§ MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)On behalf of the hon. Member for South Donegal, I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the case of Major (then Lieutenant) J. H. Parsons, 7th Bengal Cavalry, who was appointed in July, 1884, to the Burma Commission as Supernumerary Assistant Commissioner, but was obliged to go home to England on sick leave in 1886; whether he is aware that in 1890 Major Parsons was offered an opportunity of returning to his post in Burma, which he declined to accept, whereupon his name disappeared from the list of Commissioners, but that in April, 1897, Major Parsons was replaced in the Burma Commission after an absence of eleven and a-half years, and in July, 1898, was appointed to the post of Deputy Commissioner, third grade, superseding all the officers in the fourth grade, who had given a continuous service to the Commission; whether, seeing that the Secretary of State for India cancelled the orders of the Local Government of Burma, and reduced Major Parsons to the post of a Deputy Commissioner of the fourth grade, will he explain on what grounds the Burma Government has appointed that officer to officiate as 1276 Deputy Commissioner, first grade; and what steps will be taken to enforce the orders of the Secretary of State for India, granting redress to the officers who had been injured by being superseded in their promotion in favour of Major Parsons.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONI have to refer the hon. Member to the answer which I gave on the 1st instant to the hon. Member for the Basingstoke Division, and which, I think, covers all the points in this question. As I then stated, the orders given by me appear to have been duly carried out, and the recent promotions of Major Parsons have not interfered and will not interfere with those of other members of the Burma Commission.