§ MR. BRADLAUGHI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether it was with the sanction of the Secretary of State that the rule of the Telegraph Department of the Government of India, which laid down that where quarters could not be provided in the respective telegraph buildings for signallers, such signallers, both European and Indian, should have house rent allowance on a given scale, was changed; whether it was with his approval that while the allowance was continued to Europeans it was stopped for Indians, and whether there is any difference in the duties performed by European and Indian signallers which would justify the withdrawal of these allowances; and, if there be no difference, whether he will give instructions to the Government of India to restore to the Indian signallers the house allowance hitherto granted to them?
SIR J. GORSTNo change has been made in the rules of the Telegraph Service in the matter referred to in the question. Native Indian signallers have never been required to reside in the telegraph buildings as their social and religious customs would forbid them doing so. They have, therefore, never been entitled to house allowance.