§ MR. BAZLEYsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, The number of Candidates who presented themselves at the last competitive examinations for the fifty appointments as Assistant Surgeons in Her Majesty's Indian Army which were announced to be vacant on the 19th March, 1866, and the reason why Medical Officers of the Indian Army are granted, when incapacitated for the further performance of their duties through ill-health contracted in the tropics, half-pay pensions of one-third less than those sanctioned for Medical Officers of the British Army of five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years' respectively?
§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONreplied that for the fifty vacancies in the medical service for India only thirty-six candidates presented themselves. With regard to the other part of the question of the hon. Gentleman, he begged to say that the rates of pensions in the India service were, on the whole, more favourable than those in the British service, inasmuch as they were granted for a much shorter period of service, and the pensions were permanent instead of temporary. The advantages of the medical service in India seemed not to be well understood. The promotion was very rapid, as in some cases the medical officer, after only two years' service, received emoluments reaching to £500 or £600 a year.