CAPTAIN TALBOTasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether the exigencies of the service required that the 21st R. N. B. Fusiliers should, after a long service in India, be brought home in mid-winter and at once stationed in the north-east of Scotland; and, whether, with the object of diminishing the loss of life and suffering to the troops and the women and children, caused by the sudden and extreme change of climate, it cannot be arranged that regiments should arrive at some other time of year, or at all events be stationed on their first arrival in the milder parts of the -United Kingdom?
§ MR. CARDWELLSir, the proper season for the Indian reliefs is not the hot time of the year, but the winter. The arrangements for the transports are made accordingly, and no battalion can be brought home at any other season. When the 21st Royal North British Fusiliers arrived in England from India during the last winter, they were sent to Stirling, in conformity with the usual practice, which was always to send Scotch regiments to Scotland, both for the convenience of men going on furlough, and because it was the natural inclination of the men to get to Scotland, an inclination which was always complied with, as far as the exigencies of the service would permit. No injury had, however, been done to the men by taking them into so cold a climate, and, according to the last Reports, out of 780 men in the regiment, there were only 27 upon the sick list.