§ MR. BECKETT (Yorkshire, N.R., Whitby)To ask the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that the Indian Staff Corps Officers in China were promised full three months leave in England, and that their passage back should be paid; that officers have already upon the strength of this promise gone on leave from China; will he explain the reasons for the new regulation announcing that the leave is to count from the date of starting and that no passage back was to be paid; and will he take steps to put the matter right and either see that the original arrangement is carried out or protect officers from any loss or injury in which they may be involved by having gone on leave: under the terms of the first order.
(Answered by Secretary Lord George Hamilton.) The orders of the Government of India, under which officers coming home on special China leave were led to count upon ninety days clear in this country and a passage back to India, were due to a misunderstanding of the Secretary of State's instructions. The intention was that the ninety days should reckon from the date of their leaving their stations to that of rejoining, and that no expense to the State in respect of passage should be admissible. This has now been made clear by new orders; published in India and China. The case of officers who took special China leave 1107 prior to the publication in China of these revised orders is now under consideration.