Some three hundred
and fifty native officers and sipahees from each regiment are, or are
to be, absent on leave this season. This saves to Government a very
large sum in the extra allowance which is granted to native officers
and sipahees, during their march from one station to another, and in
the deductions which are made from the pay and allowances of those
who go on furlough. During furlough, subadars receive 52 rupees a-
month instead of 67; jemadars 17, instead of 24; havildars 9, instead
of 14; naicks 7, instead of 12; and sipahees 5-8, instead of 7.
These native officers and sipahees, with all their gallantry on
service and fidelity to their salt, are the most importunate of
suitors, and certainly among the most untruthful and unscrupulous in
stating the circumstances of their claims, or the grounds of their
complaints. They crowd around me morning and evening when I venture
outside my tent, and keep me employed all day in reading their
petitions. They cannot or will not understand that the Resident is,
or ought to be, only the channel through which their claims are sent
for adjustment through the Court to the Oude tribunals and local
authorities; and that the investigation and decision must, or ought
to, rest with them. They expect that he will at once himself
investigate and decide their claims, or have them investigated and
decided forthwith by the local authorities of the district through
which he is passing; and it is in vain to tell them that the "_law's
delay_" is as often and as justly complained of in our own territory
as in Oude, whatever may be the state of its _uncertainty_.
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