§ SIR J. COLOMB (Great Yarmouth)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether Colonel Bower, of the Indian Staff Corps, is now in military command at Wei-hai-wei; and whether the War Office proposes to make Wei-hai-wei a Royal Engineer command; and, if. so, whether this officer of the Indian Staff Corps will be dispossessed of the command by conferring on some junior officer of Royal Engineers such superior local rank as may be necessary to effect that purpose, in accordance with the method adopted by the War Office at Esquimalt, to displace the officer of Royal Marine Artillery in command at that place by his junior in the Royal Engineers.
§ * MR. WYNDHAMColonel Bower, who commands the Chinese battalion which is being raised at Wei-hai-wei, is the senior military officer now on the spot; but an officer of Royal Engineers, senior to him, has been selected for the military command at Wei-hai-wei.
§ SIR J COLOMBArising out of that answer, may I inquire why the same course was not pursued at Esquimalt?
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order! I do not think that arises out of the answer at all.