COLONEL NOLANI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India if he can at length state to what extent competition for Government appointments has been abolished or diminished in India; if the abolition of competitive examination for official appointment is applied to natives of the country only, or if it in any case extends to official appointments sometimes held by Europeans; if he will specify what classes of appointments have been abstracted from competitive entrance; also, if he will state who will now enjoy the patronage which will be created by the partial abolition of competition.
§ MR. BRODRICKOpen competition for Government appointments has been abolished to the extent of three appointments annually to the Provincial Executive Service in the United Provinces and in Bombay, also in the case of the small proportion of appointments in the executive branch of the Provincial Service, which is filled by recruitment and not by promotion from the subordinate service. As regards appointments in the other provinces the Government of India are in correspondence with local Governments, and further deliberation is necessary before any orders can be issued. The change, as stated in my reply to the hon. Member on the 16th March†, relates exclusively to appointments made in India, which are ordinarily held by natives of the country. The class of
†See (4)Debates, cxxxi., 1251795 appointments affected by the orders issued in Bombay and the United Provinces is the executive branch of the Provincial Service. The duty of making appointments to this service will rest where it has always rested, that is, with the local Government.