§ MR. D. A. THOMASI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India if there is any truth in the report that it is intended to appoint Mr. Frederick William Francis, at present Director of Land Records and Agriculture, to be a Deputy Commissioner in the Hyderabad assigned districts; whether, in that position, he will have extensive criminal, civil, and revenue powers as District Magistrate, District Judge, and Chief Administrative Officer; what legal training and judicial experience for such office he has had; and whether it is proposed that Mr. F. W. Francis should supersede officers who have been regularly trained and are fully qualified for promotion, and who, according to the official reports, have creditably performed their duties as Deputy Commissioners of Districts over considerable periods, and during the famine of 1897, under exceptionally trying circumstances?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIAI have received no information on this subject. The appointment is one which it is within the power of the Government of India to make, without reference to the Secretary of State; and it is not the practice of the Secretary of State in such cases to interfere with the discretion of the Government of India, I have no reason to suppose that the Government of India, in selecting an officer for this vacancy, will not have fully and impartially considered the claims of the several officers qualified for promotion before coming to a decision.