinion to the hon. and gallant Member, who knew all the circum- 249 stances), to place them in any numerical position equivalent to that they held before would have rendered it necessary to antedate two commissions, a step which would have occasioned considerable military inconvenience, and was contrary to the rules of the service. If any plan could be devised by which the parties could be placed in the same relative position which they would but for the rule have enjoyed, free from such inconvenience, he should be happy to consider it with a view to its adoption.
Upon the subject of the militia organization, he differed from the hon. and gallant Member (Colonel Dickson) who had put a question to him. One thing had been done. Circulars were issued, and the Adjutant received regular pay in order to prevent, as far as possible, any men from entering the Militia whose residences were not known and whose characters were not approved. He did not deny the existence of the grievance to which the hon. and gallant Officer had called attention as regarded the militia officers serving in Ireland, and in some instances a good deal of hardship. The recommendation of the Militia Commission was that where the soldiers were billeted the officers should receive lodging money provided the colonel recommended it, and reported that the quarters allotted were inconvenient. The only reason why that recommendation had not been acted upon was the expense it would entail. The cost of the military establishments this year was so large that he had been compelled to make reductions in directions where, under other circumstances, he should not have done so.