§ MR. BRADLAUGHI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether it was with the sanction of the Secretary of State that Rule 732 of the Post Office Manual of 1881, that "No person other than a native of India can be appointed to any office in the Post Office Department," &c., has been altered 62 in the Post Office Manual, Vol. III. of 1889, to the Rule (now Rule 389) that "Appointments in the Post Office Department are, with certain special exceptions, reserved for natives of India," ? whether he will state the nature of the "special exceptions," and when they were first acted upon; whether he will state the circumstances which induced this abrogation of a Rule imposed by the Secretary of State in 1872; and whether, if the alteration has been made without the knowledge of the Secretary of State, he will call for an explanation of the circumstances under which it was made?
SIR J. GORSTThe Secretary of State has no information on the point, but will cause inquiries to be made.