41

    Mr. Edwards explained that the difficulties which had forbidden
insistence upon a form of apprenticeship during the college curri-
culum for British students would be much accentuated in the case
of Indian students undergoing training in England. They would
probably meet with little sympathy even if they exhibited a marked
inclination to better their practical experience in regard to cattle
practice while they were undergoing training in England. He
believed that facilities existed which were admirably suited for their
training in this respect in this country and he mentioned particularly
the herd of dairy cattle at Pusa maintained under the supervision
of the Imperial Agriculturist, and the well known breeding herd of
draught cattle at Hissar. His own students under training had
recently been sent to Pusa in order to study the improved conditions
of maintaining dairy cattle there adopted, and he contemplated
deputing them to other centres. It was much more likely that the
susceptibilities of students would be studied at these institutions on
their return from training in England.

    Khan Saheb Sheikh Naiz Mahammed in his note on the subject
stated: The candidates (Indians) for direct appointment to the
Imperial Service should be subject to the same rules and regula-
tions as are at present in force for the Service.

    The Chairman subsequently addressed the members on the neces-
sity of adopting safeguards for maintaining a high standard of
general education, basic scientific training, and modern professional
knowledge in entrants to the Imperial Service. Although the
membership diploma of the R. C. V. S. had been hitherto recognised
as the essential qualification for entrance to this branch of the Service,
the Secretary of State had demanded additional attainments in
candidates for vacant posts in view of the fact that the work upon
which they were subsequently engaged was of a highly responsible
nature and required considerably more knowledge regarding the
larger issues in controlling animal disease than was usually obtain-
able from the teaching imparted in the four years' curriculum laid
down for membership graduation by the R. C. V. S.,—a curri-
culum which, moreover, was planned with the object of providing
primarily for the requirements in training of the great majority
of veterinary graduates in the United Kingdom, namely, veterinary
clinicians, or practitioners. In order to cater for the comparatively
few students who had the necessary ability and desired to undergo
a more thorough training in veterinary science, which would provide
them with a sufficiently sound groundwork of knowledge to fit
them later to deal with the peculiar problems in animal disease of
interest to the State, some of the British veterinary colleges had
taken steps to become recognized schools of the local universities