§ SIR G. HUNTER (Hackney, Central)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the advantages conferred on the Medical Staff by 1288 Royal Warrant, dated 7th August, 1891, as regards rank and title, pay and allowances, have been extended to India; will he explain why, in that country, the pay and allowances of Surgeon-Captains for the first five or six years of their service are only those of subalterns, and why the rank of Brigade Surgeon, created in 1879, has hitherto been financially ignored so far as India is concerned; and what principle has been adopted in fixing the rate of pay of Medical Officers in India with reference to the rates adopted at home?
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. CURZON,) Lancashire, SouthportThe advantages of the Royal Warrant have been extended to India; it made no change in the pay and allowances of the Medical Staff. When the relative rank of the medical services was altered and the grade of Brigade Surgeon introduced by the Royal Warrants of 1879–80, the Secretary of State for India explicitly declined to sanction any increased charge on the revenues of India by reason of those Warrants, and the present Secretary of State has no intention of departing from that decision. The rates of pay are based partly on rank and partly on length of service, but have no direct relation to the rates in force at home, nor do they vary with any variation of those rates.