§ MR. GRANTHAMasked the Secretary of State for India, Whether after the holding of the Court of Inquiry on the state of Captain Chatterton, as mentioned by him last Thursday, there were not general, brigade, and divisional orders issued in reference to his case, dated respectively March 15th, 16th, and 17th, 1869, and whether in consequence of such orders Presidency Surgeons Baillie and Brougham, and Garrison Surgeon Powell did not place Captain Chatterton in the officers' hospital at Fort William, Calcutta, for urgent surgical treatment, as the operation, however simple it might have been if performed in the September previous, had become a serious one owing to delay; whether Garrison Surgeon Powell has not certified that after full examination he found Captain Chatterton suffering from a contracted limb, for which he considered the division of the left tendon achilles necessary; that he attended him daily; prepared his papers, and proposed to take him before the Medical Board in Calcutta on the 28th April, with a recommendation that he be granted twelve months' leave of absence to visit England, in order that the operation might be performed under favourable circumstances, but that he was unable to take him before such court in consequence of an order from the India Council being served on him on the 26th April requiring him to dismiss Captain Chatterton from the hospital; whether that India Council order was not founded on the previous Despatch of January, and in ignorance of the opinions subsequently formed by the highest medical authorities in Calcutta; whether, in consequence of Captain Chatterton being so hastily and improperly turned out of the hospital, he was not left to find his way back to England to undergo the operation the best way he could; and, if he will allow this officer to be examined by the Medical Board at the India Office to report to the House whether Captain Chatterton is not now a cripple for life, notwithstanding five operations performed in England, in consequence of the delay in attending to his case in India, owing to the differences of opinion existing among the medical authorities in India?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONSince this morning, when I first observed this Question on the Paper, I have not had time to examine the details of Captain Chatterton's case. The General Brigade and Divisional Orders issued with reference to it have never been received at the India Office, as it is not the practice to send such Orders home from India. I will have the matter carefully examined, in order to ascertain whether it requires further inquiry in India; but I cannot hold out to the hon. Member any hope that it will be possible to take further action in reference to it in view of the amount of consideration it has already received and the number of Secretaries of State before whom it has been brought.