ABSTRACT
Sir,—My husband, James Buchanan, became a soldier of the 69th Regiment of Foot upwards of three years ago. He was recently despatched from Fermoy, Ireland (where the depot is), to India. Before enlisting he was married. I have not been with the regiment, nor sought admission to it. Previous to going to Ireland he sent to Glasgow urgently for our marriage certificate, to get himself registered as a married man, to enable me to become eligible to the special allowance of 6d. per day. This being done, it was returned, and the only implied duty on my part was to communicate with the War-office to indicate I am the proper person. I did so, and got for answer that my name does not appear among those soldiers’ wives who were not permitted to go to India. I was much surprised at this reply, considering the solicitude of my husband to have the certificate to arrange preliminaries before he left. I wrote to the commanding officer of the depot, on the 22nd of February, anticipating something merely formal standing in my way, enclosing the reply I got from the War- office, and got no reply. I wrote on the 9th of March to the same effect, and got no reply. I wrote on the 16th of March, in the usual manner, requesting him to send me the letter I had from the War-office. This drew an evasive answer, referring me to the reply I had from the War-office as being correct. The import of my inquiries to him was whether I was eligible, and if any, and what, impediments were in the way. To these inquiries, virtually, there is no reply; and, consequently, I am still ignorant.
