§ MR. WILLIAM AMBROSE (Middlesex, Harrow)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, with regard to the promotion of commissioned officers recently engaged in the Ashanti Expedition, which has been announced in the Gazette, whether it is intended to extend the promotion given to the commissioned officers to the non-commissioned officers and men especially in Departmental Corps, who bore the heat and burden of the expedition equally with their superiors who have obtained promotion.
§ *MR. BRODRICKThe hon. Member is probably aware that the cases of officers and non-commissioned officers are not analogous. When regimental officers receive Army promotion they do not change their position in their regiments, while there is no system of promoting regimental non-commissioned officers except in their regiments, and, therefore, over the heads of their comrades. For this reason promotion within the non-commissioned ranks is, under ordinary circumstances, an inconvenient reward for military services. The question of giving appointments in warrant and commissioned ranks to certain noncommissioned officers of the Departmental Corps engaged in the expedition is under consideration.
§ MR. J. DALY (Monaghan, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, if District Inspector Bain, Newcastle West, has resumed his duties; how long was he away in Ashanti; if he received any pay, or only his salary as a police officer; and, if so, how much; if he got any of the spoil captured in Ashanti, and the amount; and, will he also state how many days' leave of absence did District Inspector Bain get in 1894, and how many in 1895 previous to his going to Ashanti?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURMr. Bain, who has resumed his duties, was absent from Ireland from the 14th December last until the 4th March, and during his absence he received no pay whatever except his ordinary pay as an Officer of the Royal Irish Constabulary. He states that the Articles taken at Ashanti were sold by public auction, and that he has secured several of the things so disposed of. In 1894 he obtained 25 days leave of absence, and in 1895, prior to his departure in December for Ashanti, he had been granted 45 days leave of absence.
§ *GENERAL LAURIEI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War with regard to the promotion and the conferring of honours upon officers of the staff and of the Special Service Corps, recently engaged in the Ashanti Expedition, as announced in the London Gazette, whether it is proposed to confer any corresponding promotion or honours on the reigmental officers of the West 1165 Yorkshire and the West India Regiments?
§ *MR. BRODRICKI beg to refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the London Gazettes of the 7th and 10th instant, in which honours were gazetted to two officers of these regiments.
§ *GENERAL LAURIEI beg to ask whether one of the officers of the West India Regiment is not Major Bailey, and whether the two colonels were employed extra-regimentally?
§ *MR. BRODRICKI cannot answer that Question without notice.