§ MR. MURPHY (Dublin, St. Patrick's)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the principle of the justice of the Civil Servants' claims having been admitted by the Report of the Select Committee on the grievances of the Indian Uncovenanted Service, the Government will now fix the payment of the Indian pensions at a constant uniform rate of 2s. to the rupee in the cases of old servants employed when that was the prevailing rate of exchange for Government transactions with them, as shown in evidence; whether, inasmuch as the Select Committee were precluded from making inquiries into the grievances of servants who claimed to have been inadequately pensioned, including those members of the Public Works Department, retired under resolution of the Government of India, No. 2,079, 31st July, 1879, before they had served the period to qualify for full retiring pensions, the Committee will be re-appointed to inquire into such claims, with a view to the pensions of those gentlemen being equitably settled according to the hopes held out to them when they joined the Service, and according to the agreements, tacit or recorded, entered into by Government; and whether the recommendation of the Select Committee, fixing 1s. 9d. per rupee as the minimum rate for pensions, will be given retrospective effect in the same way as rules, made since the first appointment of those Civil Servants, have been hitherto applied?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Sir J. GORST, Chatham)The answer to the first question of the hon. Member is in the negative. The Secretary of State cannot admit the accuracy of the statement on which the question is founded. The answer to the 89 second question is that the question is one which hardly ought to have been put to me. It is not a question for the Secretary of State, who does not appoint Select Committees, but it depends upon the wisdom of the House of Commons, which does. The answer to the third question is in the negative.