§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been directed to the dissatisfaction amongst the members of the Burmah Commission by the promotion of Major J. H. Parsons, who has served less than three years in Burmah, to the post of Deputy Commissioner of the third grade over the heads of officers who have served in Burmah since its annexation to the British Crown; whether he is aware that Major Parsons, who came to Burmah as Assistant Commissioner Supernumerary in July, 1884, left that country in December, 1885, and having served in other pursuits elsewhere, declined, in 1890, an offer made to him of returning to the Burmah Commission, when his name disappeared from the 837 official list of the Burmah officers; that in April, 1897, Major Parsons, after an absence of 11 and a half years from Burmah, returned to that country and was placed at the bottom of the first grade assistant Commissioners, and was, in the following October, placed at the head of this grade, superseding nine officers who had discharged for years their duties in Burmah with efficiency; whether in June, 1898, Major Parsons was further promoted over the heads of all the fourth grade deputy Commissioners, and over the heads of all but three of the third grade deputy Commissioners; on what grounds an officer with a small experience of the country is put in charge of an important district; and whether representations have reached the Indian Government and the India Office protesting against the exercise of his patronage in the making of this appointment by the Lieutenant-Governor of Burmah?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingNo representations or complaints on this subject have reached me, but I will make inquiry, and will communicate with the Government of India on the subject.