§ MR. EASTWICKasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether a Deputy Inspectorship of Police in Bengal has lately been conferred on a young civilian not belonging to the force, although there were officers of the staff corps of distinction and experience belonging to the force, whose claims to the appointment were entitled to prior consideration; and, whether the present Governor of Bengal has recently decided that the higher posts in the Police Force, viz. those of Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General are not in future to be held by anyone but a covenanted civilian, and if he will lay upon the Table the Paper containing the reasons for this new regulation?
MR. GRANT DUFFI have heard nothing of the transaction to which my hon. Friend refers. Appointments to vacancies in the Indian police are entirely and exclusively in the patronage of the local governments, and never come under the review of the home authorities. I think it is very probable that some such order as that alluded to in my hon. Friend's second Question has been issued, because such an order would be very much in accordance with the views announced by Lord Lawrence during his Viceroyalty, which views were approved by the then Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for North Devon (Sir Stafford Northcote). No information, however, with regard to the issue of any such order has reached the Secretary of State in Council.