COMMISSIONER PUNCH.)
_AN ANGLO-INDIAN GENTLEMAN INTRODUCED._
[Illustration]
_The Commissioner_. Well, Sir, What can I do for you?
_Anglo-Indian_. I wish respectfully to call your attention, Sir,
to our case, which is now before a Parliamentary Committee. I am
an Indian Civil Servant. I am called a member of the Uncovenanted
Service, but I contend that such a term is a misnomer. Originally the
Uncovenanted Service consisted of Natives of India, who were employed,
without covenant, to do subordinate official work, under the direction
of the Covenanted Civil Service. The bulk of these persons were
overseers and tax-collectors.
_The Com._ Has there been any alteration of late years? I see you lay
a stress upon _originally_.
_Anglo-In._ At this moment there are in the Service, in one department
alone--the Educational--a Senior Classic, a Second Wrangler, several
other Wranglers, and many Fellows of Oxford and Cambridge, who took
high honours with their degrees. The Service now requires great
technical knowledge, as it has to deal with Archaeology, Finance,
Geological Survey, Public Works, and Telegraphy, and can only be
entered by Europeans, who have been selected by nomination, or after
competition, either by the Secretary of State for India, or the
Government of India. It is not an Uncovenanted Service, as we now
enter it with the prospect of pension; and one of our grievances
is, that that prospect has become less favourable through the recent
action of our employers.
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