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reply: Feb. 16 1876 Room of Committee on Military Affairs, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 24, 1876. Sir: The Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives would be pleased to have an expression in your opinion in regard to the following: 1. What reduction, if any, can be made in pay and allowances of the officers of the Army, without determined to the efficiency of the service? 2. What reduction in strength or expense can be made in either Arm of the Military Service - Cavity, Artillery, or Infantry? 3. What reductions can be made in the Corps of Engineers, Ordnance Department, Subsistence Department, Medical Department. Pay Department, Adjutant General's Department, Inspector General's Department, Bureau of Military Justice, or either of them? 4. Would a reduction of pay to $1,300 to unclear Lieutenants mounted, and $1,200 to unclear Lieutenants not mounted, be excessive? 5. Would it be determined to the service to dispense with laundresses, and what amount would be saved thereby? 6. if the forage ration should be reduced two pounds each on hay and grain, would it not still be sufficient for public animals? 7. What is your opinion regarding appropriations necessary for Forts or other fortifications, of which you have knowledge? 8. Would it not be practicable to consolidate the Quartermaster's, Commissary and Pay Department into one Corps? 9. What is your opinion as to the propriety of transferring the Indian and Pension Bureaus to the War Department? 10. Might not the Bureau of Military Justice be dispensed with, without injury to the service?