The Colonies and India from London, Greater London, England • Page 10

8 THE COLONIES AND INDIA Nov. 8, The Reserves of the Bombay Army, it appears, are not making the progress that was anticipated. After several years' trial the results of the experiment are anything but encouraging. The effective strength of the Bombay Army at the present time is about 26,800 of all ranks, while the percentage of trained Reserve men is only excluding the garrison reserve, of which there is only the small number of 77 men in all. With regard to trained men especially enlisted for general service and available for transfer to linked battalions on mobilisation, the numbers are more encouraging, as they aggregate some 10,510, or over 42 per cent, of the whole army.

The Indian Government have decided that all Native Army Reservists in Government employ, except those employed as railway pointsmen, signalmen, gangmen, and forest guards, shall be given one month's leave annually to attend for training, on the condition that they shall pay for their substitute if required to do so. The arrangement for supplies for Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick's camp in Kulu are excellent. The probable requirements were previously ascertained, and are already arranged for at the various camping grounds. On former occasions, the Lahore paper calls to mind, the supplies collected were always greatly in excess of any possible requirement! For instance, when a former Lieutenant-Governor visited Kulu, the bunniahs at Bajaura were ordered to lay in about 200r. of extra supplies, of which the Lieutenant-Governor and his camp purchased exactly five rupees' worth.

That particular Lieutenant-Governor was apparently an enemy to extravagance in every shape, as it is on record that he rewarded the taroos who ferried him and his entire camp across the Beas on their mnssiihs being no bridge up at the the munificent largesse of one rupee Here are some of the anomalies begotten of the compensation scheme, writes the Civil and Military Gazette. The head of an important department in the Punjab, who was born in this country but whose father came out from England to the East India Company's service, whose wife is domiciled in Europe and whose children have all been educated in England, has been denied compensation. The brother of the above official, who is an Executive Engineer in the North-West Provinces, is unmarried and has repeatedly been to England on furlough, has been granted compensation. An official of the Finance Department who was born and educated in India, and rose from a subordinate post to his present position, has been granted compensation. A well-known native barrister at Calcutta, who has married an English wife, has been granted compensation.

We could multiply similar instances of financial incongruities, and correspondents who send us a number of of queries as to what constitutes "domicile" will pardon us if, under such circumstances, we can only reply, "Heaven knows," Mr. Basil Lang, barrister-at-law, has been appointed Advocate-General for the Presidency of Bombay, in the room of Mr. F. L. Latham, resigned.

Mr. Chas. E. Nicol has been appointed British Consul at Managua. Mr.

Louis Lemarchand has been appointed Portuguese Consul at Mahe, in the Seychelles Mr. Guy Weir Hogg, Portuguese Consul at St. Helena; Mr. Arthur M. Clark, American Consul at Port Sarnia, Ontario Mr.

William E. Hunt, American Consul at Hong Kong Mr. Charles N. Daly, American Consul at Guelph, Canada Mr. George T.

Tate, American Consul at Barbados Mr. H. Christian Borstel, American Consul at St. Helena Mr. Thomas Keefe, American Consul at St.

John's, Quebec, for the United States America and Mr. Manuel Bermiidez Lecuna, Venezuelan Consul at Grenada and St. Vincent. The Gazette announces that the following officers of the Royal Artillery are seconded C. W.

Clark, for on the Personal Staff (appointed Aide-de-camp to the Governor of Trinidad) T. A. Tancred, for service with the Bechuanaland Border Police A. Le Mesurier Bray, for service with a Bengal Native Mountain Battery. Second-Lieuts.

A. Capper and W. N. Hay, for service as Probationers in the Indian Staff Corps. Colonel C.

Tucker, C.B., Colonel on the Staff Natal and Zululand, obtains promotion to the establishment of General Officers consequent on the recent decease of Major-General W. Arbuthnot, C.B. A handsome brass tablet was the other day placed on the wall of the left aisle of St. George's Cathedral, at Cape Town, in. memory of Sir Leicester Smyth, who commanded the forces in South Africa from 1880 to 1885, and who was Administrator of the Cape Colony and High Commissioner of South Africa from 1883 to 1885.

The inscription on the tablet sets forth the chief events of General Smyth's distinguished military career 7 and is surrounded by appropriate and artistic Mr. T. J. Alldridge, District Commissioner of Sierra Leone, having obtained an extension of leave, will not leave for the scene of his duties until December 16. The appointment of Mr.

Henry Carr as Inspector of Schools at Lagos has given considerable satisfaction to the native population, Mr. Carr being a native of Africa, The office of Chief Medical Officer of Mauritius, vacant by the transfer of Dr. Francis Lovell, C.M.G., to Trinidad, has been offered to and accepted by Dr. E. Chastellier, an old official of the 7 Dr.

Chastellier entered the Mauritius service in 1800 as Surgeon-Superintendent of the Quarantine Station, Cannonier's Point, and since that period has steadily risen in the ranks of the department until he became Surgeon- Superintendent of the Barkley Asylum. He has on several occasions acted as chief medical officer, and his confirmation in that office is likely to lead to good results. Dr. W. Palmer Ross, C.M.G., Senior Medical Officer of Sierra Leone, has arrived in England on leave of absence after an extended tour of service on the coast.

It is probable that the worthy doctor may not return to Freetown, where he most ably performed the duties of his office for the past eight Sir Gerald Portal, the Uganda Commissioner, arrived at Suez on November 15 from Zanzibar on board the Messageries Maritimes steamer Slndh. "Rev. A. W. Averill, curate of Holy Trinity, Dalston, has been appointed incumbent of St.

Michael's, Christchurch, N.Z. Sir John Campbell Allen, Chief Justice of New Brunswick, has had a stroke of paralysis. The Indian break has occurred in the Indian relief trooping programme by the discovery of serious defect in the crank shaft of the troopship tferajris, which arrived at Portsmouth from Bombay the other day. The vessel was taken under the shears in the dockyard yesterday for the purpose of having a portion of her machinery removed for repairs. It has consequently been officially notified that her departure will be delayed for at least three weeks, and the probability is that a still longer time will expire before the trooper is ready to resume her voyage.

A transport will, in the interim, take her place. With regard to the breakdown of the Crocodile, at Aden, definite arrangements have been made for the conveyance home of the belated passengers. The transport Co'- conda, which is on her way from Bombay to Aden, will bring home all the invalids and the most deserving cases amongst the time-expired those who have been longest waiting for utmost capacity being utilised for that purpose. When the Euphrates, which left Bombay on November 4, calls at Aden, she will also embark all for whom her Commander can find accommodation, and the remainder will be despatched home in the transport Loodhiana..