§ COLONEL HILL (Bristol, S.)asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether, having regard to the provisions contained in paragraph 23, page 12, of the Memorandum attached to, and referred to by, the covenants entered into between the Secretary of State for India and the Stanley Engineers with respect to "absentee pay," that 10 rupees should equal £1, and to the terms of section 161, paragraph 2, clause 6, exception 2, of the Civil Leave Code, whereby the rights of such officers whose covenant dates prior to 1871 are distinctly safeguarded, he can state why these officers are not allowed to receive their "absentee pay" at the rate of 10 rupees to the £1, in accordance with the above quoted Regulations?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY of STATE (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)The Secretary of State cannot admit the promisses on which the Question is based. No Memorandum was attached to, or referred to by, the covenants of the Stanley Engineers. The Memorandum to which reference is made is probably one furnished to the candidates for the Public Works Department; it does not say that 10 rupees shall equal £1. Section 161, paragraph 6, exception 2, of the Civil Leave Code applies to certain early covenants, which stated that the £1 should be taken as equivalent to 10 rupees; but not to those of the Stanley Engineers.