§ SIR SEYMOUR KING (Hull, Central)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to the number of petitions from officers of the Indian Staff Corps which have been presented to this House, referring to the disadvantage to which such officers are subjected by being constantly superseded by their juniors in the British Army, and praying for an acceleration of promotion which may tend to reduce the grievance; and seeing that Lord Roberts, when Commander-in-Chief in India, recognised that there was a grievance and suggested a remedy, whether an effort will be now made to readjust the rules for staff corps promotion.
§ * COLONEL MILWARD (Warwickshire, Stratford-on-Avon)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the 600 petitions presented to the House of Commons from officers of the Indian Staff Corps praying for an accelerated promotion; and whether, considering that the present conditions were fixed thirty or forty years ago, that promotion is now slower in the Indian Staff Corps than in the British Army, and that officers in the Staff Corps are in cones- 341 quence superseded upon active service upon the frontier by their juniors in the British Army, he will accede to the prayer of the petitioners.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord G. HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingI stated last December in this House that the matter to which this question refers was under consideration in India, and that some months must elapse before any decision could be arrived at. To this I am afraid I can add nothing at present.