§ COLONEL BARTTELOTasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether any steps are being taken to relieve those Colonels of the Queen's Army who have been superseded by Colonels of the Indian Army; and, whether any steps are being taken for preventing in the future such supersession?
§ MR. CARDWELLSir, the rank of Major General in the Indian Army for the officers promoted since May 3, 1870, is local only, until the British colonels senior to them have been promoted. As each British colonel is promoted to Major General his commission is ante-dated so as to place him as General in the position he occupied as colonel. In 1870 a Committee of the House of Commons considered, but did not recommend, a proposal for increasing the establishment of British General Officers. They recommended that an amalgamated list of colonels should be at once formed from the British, the Staff Corps, and the Indian local lists, from which promotion should be made to Major General, according to seniority as colonel; but this recommendation was considered by a Royal Commission, of which Lord Cairns was Chairman, to be at variance with the guarantee given by Parliament to the Indian officers, and was, therefore, not adopted. At present the operation of the Royal Warrant of June 15, 1864, is to give for a time to British colonels all the promotion of the colonels of the Indian Staff Corps.