§ SIR H. COTTON (Nottingham, E.)To ask the Secretary of State for India, if he is aware that on page 909 of the Third Report of the Select Committee on East India Finance, ordered by this 646 House to be printed on 28th July, 1873, a table is given showing the average effective strength of the European army in India from the year 1862–3 to the year 1871–2; that in that table the following totals for the years specified are given: 1862–3, 69,732; 1863–4, 67,712; 1867–8, 55,237; 1868–9, 55,756; 1870–1, 56,694: 1871–2, 58,437; that the figures now given for the same years are as follows: 1862, 73,174; 1863, 76,085; 1867, 65,467; 1868, 61,897; 1870, 56,954; 1871, 58,368; and will he state the reason for these discrepancies.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Morley.) I do not know how the figures printed in 1873 wore arrived at, but they appear to be averages for several months of each year, with the omission of commissioned officers. The figures given by me on the 26th March included commissioned officers, as requested by the hon. Member, and, as I then stated, represented the established and not the actual strength.