§ MAJOR TRENCHasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether there is any Royal Warrant or Horse Guards General Order depriving certain Officers of Her Majesty's Indian Army who, by length of service become entitled to promotion and increased pay, of the privilege of reckoning the additional year's service towards pay and pension, granted to them by Her Majesty for service in connection with the relief of Lucknow, under Horse Guards General Order dated June 2nd, 1862, when the additional year's service, if allowed to reckon, would bring with it increased pay; if there is no such Royal Warrant or General Order, whether he will state to the House why it is that Officers have not been allowed to reap the advantages to be derived from this additional year's service; and, whether he will read to the House the Horse Guards General Order of the 2nd June, 1862 (Lucknow, 1, 1862,) granting this boon?
MR. GRANT DUFFIn reply, Sir, to my hon. and gallant Friend's first Question, I have to say that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, there is no such Royal Warrant or Horse Guards General Order; but the question whether there is or is not is more properly one for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for War. In reply to my hon. and gallant Friend's second Question, I have to say that I am not aware that any Officers have been deprived of any benefits with respect to the year's service to which he alludes, granted to them by Royal Warrant or Horse Guards General Order. In reply to his third Question, I shall have much pleasure in complying with his request to read the Horse Guards General Order of the 2nd June, 1862, of which I have obtained a Copy from the War Office; but before doing so I may remind my hon. and gallant Friend that that document could have no sort of bearing on the Officers of the Indian Army who were at Luck-now, but only on those Officers of the British Army who happened to be there, except in so far as it may have been made specially applicable to the Officers of the Indian Army by the Government of India. This is the document—
§ "HORSE GUARDS GENERAL ORDER, NO. 810, JUNE 2, 1862.
§ "Her Majesty having been graciously pleased to grant to the Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, and Soldiers who comprised the garrison of Lucknow, in 1857, the permission to reckon an additional year's service towards pay and pension, and having been pleased to extend this boon to the force which entered that place under the late Sir Henry Havelock, in September of that year, is now further pleased to direct that the troops composing the detachment left by that Officer in the Alumbagh, on the 25th of September, together with those that subsequently entered it and remained there until the relief by Lord Clyde, on the 18th of November, 1857, shall also participate in the above-mentioned advantages. The additional year's service in all such cases is allowed to reckon towards the qualifications for 'medal and. gratuity.' This grant is to be entered at once in the record of service of all those who are entitled to its advantages."