§ SIR HENRY ROSCOE (Manchester, S.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that, in consequence of the regulations which will presently come into action in regard to the limits of age for candidates for the higher branch of the Indian Civil Service, there have been strong expressions of opinion in the scientific Press and at the Universities that the conditions of the examinations for this Service ought no longer to continue to be relatively so unfavourable to candidates whose studies have been chiefly in science as has hitherto been the case; whether he is aware that a Memorial, 1563 signed by 50 distinguished graduates of the University of Cambridge, including several heads of houses, many professors, and a large number of fellows of colleges, has been presented to the Civil Service Commissioners, in which it is pointed out that the position of the science tripos in their University is now practically on an equal footing with the classical or the mathematical tripos, both from its numbers and from the awards assigned by the colleges to those of their members who distinguish themselves therein; and whether he will endeavour to secure that changes shall be made for admission to the Indian Civil Service such as shall secure more equal prospects of success for those whose chief studies have been in science than are at present accorded in these competitions?
SIR J. GORSTI have to thank the hon. Member for postponing this question the other day. The answer to paragraph I and 2 of the question is in the affirmative. Such opinions have been expressed, and such a Memorial addressed to the Civil Service Commissioners, although not to the Secretary of State. The answer to the third paragraph is that the new regulations will shortly be issued, and the Secretary of State believes they will satisfy the object which the hon. Member desires.