From Lieutenant-Colonel S. C. Wheler to Major A.H. Ross concerning the forced Christian issue, 12 February 1857

From Lieutenant-Colonel S.G. Wheler, Commanding the 34th Regiment, Native Infantry, to Major A.H. Ross, Assistant adjutant-General, Presidency Division,--dated Barrackpore, 12th February 1857.

        In accordance with the wishes of the Major-General Commanding the Division, expressed by him at the meeting of the commanding officers this day assembled at his quarters, I have the honor to state, for his information, that on the 26th January last I spoke to the native officers and men on parade, denying the false reports that were spreading about the station to the effect that we intended to make them all Christians by force; and which I reported as having done to the Brigadier commanding the station the next day in a demi-official note. Since which I have spoken to the subadar-major and native officers separately, warning them of the responsibility which rests upon them, and the consequences they will draw upon themselves if they conceal from their officers any meetings or assemblies of men which they hear are likely to take place at, or near, or at a distance from their lines, or any matter whatever which they know is likely to prove injurious to their officers or the service at large.

From: Selections from the Letters Despatches and other State Papers preserved in the Military Department of the Government of India, 1857-58.  Edited by George W. Forrest.  Calcutta: Military Department Press 1893, 31-32.