MR. GOLDSMIDasked the Secretary of State for "War, If he would explain to the House why the advantages of relative Army rank, alluded to in Par. 142 of the Royal" Warrant on Army Retirement, dated August last, are alone refused to the Established Clerks, Royal Engineer Department?
MR. GATHORNE HARDYSir, the case stands thus—Members of the Royal Engineer Civil Department have certain allowances under their own warrant; but in the pay warrants of 1866 and 1870 they were included among the officers with relative rank, because certain cases might possibly arise in which their own allowances could not be drawn, and they would then have those of their relative rank. On the 4th of June, 1868, Sir John Pakington declined in Parliament to grant them the military 1621 scale of allowances. They have since been refused by later Secretaries of State. In the recent Warrant of August 13, 1877, these gentlemen are included under relative rank for the same reasons as in 1866 and 1870; but there was not any intention of changing their position or emoluments. The technical difficulty will be removed in the "Corrigenda" Warrant, about to be issued.