§ SIR R. TEMPLE (Surrey, Kingston)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether it is a fact that it is proposed to appoint to the post of 116 Director General of Railways in India Colonel Bissett, R.E., the agent of, and largely interested in, the Guaranteed Bombay, Baroda, and Central Indian Railway; whether Colonel Bissett's appointment, if confirmed, will interfere with the prospects of officers who have served continuously in the Department of Public Works, Colonel Bissett having been absent from that Department eight years; whether the claims of other officers of approximately the same standing in the Public Works Department have received due consideration; and whether, in the interest of the Indian Government and of its servants receiving just and adequate consideration in regard to such high appointments, the Secretary of State has considered the advisability of appointing a Public Works Department Officer as Public Works Member of the Viceroy's Council?
*MR. G. RUSSELLThe Secretary of State has received no communication from the Government of India as to the appointment of Colonel Bissett to the post of Director General of Railways in India; and, therefore, I am not in a position to answer the lion. Baronet's questions. The appointment of a special Public Works Member of the Viceroy's Council is not considered necessary or desirable at the present time.