§ MR. HUDSON (Herts, Hitchin)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether, having in view the fact that it is now more than 12 years since the Government of India declared and constituted the Military Works Department to be a Military Department, and employment in it military employment under the Commander-in-Chief, and, further, that the new rules, to formulate which General Maitland's Committee assembled in the summer of 1896, have been three times quashed, and are now for the fourth time postponed, after it 50 had been promised that they should come into operation on the 1st April 1899, he can give any definite information as to when the rules will really come into force?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIAI am not aware of any promise having been made that new rules for the Military Works Department would come into operation on the 1st April 1899. The subject is now under my consideration, and I hope that orders will shortly be issued, but I am unable as yet to fix a date from which they will have effect.