SURGEONS OF THE INDIAN ARMY.
THE memorial of the Surgeons in the Madras Army sets forth a just complaint. If a discussion were raised as to the moral and social position of professional men, every person desirous to be thought a person of intelligence and correct feeling would avow that there was no real distinction between the combatant and the non-combatant officer. The only •doubt might be as to the equality of authority in the actual command of soldiers; but even on that point the doubt is slight. It has happened that Surgeons have taken the command in actual fight. It would be an ad- vantage if the soldiers were taught habitually to consider a man who may be in command of them the precise equivalent of a com- batant officer ; and the direct mode of inculcating that view is, to recognize his social equality.
The case of the Surgeons in the Indian Army, however, is even worse than that of the Surgeons in the Queen's Army. If the non-combatant officers in the imperial forces are under some de- gree of shade, those in the Armies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay are in still deeper shadow ; for they are pronounced to be in- ferior to the Royal Surgeons, and inferior in a very great degree. Not long since a medical committee was assembled at Agra ; at that meeting there was a Surgeon of the Indian Army who had seen twenty-nine years' service, which should give him the rank of Major; there was also present a Surgeon of the British Army who had seen only nine years' service, which would give him the rank of Captain. But the Surgeon-Major was superseded by the Surgeon-Captain ; and the same rule holds good all round. About a year ago a warrant was issued to improve the rank, pay, and pension of medical officers in her Majesty's Army. The position of those officers was improved, though the warrant ap- pears to us as if it still might have been more complete, more ample and thoroughgoing ; nothing, however, has yet been done to improve the position of Surgeons in the Indian Army. It is possibly one amongst the hundreds of reasons why the discipline of that Army has been impaired ; for although few will suppose that the Indian Surgeons have vented their complaints in a manner to injure discipline, a discontented soldier whose com- batant officers are habitually somewhat heedless of their duties, will draw an additional comment from the countenance of the Surgeon. It is, again, one amongst the hundred incidents of military service in India which have to be revised, and the sooner it is done the better.
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