§ MR. W. MILLERsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, When the Return moved for on the 20th March relative to the grant of the Indian medal to the troops and police employed in suppressing the Mutiny and Rebellion in the Bombay Presidency will be laid upon the table; and why has no action been taken on Lord Elphinstone's protest to satisfy the troops and police who were promised the medal, and then refused by the Commander-in-Chief (especially in regard to the police, who wore under the Civil power, and not subject to any control whatever from the Commander-in-Chief); and on what principle does the Secretary of State for India explain the distinction he has made in granting the medal to the men at Kolapore, under General Jacob, and denying it to those who were engaged in other parts of the Bombay Presidency?
§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, in reply to the first part of the Question of the hon. Member, that the delay in the production of the Return had been the result of sick ness in the Department, which had crippled its efficiency; but he believed that the desired information would be laid on the table in the course of a few days. With regard to the second question, he was not aware of what was meant by the pro test of Lord Elphinstone, and he was un able to find any trace of such a document. In answer to the remaining question, he washed to say that the Bombay Government, in accordance with the views of the Commander-in-Chief, were of opinion that the force employed in the particular ser vice to which the hon. Member referred were not entitled to the medal, and the India Government arrived at the same conclusion. It was asked why the medal had been given to the Madras force while it had been withheld from the Bombay force, but the fact was that it was not given to either force. The principle adopted in the case of the forces in India was to give the medal to those men who had been employed in the field against the mutineers, and to confine it to them ex clusively.