§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, he would beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, On what grounds a pecuniary premium is paid out of the taxes of India to subaltern officers of the Royal Army to induce them to enter the staff corps of India, to the exclusion of the sons of old officers of the Indian Army, and others, while numerous gentlemen are prepared to compete for a commission in the military service of India, upon any prescribed standard of agreement, and proceed to India free of cost to the State?
MR. GRANT DUFFIn reply, Sir, to the first part of my hon. and gallant Friend's Question, I have to say that he has been misinformed. No pecuniary premium is paid out of the taxes of India to subaltern officers of the Royal army to induce them to enter that portion of the Royal army called the staff corps of India; but when a subaltern officer of not more than four years' service, belonging to a purchase corps, joins the staff corps, he receives, not out of the taxes of India, but from the War Office, the same sum which he would have received if he had sold out. The latter part of my hon. and gallant Friend's Question points to a policy entirely at variance with that which has been pursued since the amalgamation of the Royal and Company's armies—that policy being to weld these two armies together, and to allow no one to join the staff corps or specially Indian portion of the Royal army as now constituted, who has not passed some time in, and formed some associations with, a regiment not permanently connected with India.