§ COLONEL SYKESasked, Whether the Under Secretary of State for India having declared that there is not any error in the Report of the Commission to inquire and report into the cost of drilling European recruits for India, which stated that 24,783 recruits were sent to India from the East India Company's depôt at Warley from 1850 to 1859, at an average cost of £19 14s. 10½d. per recruit, but that the War Office, for 15,376 recruits sent to India from 1861–2 to 1867–8, charged the Government of India £205 per recruit, and in the year 1862–3 £376 per recruit, and that for the future £136 13s. 11d. for a Cavalry, and £63 8s. 5d. for an Infantry recruit is to be charged, the Secretary of State for India in Council will take measures to protect the taxpayers of India from these extraordinarily increased charges 1583 for recruiting the European Troops in India, and whether the depôt at Warley cannot be re-established on the same economical footing as under the East India Company?
MR. GRANT DUFFNo change, Sir, in the existing arrangements is at present contemplated by the Secretary of State for India in Council. With regard to the Warley depôt, all matters connected with recruiting belong to the department of the Secretary of State for War; but I may say that I do not see how, even if the Warley depôt were re-established, it could be re-established on the same economical footing as formerly, seeing that the article supplied to India by the War Office is a more costly article than that supplied in old times.