§ 66. Mr. HUME-WILLIAMSasked the Secretary of State for India whether the chief engineer and secretary to the Public Works Department of the Government of Assam is a German of the name of F. O. Oertel; and, if so, why the services of a German are retained by the Indian Government in a position when so much information of value to the enemy must necessarily be available to him?
§ Mr. CHAMBERLAINMr. F. O. Oertel is the secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Assam in the Public Works Department, having been appointed to that Department in 1883. He has lived in India for thirty-seven years and renounced his German nationality before he went there. He is, therefore, not a German subject. From a report received from India earlier in the year, I am satisfied that there are no grounds for dispensing with his services.