§ 17. Mr. BENNETTasked the Secretary of State for India whether, in future appointments to the Indian Railway Board, he will endeavour to ensure that careful regard shall be had to the principle adopted at the formation of that body, when the Government of India had before them the recommendation of the Robertson Report on the administration and working of the Indian railways, that the Board should consist of a president possessing a thoroughly practical commercial knowledge of railway working and of two other commissioners, who should be men of high railway standing with a similar training to that of the president; and whether he can give an assurance that a post demanding such special experience and expert knowledge shall not again be placed in the hands of a member of the Indian Civil Service?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for INDIA (Mr. Montagu)The original scheme for an Indian Railway Board has, in the course of fifteen years, been modified in the light or experience. It has been found desirable to introduce a non-railway element into the board in view of the administrative and financial problems with which it has to deal, and the presidentship is open equally to railway and non-railway members. But the composition of the board 2475 will be, I think, necessarily under review in the forthcoming inquiry into the management of Indian railways.
§ Colonel YATEMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether his attention has been called to an address given to the Society of Arts lately, at which it was shown that, owing to faulty administrative working of the Indian railways, the result obtained there was not so good as that obtained in South Africa?