§ SIR CHARLES WINGFIELDasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether any and what decision has been come to in the claim of the officers of the Royal, late Indian, Engineers of the three Presidencies, for compensation, for the sums they would have received on retirement from the junior officers of their regiments, had the Army Regulation Act of 1871 not been passed into Law, on the same principle as was laid down in the case of the twelve non-purchase or In- 104 dian Regiments by Clause 4 of the aforesaid Act?
§ MR. CARDWELLSir, the difference between these six corps and the 12 non-purchase regiments consists in this—that the succession of contributors in these six corps was arrested in 1861, and the former contributors were entitled to the benefit of Lord Cranborn's despatch. No provision was thought necessary for them under the Act of last year. The Law Officers have since advised in effect that the continuance of the arrangement among the still remaining officers is illegal, and hence a question of some difficulty has arisen, upon which I am now in correspondence with the India Office.