HC Deb 01 May 1885 vol 297 cc1316-7
DR. CAMERON

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether it is true, as stated in The United Service Gazette, that glanders again prevail among the horses of the 6th Bengal Lancers; whether the 6th Bengal Lancers is the same regiment that arrived glandered in Egypt in the campaign of 1882, and which, on the disease being identified by the English veterinary officers, was ordered away from the scene of operations lest it should infect the rest of the Cavalry; whether it is the regiment to which was attributed the infection with glanders of the 7th Dragoon Guards; whether he has yet received any report respecting the European officer and men of the regiment fatally infected with glanders on the voyage of the 6th Bengal Lancers from Egypt to India, concerning whom he promised inquiry on March 5th 1883; whether the regiment has ever been free from glanders since it was despatched, infected, for service in Egypt; and, what is the pay of the salootrees to whom, as he explained to the House on March 5th 1883, the veterinary care of the Bengal Native Cavalry is entrusted?

MR. J. K. CROSS

The Government of India has been asked by telegram, whether the 6th Bengal Cavalry has ever been free from glanders, or whether glanders has again broken out. The 6th Bengal Cavalry is the regiment of which one troop was glandered in Egypt during the Campaign of 1882, and it is the regiment to which was imputed the infection of the 7th Dragoon Guards. The Report asked for in March, 1883, arrived in June of that year, and is at the service of my hon. Friend. The deceased officer (Major Logan) had nothing to do with the 6th Bengal Cavalry; he belonged to the 7th Bengal Infantry. No Cavalry horses were on board the ship in which he returned to India; and he died about two months after landing. Sir Anthony Home, the Surgeon General of Her Majesty's Forces in India, having investigated the case, reported that, in his opinion, Major Logan's death was not due to glanders. Though the Government instituted inquiry, no case of a Native having contracted glanders could be traced. The pay of a salootree is 38 rupees a month.