1^82.] Proposed change in the Rules. 157 



" With the proposed changes, they will read : — 



"Rule 15. Honorary and Associate Members shall bo entitled lo the privileges con- 

 tained iu Clauses («), (d) and (/) of the preceding Rule, and to serve on any Com- 

 mittee appointed hij Council, save that they shall not be entitled to vote, except on 

 such Committees, 

 "Rule 61. The Council may elect, from among their own body, Committees or Sec. 

 tions for the consideration of special subjects. They may also appoint Honorary 

 or Associate Members, or Ordinary Members other than Members of Council, who 

 are competent and well versed in the subjects to be referred to these Committees 

 to be Members of such Committees. 



•' According to the Rules as they are at present, no Honorary or Associate Member 

 can serve on any of the Committees appointed by Council. The Society is thus pre- 

 vented from obtaining the advice of several gentlemen in close connection with the 

 Society who are experts in their several subjects, and no compensating benefit accrue^ 

 from the observance of these Rules. The question is now raised because it has been 

 lately pointed out that Major-General A. Cunningham, Director General of the Archseo- 

 logical Survey of India, who has for many years been a Member of the Philological and 

 Coins Committees of the Society, is an Honorary Member and therefore cannot serve 

 on a Committee. General Cunningham's advice and opinion on all matters relatino- to 

 coins and antiquities have been, and are of immense service to the Society, and the Society's 

 Secretaries regularly avail themselves of his assistance as a member of these Com- 

 mittees, as may be seen from consulting the Society's Proceedings. But now that 

 the attention of Council has been drawn to the two Rules in question, it will 

 be impossible to re-elect General Cunningham a Member of these Committees, unless 

 the Rules are altered as above. So that an observance of these Rues will result 

 in distinct injury to the Society. And, besides the case of General Cunningham, 

 there are other cases in which the Rules prevent the Society from securing the advice 

 of scientific experts, such as Father Lafont, who would gladly assist the Society with 

 their opinion, but are prevented from sitting on Committees owing to the undoubted 

 meaning of the Rules. The Council therefore strongly recommend the above changes. 

 The Society's Committees are consultative bodies and have not the power to take any 

 initiative of themselves : they merely advise Council on matters on which Council 

 seeks their opinion before itself coming to a decision. This being the case, Council are 

 of opinion that there cannot possibly be any objection to strengthening these consultative 

 bodies by adding to them such Honorary or Associate Members as are experts in their 

 several subjects. 



" The proposed changes will be brought up for discussion at the Ordinary General 

 meeting of the Society on Wednesday, December 6th. Voting papers will be after- 

 wards issued to all members, resident and non-resident, containing, in addition to this 

 statement of the Council's reasons for recommending the change, a statement of any 

 objections that may be raised to the proposal at this meeting. The votes will be finally 

 taken at the February meeting of the Society." 



The changes proposed by the Council were unanimously approved by 

 the meeting. 



The Seceetabt read the following extracts from a letter from Mr. D. 

 Ibbetson, Deputy Commissioner of the Punjab Census, Lahore, forwarding a 

 memorandum asking for information regarding the Ethnology of the 

 Pan jab : 



