and if possible to 37; disbanding four Native regiments to obtain officers for the new European troops. If his request for 37 European battalions of infantry could be granted, then two more Native regiments were to be disbanded. The fourth Minute, proposed to move the European Invalid Companies, stationed at Chanár, to some strategic point where they might add to our visible military strength. The fifth Minute urged 'the augmentation of European Companies of Artillery.'
The sixth proposed, in addition to the disbandment of the four or six regiments of Native Infantry, referred to under the second and third Minutes, a further reduction of 200 men in each of the remaining regiments of Bengal Native Infantry. This would have given a further regimental reduction of the Sepoys by 14.910 men, in addition to the four or six Native regiments of infantry disbanded. It also proposed to increase the strength of the Ghúrka regiments and of the Irregular Native Infantry, in the Punjab — the two very forces which proved so useful in the Mutiny — by 3,200 men.
The seventh Minute urged, in addition to the four regiments of Native Bengal Cavalry which were to be disbanded, a further reduction of eighty troopers in each of the remaining regiments. The total reduction in the Native Regular Cavalry, would have amounted to 2.400 troopers. The other Minutes proposed to increase the number of
