MOTION FOR A SELECT COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 8 February 1875)

§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTON

, in moving— That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the measures adopted by the Government of India under the authority of a Despatch, No. 160, dated the 8th day of August 1866, and to report whether it is expedient to insist upon the deductions from the bona fide claims of Officers referred to in an humble Address from this House of the 28th day of June 1870, said, the claims of the officers of the East Indian Army, referred to in the Motion, had been frequently before the House. The system of purchase in that service had sprung up at the beginning of the present century. It was the custom of junior officers to pay sums of money to their seniors to retire, in order that they might obtain promotion, and when the Directors of the East India Company became aware of the existence of the practice, they informed the officers of the Army that they would not enforce a regulation which compelled the officers on promotion to take an oath that they had not given any pecuniary compensation for the step they obtained, and this they did, being satisfied that the purchase system tended to efficiency, and the bonus system in question was established. The Mutiny intervened, and the re-organization of the Army consequent upon it introduced changes which deprived officers who had retired of the compensation which, under the old regimental system, they might have obtained from their juniors. It was contended on their behalf that they were legally entitled, by the Parliamentary guarantee, to compensation for their loss; but the tribunals to which the question was submitted decided that the officers had no legal claim, and Sir Charles Wood therefore declined to entertain it. Lord Cranborne, however, when Secretary of State for India, proposed a scheme of compensation under which the officers injuriously affected by 139 the amalgamation scheme would receive—as was calculated—about £160,000, and the carrying out of the scheme was to be spread over 20 years. On the estimate made the amount to be paid to the officers during the nine years which had elapsed would be about £100,000, but in fact all that they had received was £35,000. In the year 1870, the late Colonel Sykes moved in that House an Address to Her Majesty on the subject of those claims, and, although the late Government opposed the Motion, it was carried by a considerable majority. The Address was, perhaps, capable of two interpretations; but, at all events, the late Government took no action upon it, except to direct further inquiry to be made. Lord Salisbury, in the House of Lords, when the Army Regulation Bill was under consideration, urged upon the attention of the Duke of Argyll, then Secretary of State for India, the fact that the compensation provided for officers of the British Army would naturally increase the sense of grievance entertained by the officers of the Indian Army, and expressed a hope that their claims would be favourably considered. Nothing, however, was done, and the present proposal was practically to refer to a Select Committee the subject of the Address which was carried five years ago. The reason the Motion was made thus early in the Session was that a Select Committee on East Indian Finance was about to sit to complete certain inquiries as to which they had taken evidence, but had not yet reported. Before doing so, they could easily, in a few sittings, dispose of this subject, which he now moved might be referred to a Select Committee. An agitation, which was essentially a House of Commons agitation, had been going on for some time; but it was impossible to make a concession that would please everybody, or discuss it satisfactorily in that House, therefore it was he took the course proposed.

§ GENERAL SIR GEORGE BALFOUR

congratulated the noble Lord upon the clear manner in which he had explained to the House the way the bonus system of the Indian Army had originated, there being only one omission—that relating to the Directors of the East India Company offering to grant annuities on favourable terms in aid of subscriptions for the officers, in order to induce old 140 officers to retire. He also thanked the noble Lord the Secretary of State for India for authorizing the appointment of this Select Committee, thus ensuring a near settlement of the question to which this Motion referred. It was an inquiry which would gratify the officers whose claims were to be the subject of it, and get rid of an agitation which had been allowed to exist for too long a period. So great an agitation for so small a sum was much to be lamented, but the inquiry need not occupy the Committee for more than a few days, because they had simply to determine whether they could, in propriety and fairness, recommend the extent of the concession that should be given to the officers.