§ 38 and 39. Lieut.-Colonel Sir Walter Smilesasked the Secretary of State for India (1) if he will consider a points system for wives who are anxious to join their husbands in India, calculated upon the length of separation;
(2) if he will give an assurance that wives of tea-planters and other civilians in India will receive the same treatment when passages to India are given as wives of people in Government service.
§ Mr. AmeryThere are so many individual considerations besides length of separation which the committee, set up by the Government of India, will have to examine, that an automatic system of points calculated as my hon. and gallant Friend suggests, would hardly meet the requirements of the situation. Applications on behalf of wives of non-officials as well as of officials are being dealt with by the Committee and both classes will receive equal consideration. I would again emphasise that the number of passages to India available for women and children is very small indeed and so far as can be foreseen is likely to remain so for some time yet.
§ Sir W. SmilesWill the Committee also give consideration to fiancées of men who are working in the East, some of whom have been engaged for more than five years?