§ THE MARQUESS OF RIPONMy Lords, I rise to ask the noble Marquess the Under-Secretary of State for India a Question of which I have given him private notice. I am anxious to learn whether any further arrangements have been arrived at in respect to the recent proposals for the reorganisation of Army administration in India; and, if so, whether the noble Marquess will state the nature of those proposals and lay Papers on the Table as soon as possible.
*THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (The Marquess of BATH)My Lords, the Viceroy has communicated to the Secretary of State 806 by telegraph certain points in connection with the despatch of May 31st on Army administration, on which the Government of India think it necessary to make representations, in order, as they submit, to render the working of the new scheme practicable. The Secretary of State has explained in return that these recommendations do not contravene the provisions of the despatch and he has expressed the satisfaction of His Majesty's Government that Lord Kitchener is now in accord with the Viceroy and his Council as to the course to be adopted with regard to them. The points on which the Viceroy requested assurances were as follows. First, that the member of Council in charge of the Military Supply Department should always be a soldier. His Majesty's Government are prepared to appoint a solider to the impending vacancy, but they cannot fetter the discretion of the Crown as to future vacancies. Secondly, that the Military Supply Member should be available for official consultations by the Viceroy on all military questions without distinction. The reply of His Majesty's Government is that there is no desire to fetter the constitutional right of the Viceroy to consult any member of his Council officially or unofficially on any subject, but that the existing system, by which all the Commander-in-Chief's proposals pass to the Viceroy through the channel of the Military Member having been done away with, it follows that no special claim can exist for the Military Supply Member to be consulted or note on the proposals of the Commander-in-Chief or vice versâ. Thirdly, he asked that the Secretary to the Government of India in the Army Department (to be in future presided over by the Commander-in-Chief) should be given the local rank of major-general. To this there is no objection. Fourthly, that important changes in military organisation, especially in the native Army, should be discussed by a Mobilisation Committee, of which the Commander-in-Chief and Millitary Supply Member should be essential members, and that a schedule of cases should be drawn up which the Secretary in the Army Department should submit to the Viceroy before orders are passed on them. These provisions are entirely 807 in accord with the despatch; and His Majesty's Government are glad to find that on this, as on the preceding points, they can meet the views of the Government of India without affecting the principle of the new system which it has been deemed necessary to establish. The telegrams to which I have alluded have, I believe, already been laid on the Table, and will very shortly, I trust, be in the possession of your Lordships.