Mr. KELLYasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether the physicians and surgeons of all the Government civil hospitals in Madras are military doctors; whether the senior assistant surgeons in these institutions are military assistant surgeons belonging to the subordinate military medical service; and whether, considering that the former posts are usually held by people of the country and the latter always given to Eurasians, he would adopt a method of making medical appointments which involves no race distinctions?
§ Mr. MONTAGUIf the hon. Member will be good enough to refer to the answers to questions on this subject given by me and my predecessors to him and his friends during this and the last two Parliaments, I think he will find that all the information for which he asks is already at his disposal.
Mr. KELLYasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether the attention of the Secretary of State has been drawn to the resolution passed at the meeting of the Indian National Congress, held at Allahabad on the 28th December, 1910, thanking him for his despatch regarding the employment in the superior posts of the civil medical service and requesting the Government of India to take early action in the direction indicated by the Secretary of State for India, and pointing out that in the interests of the public, the medical service, and the profession, as well as in the interests of economy in public expenditure, it was highly desirable that a distinct Indian civil medical service should be constituted, wholly independent of the Indian military medical service; whether he has yet received from the Government of India any report on the various issues concerning the various medical services of India therein referred to; and when does he propose to bring the higher grades of the medical service within reasonably easy access of Indian doctors?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe resolution to which the hon. Member refers has not yet reached the Secretary of State. A despatch1514W on the general question has been received from the Government of India, and is under consideration. As regards the final sentence of the hon. Member's question I have nothing to add to the information that I have already given him.