SIR TREVOR LAWRENCEasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether the result of the re-organisation of the Indian Medical Service, to the medical officers senior to the Sanitary Commissioners, was a loss of at least two administrative appointments in Bengal alone; whether the block of promotion in the Bengal Medical Service 1508 is largely due to the deferred promotion of the senior officers, consequent on this reduction in the number of administrative appointments available; whether the promotion of sanitary officers to administrative rank, after a fixed period of 26 years' service, has affected a considerable number of officers senior to the sanitary officers, by retarding their promotion to administrative rank to 29 years' service and upwards; whether section 56 of 21 and 22 Vic. c. 106, does not secure to all branches of Her Majesty's Indian Army all advantages as to promotion, and otherwise, to which they were severally entitled at the time it was passed; and, whether each Presidency has its own separate medical list, wherein and whereby promotions are regulated.
§ MR. J. K. CROSSSir, a similar Question was asked, on the 2nd of July, by the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for the University of Dublin (Mr. Gibson). In addition to the answer I then gave, I have to inform the hon. Baronet that each Presidency has its own separate medical list, and that the result of the re-organization of the Indian Medical Service, to the medical officers senior to the Sanitary Commissioners, is an immediate loss of two administrative appointments in Bengal. But to the Bengal Department, taken as a whole, there is a gain of one administrative appointment by the substitution for 11 Deputy Surgeons General of nine Deputy Surgeons General, and three Sanitary Commissioners, who rank as Deputy Surgeons General after 26 years' service. The fact that, when the change was carried out, two of the Sanitary Commissioners were comparatively junior men has, undoubtedly, retarded the possible selection of a few officers senior to them for the post of Sanitary Commissioner; but there is no block of promotion. The Act of Parliament referred to by the hon. Baronet did not provide against a change in the number of Deputy Surgeons General; and no alteration has been made in the system of selection for that grade.