§ SIR H. SEYMOUR KING (Hull, Central)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he has considered the case of the survivors of sixteen candidates who passed into Addiscombe at the first examination, held in December 1859, under paragraph 17 of the regulations for admission for cadetships in the Engineers and Artillery of Her Majesty's Indian Forces under Clause 34 of the Acts of 21 and 22 Vic., chap. 166; whether, after being sworn in as Indian Cadets, they were, after the decision was taken to amalgamate the Services, sent for and informed by Sir Frederick Abbot, the Governor of Addiscombe, that it was not proposed to appoint any more Officers to the Indian Artillery and Engineers, but that these cadets would retain all their rights and not be losers by the change, and by a similar promise, when they joined at Woolwich as Commissioned Officers, were induced to volunteer for general service, and in fact were appointed to and served in India, and were furthermore paid the £100 promised to those who obtained Commissions in the Artillery and Engineers of the Indian Forces, by the regulations under which they were examined for cadetships, and were in effect treated as if they had passed into the Indian Service; and whether, as one of the four surviving Officers concerned has recently been retired upon a pension of £450 a year, instead of the Indian pension to which he was entitled, it is proposed to adopt the same course with the remaining three Officers concerned; and, if so, on what ground the engagement into with these gentlemen by the Indian Government is now annulled?
§ *MR. WOODALLThese Officers entered as students at Addiscombe with the expectation of joining the Indian Artillery or Engineers; but before their college course was finished, appointments to those corps had ceased, in consequence 1336 of the transfer of the Indian Government to the Crown; and as the only military opening available, they joined the Royal Artillery or Royal Engineers. The Officers were never in the Indian Corps; and I regret to say that their claim to be treated for pension as if they had been in those corps cannot be recognised. There is no record of any authority having been given to the Governor of Addiscombe to hold out any such promise to the Cadets, as is referred to in the hon. Member's question.