General Grey to Sir Charles Wood

Windsor Castle, 13th December 1861.

My dear Wood,—The Queen desires me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, and to say that she quite approves of the purport of your despatch to the Governor-General, understanding it to be, not that there is to be any reduction of the Artillery force which it had been determined to leave permanent in India as the proper establishment for that country, but simply that some batteries which it had been resolved to bring home, at all events, are to return somewhat sooner than had been intended, etc., etc., etc.,

Grey.