§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary of State for India, Whether there is any foundation for the statement in the military journals that 4,000 troops are immediately to be sent to India; whether the additional annual cost of these troops, amounting to above £400,000, independently of £13 per man for Home Charges suddenly thrown upon the Reve- 676 nues of India will not destroy the equilibrium of Receipt and Expenditure provided for in Mr. Laing's Budget for 1862–3; and whether it is prudent to suffer the continuance of the alleged existing irritation in India arising from the pressure of the income tax to assist in the maintenance of the present large European force in a time of peace?
§ SIR CHARLES WOODwas understood to say that no measures out of the ordinary course had been taken in sending troops to India. A certain amount of force had been fixed for that empire, and he did not believe that it had been reached at that moment.