234
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

at large it should deem it necessary, from reducing
the numbers of the Indian Army, or altering its
organization. It would have been in the power of
the Company to make such reductions and changes,
and a similar power was transferred to the Crown.
All we can understand Parliament to have guaranteed
to the Officers is, that in making any such reductions,
their interests should as little as possible be interfered
with, and that in any change of organization, the
Crown should, as no doubt the Company would have
done, preserve all the rules as to pay, pension, allow-
ances, and privileges, and the like advantages as
regards promotion and otherwise, which existed at
the time the Act was passed; or if in any case that
should be impossible, then that some counter-balanc-
ing benefit should be given to compensate any
advantage which it might be impossible to retain.
When once we have come to the conclusion that
what Parliament meant to guarantee was not a strict
legal right, capable of being enforced in a Court of
Justice, we are unavoidably, from the nature of the
subject matter, obliged to adopt less definite principles
of construction than those by which Acts of Parlia-
ment are generally to be interpreted. We must
consider the language of the Act in connection with
the subject with which it was dealing, and in that
spirit we now proceed to consider the several
memorials referred to us by Your Majesty.”

4. The several complaints made by the Officers of
   the Indian Army were classed by the Commission
   under thirteen heads, and they reported that—

In eight cases there had been no infringement of
the guarantee;
In three there had been, and in two there might
hereafter prove to be an infringement of it.

5. The three measures which that Commission
   reported to have involved infringements of the
   guarantee, were—
   (1.) The supersession of regimental Officers by
   the promotion of their brother Officers under
   the Staff Corps rules;
   (2.) The retention on the cadres of Native regi-
   ments of the names of Officers transferred to
   the new line regiments; and
   (3.) The arrangements laid down in the Royal
   Warrant of 1st January, 1862 (as far as they
   affect Officers of Cavalry and Infantry of the
   Indian Army), for regulating the promotion of
   Colonels of the Indian Army of date subsequent
   to the 17th February, 1861, to the rank of
   General Officer.

6. The two which they considered to be doubtful
   in their effect were—
   (1.) The regulation by which twelve years is
   made the period of service in the grade of
   Lieutenant-Colonel; and
   (2.) The reduction of the number of regimental
   Lieutenant-Colonels by making promotion in
   succession to one-half only of the Officers of
   that rank who accepted the special annuities
   offered to them on retirement in 1861.

7. The measures which were adopted with a view
   of directly remedying the above declared infringe-
   ments of the guarantee, were as follows:—
   (1.) Placing the Officers of the several Staff
   Corps and of the Indian Army, upon a footing
   of equality in respect of promotion in Army
   rank by the introduction of a rule of promotion
   applicable alike to Officers of the Indian Army
   and of the Staff Corps, by which all Officers
   would obtain brevet rank in the several grades
   upon completion of certain fixed periods of
   service (from date of first Commission), such
   rule to take effect retrospectively from the 18th
   February, 1861—the date of formation of the
   Staff Corps;
   (2.) The removal from the cadres of Native regi-
   ments of the names of those Officers who
   had joined the new line regiments, promotion
   being made in their places.

(3.) Extensive modifications in the Warrant of
1st January, 1862, for regulating the promo-
tion of Colonels in the Indian Army.

8. The above measures afforded, in the opinion of
   Her Majesty's Government, a direct remedy for
   those complaints of a breach of the Parliamentary
   guarantee which had been reported by Lord Cran-
   worth's Commission to be well founded; and in
   addition to these, and with a view to afford compen-
   sation to the Officers of the Army for any possible
   injury that they might sustain in their prospective
   promotion, a great and permanent impetus was
   given to regimental promotion in the three Armies
   (which had been already greatly accelerated by the
   grant of special annuities to about 300 Officers on
   retirement), by the adoption of a rule that the names
   of all Officers of the Staff Corps should, on attaining
   the position of Lieutenant-Colonel on the general
   (regimental) list of the several Presidencies, be
   struck off and promotion made in their places. At
   the same time certain additions were made to the
   revised establishment of regimental Lieutenant-Colo-
   nels in Madras and Bombay.

9. The beneficial effect of the removal of Lieu-
   tenant-Colonels from the general list has been already
   very sensibly felt in the impulse which it has given
   to promotion among the officers of the Indian Army.

10. Upon these measures, which were duly carried
    out by your Excellency's Government, your Excel-
    lency observed in your Despatch of the 8th Novem-
    ber, 1864:—

"It is scarcely possible that extensive changes
in the Army should ever be made without unfavour-
ably affecting the position of some individuals rela-
tively, i.e. as compared with that of some others, and
the instance in question is no exception to this rule.
But we think there can be no doubt that, by the
measures ordered in your Despatch, substantial hard-
ship in the matter of promotion is avoided."

11. On the same occasion, His Excellency the
    Commander-in-Chief in India, Sir Hugh Rose, made
    the following observations :—

"Under the measures directed by the Right
Honourable the Secretary of State, the chief cause
of complaint, as frequently brought to the notice of
Government by His Excellency, viz., 'the super-
session of regimental Officers by their juniors of the
Staff Corps,' has been removed entirely. It may, at
the same time, be observed that whilst some Officers
will continue to suffer supersession, the privileges
now conferred on the Army generally are specially
advantageous to the Officers who have not joined the
Staff Corps, and to those who have been unfortunate
in their promotion."

12. After showing how, under the new rule, certain
    Staff Corps Officers will be superseded by Officers
    who have remained with their regiments, Sir Hugh
    Rose remarked,—

"These calculations may not be absolutely exact,
as they are taken from an Army List dated 1st April
last; but they suffice to illustrate the favourable
working of the new arrangements in regard to
Officers who have remained with their regiments, and
they show to the satisfaction of the Commander-
in-Chief that the local Officers gain very important
and solid advantages under the recently sanctioned
regulations."

13. Your Excellency will have observed, however,
    that an address to Her Majesty was moved and
    carried in the House of Commons on the 2nd of
    May, 1865, praying that Her Majesty would be
    pleased "to redress all such grievances complained