§ MR. HART-DAVIES (Hackney, N.)To ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to the fact that natives of India who belong to the Indian Civil Service are not allowed to contribute to the family pension fund; and whether he is aware that, while the Indian Civil Service family funds were separate, they were so allowed, and that this disability only began when all the funds were consolidate and placed under Government; and whether he is aware that Natives of India who belong to the Indian Medical Department are allowed to contribute to the family fund of that service; and whether he can give any reason for this differentiation of treatment.
§ (Answered by Mr. Secretary Morley.) I am aware of the difference in the rules of the funds to which the hon. Member refers; but it is not the fact that the exclusion of natives of India from the 440 Civil Funds dates only from the time when they were taken over by Government. Resolutions against the admission of natives of India were passed at a general meeting of subscribers to the Bengal Civil Fund in 1873, and the decision then adopted was followed by the Secretary of State in Council on taking over the funds. I may add that the total number of natives of India who subscribed to the separate Civil Funds was three, of whom two were in Bengal.