§ MR. STANILANDsaid, he rose to call attention to the claims of the Satpoora Field Force and of the Goa Frontier Field Force (portions of the Indian Army) to the Indian Mutiny Medal, the Government of India having rejected these claims. He regretted to be obliged to bring forward the subject in the absence of the Secretary of State for India, but he hoped that the right hon. Baronet would not deem it discourteous on his part if he could not at that period of the Session defer doing so any longer. He had not the slightest personal interest in the matter, and in calling attention to it he was actuated only by a sense of duty, and a desire to see justice done to an honourable body of men who had fought gallantly and success- 749 fully for their Queen in India, in the suppression of the unhappy mutiny and rebellion which broke out there a few years ago. The mutiny was not confined to Bengal, but extended to parts of the other Presidencies, especially to Bombay, where these particular field forces were employed, and their active services were called into requisition against the mutineers and rebels, some of whom were afterwards executed. He wished the House to consider the decision come to by the Commander-in-Chief in India, in opposition to the Governments of Bombay and Madras, in order that these troops might have granted them that medal which it was the express intention of the Sovereign should be given to all who had been engaged in suppressing the rebellion. He would explain the particular circumstances under which the services of these troops were required. In the month of February, 1858, certain native chiefs assembled a considerable force in the immediate vicinity of Goa, with a view to create rebellion against us. They took up a position and stockaded it, making it as defensible as the circumstances would permit. Lord Elphinstone called in the assistance of General Jacobs to suppress the movement, and the operations were under the direction of that distinguished officer. There was no question that the military authorities of Bombay regarded the duty imposed on these troops as the suppression of rebellion. The whole of the testimony on the subject went to establish that the military authorities who were parties to the operation were clearly of opinion that the rising partook of the character of a rebellion. The brothers Saal were the leaders of the mutiny, and the rebels were dispersed by means of a force called the Goa Frontier Field Force acting in the particular locality in question, and consisting of 1,500 regular and irregular troops from the Bombay, and a similar number from the Madras, Presidency, making in all 3,000 men, there were also 1,000 Portugese, and by those troops the rebels were dislodged from the position which they had taken up, and dispersed. General Jacob was summoned to Goa to concert a plan of operations with the Portugese authorities in the following spring, but the leading rebels finding they could not make head against the military arrayed against them surrendered themselves. The Goa Field Force was then disbanded, and the troops returned to their respective districts, and when the whole mutiny in India was 750 at an end an order was sent out awarding medals to all the military and civilians who were employed in its suppression. Colonel Fitzgerald, one of the officers who commanded the combined Goa force, addressed a letter in October, 1860, to the Adjutant General of the army at Fort St. George, making a request for medals, and setting forth the services of those employed under him; but the result was that in proportion as the application for those medals became more numerous the official snubbing given to the applicants increased. In July, 1861, a Minute of Council was forwarded, from which it appeared that the Commander-in-Chief, being of opinion that no military operations had been undertaken against us by the rebels in the particular quarter referred to, decided that there had been nothing to warrant the issue of the medal; it was therefore countermanded, although the home Government had been prepared to grant it, and the medals were actually struck and sent out to India. This gross inconsistency was therefore sanctioned, that a medal was denied to the Bombay force which the Madras army obtained, and were actually wearing. He hoped the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State would consider this subject during the recess, and be prepared next Session to view the case favourably.
MR. T. G. BARINGsaid, he had been requested to answer the question of the hon. Member, as it was not in the power of the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for India (Sir Charles Wood) to attend that evening. The case brought before the House by the hon. Member was one that ought, he believed, to be left to the Government of India to decide. The authorities in India had laid down the conditions on which medals were to be given. The regulation on this subject was that for any military force to become entitled to the distinction of the medal, it must have been engaged in actual conflict in the field. A letter had been addressed to the Commander-in-Chief on the subject, and he had stated, in reply, that there was no rule of the service which would authorise the granting of the Indian mutiny medal to the Satpoora Field Force. The hon. Gentleman referred to the decision of the Commander-in-Chief, but he had omitted to state that the Government of India concurred in his opinion. That House was hardly in a condition to discuss the details of military operations against the mutineers, and he therefore hoped the hon. Member 751 would not think it necessary to move further in the matter.
§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, the House was evidently unwilling to listen to the details of this matter, which he was quite prepared to go into. He should, therefore, confine himself to an expression of opinion that, as a matter of gratitude, the Government ought to have seized the opportunity of doing justice to troops who had stood by us in the crisis of danger, prevented our being driven to the coast, and thus saved our Indian empire.