CAPTAIN JERVISsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, Whether, as by Clause 65 of his Despatch, dated the 17th day of June, No. 194, he recognizes that portion of the Report of the Commission on Memorials of the Indian Officers which stated that the organization given to the newly created Staff Corps has, contrary to the Parliamentary Guarantee, caused extensive supercession of the Officers remaining with their regiments; and as by paragraph 66 he admits that a complete remedy for this superces- 614 sion must be found either in the withdrawal of the rank given to the Staff Corps or in granting such army rank to the Officers of the Indian Army, as shall restore them to a relative position, as regards the Staff Corps Officers, which they held at the formation of that corps; whether he considers that giving Brevet rank to the local Army, such rank in India giving no addition of pay whatever, restores the relative position of the Officers of the Indian Army to that of the Staff Corps, the latter possessing substantive rank with pay proportionate to their rank; and whether he considers this arrangement carries out the pledge which he gave that he would adopt the Report of the Commissioners in its integrity? Whereas the Staff Corps are on the full pay of their respective substantive ranks, whilst the local Army is to have Brevet rank without increase of pay, it is placing the local Army on the same footing as the Staff Corps to make the promotion from the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to Colonel to depend on an Officer having been five years on the full pay of a Lieutenant Colonel, as laid down in paragraph 69; and on what principle the Brevet rank of the Ordnance Corps in India is to be only local, as laid down in paragraph 70, the Parliamentary Guarantee extending to the Ordnance Corps as well as the rest of the Army?
§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, he would also beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, whether he will lay upon the table of the House a Return comprising the names of all Officers of the Indian Armies who had substantive rank given them by the East India Company, irrespective of promotion by regimental seniority, since the year 1800? Whether, in reference to paragraph 69 of the Despatch of the Secretary of State to the Governor General of India, dated June 17, 1864, the Army rank proposed to be given to regimental Officers after specified periods of service is to proceed pari passu with promotions to substantive rank in the Staff Corps, and whether he considers such Army rank a just equivalent for the substantive rank given to Staff Officers? And whether with reference to paragraph 76 of the same Despatch, all the Lieutenant Colonels in the Regimental Lists of the Indian Armies and Staff Corps are to be struck off immediately, and promotions made regimentally, according to the standing of the Regiment for the Line step, in conformity with the usages of the service?
§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, that he had given no pledge to adopt the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Memorials of Indian Officers, for the simple reason that the Commissioners had carefully abstained from making any recommendations at all. They only stated what they considered to be the interpretation of the Parliamentary guarantee in regard to the organization given to the newly-created Staff Corps, and the alleged supercession of the Officers remaining with their regiments, and he frankly accepted that opinion. But that guarantee had no reference whatever to the employment or pay of the Officers, and therefore when the Officers of the local Army received brevet rank, he considered that this was a sufficient fulfilment of the guarantee in their regard, although the brevet rank carried with it no additional pay. The rank given to regimental Officers in respect to length of service had no connection with substantive rank in the Staff Corps. All the Officers in the Indian Army, whether of the Staff Corps or not, would receive their army rank in respect of length of service. The Officers of the Indian Army would stand in exactly the same relative seniority to each other as they did on the day that the Staff Corps was formed. With regard to the Ordnance Brevet rank being only local, he thought that the Ordnance Corps in India had received greater advantages than almost any other corps, and that they had not the slightest grievance to complain of.