§ SIR H. COTTONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the notification in the Eastern Bengal and Assam Gazette of 22nd January, in which Lieutenant D. Cameron, 7th Rajputs, and Lieutenant W. H. Hodgson, 119th Infantry, are appointed to the first grade of assistant superintendents of police; whether during the past forty years and more, no military officer has been appointed to the Bengal police; what are the reasons for this suspension of the ordinary rules of recruitment for the higher ranks of the Indian police service; and whether the regulations providing that vacancies are to be filled up by competition in England and India are no longer in force in Eastern Bengal and Assam.
§ MR. MORLEYIn October last, I sanctioned the appointment of three military officers to the Police of Eastern Bengal and Assam, the reason for this exceptional measure being the disturbed condition of the country and the necessity for bringing the Police Establishment at once up to its full strength. The ordinary methods of recruitment remain nevertheless in force for Eastern Bengal and Assam, as well as for other parts of India.