COLONEL HERBERTsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for India what number of Her Majesty's Regiments of Infantry and Cavalry it is proposed to retain for service in the East Indies after the 1st of July, 1860?
§ SIR CHARLES WOOD, in reply to the hon. and gallant Member for Aberdeen (Colonel Sykes), said, he did not consider a noisy street the most convenient site for a public office, but he should be better able to judge of the convenience of the situation when he had tried it. With regard to the question of the hon. and gallant Member (Colonel Herbert) as to the regiments to be retained for service in India, he feared he could not give a more definite answer 2147 than he gave a week ago to the same question, when put by the hon. and gallant Member for Huntingdon (General Peel). The number of regiments retained on service must depend on what the Indian Government considered necessary for the safety of India. They could not be quite certain of the number of regiments that could be sent home at the end of five, six, or seven months. The 14th Dragoons, he knew, was on its way from Bombay. The Indian Government had general orders to send home whatever regiments it could spare. He would take that opportunity of stating the particular regiments that were ordered on service in China, which he had ascertained since he answered the question of the hon. and gallant Officer (General Peel). The 3rd and 67th were sent to China some time ago; he believed the 99th left early in February, and the second battalion of the 60th in the course of that month. The 31st and 44th were to follow; and if a seventh regiment were required, perhaps the 87th.