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 Gt. Bri.t. India office. 
 
 En St India (pensions of officers 
 of the civil services in India.) 
 Despatch . . • 
 
 
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 EAST INDIA (PENSIONS OF OFFICERS 
 OF THE CIVIL SERVICES IN INDIA). 
 
 DESPATCH FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
 FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL TO THE GOVERN- 
 MENT OF INDIA REGARDING MATTERS 
 CONNECTED WITH THE PENSIONS OF 
 OFFICERS OF THE CIVIL SERVICES IN 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 Presented to Parliament By Command of His Majesty. 
 
 LONDON : 
 FEINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE 
 
 To be purchased directly from H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE at the following addressee : 
 
 Adastral House, Kiugsway, London, W.C.2; 120, George Street, Edinburgh; 
 
 York Street, Manchester; 1, St. Andrew's Crescent, Cardiff; 
 
 15, Donegall Square West, Belfast; 
 
 or through any Bookseller. 
 
 [Cmd. 1625.] 
 
 ii)22. 
 Price Id. Net. 
 
 :\ :..
 
 Despatch from the Secretary of State for India 
 
 in Council. 
 
 To His Excellency the Right Honoueablb the Governor 
 General of India in Council, No. 5 (Public), Dated 9th 
 February, 1922. 
 
 I have recently addressed you by telegram suggesting for the 
 
 ^ ^ . con&ideration of your Excellency's 
 
 ^,) Intention of a passage tn Government the desirability of 
 
 the Hesohdwndatedhth November , ,• , , , '' ^. 
 
 regarding premature retirement; ^^^^"^^ ^^^^-^^ ^*^P« '° ^^^"^"^^ ^^^ 
 
 {ii) future security of pensions. misapprehensions which I have 
 
 reason to believe are widely 
 entertained as to the meaning to be attached to the passage quoted in 
 
 the margin^ from paragraph 3 of 
 
 .u T " f ^J. ^applications must reach the Resolution issued by your 
 the LfOcal Grovernment before the olst ^ i ■J_^ i 
 
 March, 1924, by which date officers Government, with my approval, 
 will have had ample opportunity to on the 8th November last, on the 
 appreciate the effects of the receut subject of the terms and conditions 
 rflrlrre d 'rS„:'°'offlcer':? «« -i^-^ officers of certain Indian 
 the services specified who do not apply services who desired to be re- 
 before that date will not be eligible for leased from further service in 
 a pension on premature retirement in consequence of the introduction of 
 consequence of any constitutional ,-l .■ i ,. i 
 
 developments which may subsequently constitutional reforms may be 
 take place." permitted to retire prematurely 
 
 on proportionate pension. It has 
 been represented to me that this passage in the Resolution has been 
 commonly interpreted as intended definitely to preclude any officer 
 whose employment may hereafter be terminated prematurely either 
 by the Secretary of State in Council under the constitution provided 
 by the present Government of India Act, or by an Indian Dominion 
 Government , should such be constituted by an instrument amend- 
 ing or repealing that Act, from claiming pensionary recognition of 
 the services which he has rendered and compensation for their un- 
 expected termination. And apart from the fear that such conse- 
 quences are intended in the matter of compulsory retirement, I 
 understand that the passage is further regarded as closing the door 
 on any hope of the renewal of an offer similar to^ that held out by 
 the Resolution, even on the occurrence of further legislation to 
 amend the Government of India Act, which may have the effect of 
 marking a further stage towards the grant ito India of Dominion 
 status. And the combined effect of these impressions Has been, 
 apparently, to give colour to the idea that a leading motive which 
 prompted the Secretary of State in Council and Your Excellency's 
 Government in framing the terms and conditions embodied in the 
 orders of 8th November was a desire to induce as many as possible 
 of the members of the all-India services, for whose maintenance, 
 welfare and efficiency those authorities are directly responsible, to 
 abandon their employment at the earliest possible date. 
 
 * • • .• 
 
 . ^. ••
 
 JQ 
 
 2. Your Excellency's Government will, I am confident, share my 
 deep regret that language should have been used which is capable 
 of an interpretation so fundamentally at variance with our objects 
 and intentions ; and I trust that it is now clearly understood by the 
 members of the services that — 
 
 (i) nothing in your Eesolution has reference, directly or in- 
 directly, to the compulsory retirement of officers whose 
 employment it may hereafter be decided by whatever 
 authority to terminate for whatever reason, before they 
 have completed such service as, under ordinary regu- 
 lations and expectations, carries the claim ito a pension ; 
 (ii) that when the time comes for His Maiestv's Government 
 ixac to recommend to Parliament further legislation with the 
 
 ^- object of granting to India a larger measure of self- 
 
 "^ government, it will be the unquestionable duty of the 
 
 *^ Secretary of State in Council to consider fully the extent 
 
 '^ to which such changes affect the conditions of service of 
 
 ^ ithose who will be bound by them, and whether they ai'e 
 
 O such as to necessitate a re-opening of opportunities for 
 
 voluntary retirement on pension ; that it will further be 
 •^ his duty to take steps to secure the enactment of such 
 
 provisions to that end as may seem just and necessary ; 
 and that nothing in your Eesolution was designed to 
 absolve the Secretary of State in Council from this 
 obligation ; and 
 (iii) that in fact the intention of the passage in question was 
 simply to emphasise the circumstance that the right to 
 apply for a proportionate pension was an exceptional 
 right conferred on the express recommendation of a 
 Joint Select Committee of both Houses, with the im- 
 plied authority of Parliament, in order to meet the 
 conditions which have been brought about by the Act of 
 1919, or which may arise in the course of constitutional 
 development under that Act ; and consequently that the 
 right was one which, once offered and exhausted, it 
 would not be proper for the Secretary of State in Council 
 to renew, save as the result of a similar mandate given 
 on account of constitutional changes arising out of 
 further Parliamentary legislation. 
 
 3. I desire, however, to take this opportunity of endeavouring 
 to dispel other analogous anxieties which have been brought to my 
 notice as being felt by members and ex-members, not only of the 
 Indian services, but also of the Home Establishment of the Secre- 
 tary of State in Council, as to the security of their pensions 
 (whether in course of payment or in prospect) in the event of 
 India's acquiring full Dominion status, or such an approximation 
 to that status as has the effect of transferring from the Secretary of 
 State in Council to the Legislative Assembly some portion or the 
 whole of thnt measure of control over the appropriation of the 
 revenues of India and over the services which is by the present Act 
 and statutory rules vested in the Secretary of State in Council. 
 
 238896
 
 4. It would, of course, be idle for me to pretend that any decla- 
 ration by myself, by the Council of India, or by His Majesty's 
 Govemment as at present constituted, would have the effect of 
 binding any future Government or Parliament as to the measures 
 which they should respectively propose and ratify to safeguard the 
 existing and accruing rights of persons in the Civil Service of the 
 Crown in India whose conditions of employment may be affeoted 
 by whatever further legislation Parliament may, in its wisdom, 
 decide hereafter to enact in pursuance of the policy inaugurated by 
 the Act of 1919. But it is evidently not generally appreciated that 
 no change in diminution of the powers of control now exercised 
 by the Secretary of State in Council in this regard, nor in modifica- 
 tion of the law which now makes such pensions a statutory charge 
 upon the revenues of India, could be affected without the fullest 
 public discussion a)id by means of express Parliamentary enact- 
 ment. It cannot be anticipated that His Majesty's Government 
 and ParHament will treat lightly their obligation to ensure as an 
 essential part of such an enactment that all pensions current at the 
 time shall continue to be paid, that those officers whose services may 
 have to be compulsorily terminated shall be adequately compen- 
 sated, and that those who are entitled to pensions shall receive 
 them. But in any event, I desire to place on record, with the full 
 concurrence of my Council, my conviction that no future Secretary 
 of State in Council of India will be found wanting in his duty of 
 securing the fulfilment of those obligations, or will be found willing 
 to surrender in the smallest degree the control which he exercises 
 under the existing law, save on conditions which will adequately' 
 ensure that rights and expectations which it is now his duty to 
 protect are fully guaranteed. 
 
 I have, (fee, 
 
 (Signed) Edwin S. Montagu. 
 
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