Sir SEYMOUR KINGasked the Under-Secretary of State for India on what grounds, under the recent reorganisation, a continuance of the exchange compensation allowance has been refused to the administrative grades of the Indian Telegraph Department except to the Director-General of Telegraphs, whereas it has been continued under the reorganisation of the Public Works Department to the administrative grades of that Department; whether, by the Secretary of State for India's Despatch No. 7 (Telegraph), dated 27th February, 1903, it was promised that the prospects of advancement in the telegraph service should not be inferior to those of the Public Works Department; whether in 1905 the pay of the administrative grades of the Public Works Department was revised and substantially increased; and whether, having regard to the fact that proposals for an increase of pay to the administrative grades of the Telegraph Department were first made in September, 1905, and for the executive grades in April, 1907, the 217W Secretary of State will order that the increased rates of pay recently granted to the administrative grades of the Telegraph Department instead of dating from 1st April, 1910, as at present ordered, shall have retrospective effect from the dates from which the pay of officers of corresponding rank of the Public Works Department was increased so that officers of the Telegraph Department may not be losers by the delay which has occurred in dealing with their case?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe gradual discontinuance of exchange compensation allowance has been an accepted policy for many years. But the application of that policy must depend on the particular circumstances of each Department, and the Secretary of State cannot admit the claim to exact parity of treatment in that respect, implied in the hon. Member's question, between the Public Works and Telegraph Departments. The language of the Secretary of State's despatch referred to cannot be regarded as a pledge to the Telegraph Department that their scale of remuneration would be exactly equalised with that of the Public Works Department, nor does the Secretary of State see sufficient reason for giving retrospective effect to the orders recently passed for the reorganisation of the Department.