The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-13 00:00:00

THE LOCAL ARMY OF INDIA.

Sir C. WOOD said—l rise, pursuant to the notice I
have given, to move for leave to introduce a bill repealing
the powers possessed by the Secretary of State for India to
raise men in this country for the local service of her Ma-
jesty in India. The bill I propose to introduce contains
only one simple clause for this purpose ; and I have adopted
this mode of bringing the question before the house, in
order to test its opinion on the principle of the measure,
without encumbering it with any details that might dis-
tract attention from the main subject. In the execution of
the measure a great number of details will have to be care-
fully considered. Indeed, if the house refers to papers
now on the table, it will find among them a letter addressed
to me from one of the ablest officers now serving in the
Indian army, suggesting the necessity of appointing,, a com-
mission or committee of experienced officers, to go into the
numerous and minute details that will arise when the mea-
sure is brought into practical operation. I will therefore
state generally the principle of the plan which I think
must be adopted, and avoid entering into a statement of the
details. I adopt this course also for another reason I stated
in the session that the Council of India did not concur with
the plan. It was very natural they should not be disposed
to part with the powers they have possessed. But they
have stated fairly and frankly that if the decision of the
house confirmed that of her Majesty's government they
would faithfully endeavour to carry that determination into
effect. (Hear.) I did not think it fair to ask the Council
of India:to prepare any plan, or consider any plan, till that
decision had been come to; but I shall be most anxious to
have the benefit of their advice on the details of any plan
it may be determined to carry into execution. I think
there can be no great difficulty in carrying a plan with
this object into execution. Even among the papers on
the table of the house there are no less than three detailed
plans of the kind. Two of them are drawn up by the
officers of the India army, and one by an officer of the
Queen's forces, now serving in India, Sir W. Mansfield. I
have received a fourth detailed plan, also drawn up by an
officer of the Indian army ; and in principle all these four
plans are much the same ; if they differ it is on points of
detail. They, therefore, show a general concurrence of in-
dependent authorities, all intimately acquainted with the
subject with which they deal. Before going farther I will
state what the military forces in India have heretofore been.
It is generally known that the India Company had in India
thre 3 large armies—those of the three Presidencies, Bengal,
Madras, and Bombay. Each of these consisted of native regi-
ments, comprising artillery, infantry, and cavalry. The
Company had had besides these, from the earliest times, a
number of local troops—the Company's troops they were called
—raised in Europe. They consisted of artillery and infantry.
There have been also, for many years back, a considerable
number of Queen's troops ; they comprised only infantry
and cavalry. The European infantry was therefore com-
mon to the line and the local forces; the European cavalry
was exclusively that of the Queen's army ; the artillery was
exclusively the Company's. Before the breaking out of the
mutiny there were three regiments of infantry in each Pre-
sidency, 'nd a corps of srtillery. After the Sepoy mutiny,
discontent arose in the local army, and a large proportion
of it obtained their discharge. The Queen's troops in India
have for many years been in the proportion of about two to
one of the Company's European troops. In 18.52 the.
Queen's troops were 28,000 to 14,000 of the Company; but
during the mutiny the number of the Queen's troops was
90,000 to 24,000 of the Company's European force. After
the discontent manifested by the Company's local troops,
about 11,000 of them took their discharge, and this force
was reduced to about 12,000 men. Now, the only question
on which I wish to take the opinion of the house is this,
—whether we shall continuo to maintain a separate
European force for. local service in India, or whether all
the European troops in India shall form part of the Queen's
general army. I must /Ay that this question is one on
which I long entertained the most serious doubts.
stated last session that we were prepared to maintain toga
certain Went a local army in India; and it is only in con-