HC Deb 20 May 1881 vol 261 cc955-6
MR. E. STANHOPE

asked, Whether the statement alleged to have been made on Tuesday last at the Paris Conference by Sir Louis Mallet was in any way authorised by Her Majesty's Government or the Secretary of State for India in Council; and, if not, whether such expressions on the subject of Bimetallism by the official representative of the Government of India in this Country will not lead to great misconception abroad as to the attitude of England on this subject?

MR. THOROLD ROGERS

asked, Whether the reported statements of Sir Louis Mallet at the Paris Conference have the sanction of Her Majesty's Government, and can be construed to imply that the Government approves of the theory which its representative at that Conference has adopted, and in particular the opinion which Sir Louis Mallet is reported to have expressed that, "if law was entitled to impose a single metal as money, it had an equal right to impose two metals at a fixed ratio?"

THE MARQUESS OF FIARTINGTON

In reply to the Questions that have been put to me, I have to say that, as the interests of India and of the United Kingdom with regard to the silver question did not appear to be identical, it seemed fitting that they should be separately represented at Paris, and that independent instructions should be given to the delegates. The British delegate is instructed as follows:— The delegate of Her Majesty's Government will assist at the meetings of the Conference, solely in order to be a medium of communication, and to afford information when the Conference may require it, but with no power of voting. The substance of the instructions given to the Indian delegates—Sir Louis Mallet and Lord Reay—was as follows:— You will explain that, in sending a delegate to the Conference, the Government of India must not be held to commit itself to the adoption of the principle of the bi-metallic system in India, and that you are not authorized, without further instructions, to vote on any question raised at the Conference. You will, however, add that, while the Secretary of State in Council is unwilling to encourage an expectation of any material change, at present, in the monetary policy of India, he would be ready to consider any measures which might be suggested for adoption in India as being calculated to promote the re-establishment of the value of silver. It is desirable that you should, as far as possible, avoid giving any pledge on the part of the Government of India which would in any manner interfere with its future liberty of action; but, in the event of your being pressed on the subject, or your seeing reason to think it desirable that such a declaration should be made, you are authorized to agree, on the part of the Government of India, that, for some definite term of years, not exceeding ten, it will undertake not to depart, in any direction calculated to lower the value of silver, from the existing practice of coining silver freely in the Indian mints as legal tender throughout the Indian dominions of Her Majesty. Such a declaration must, however, be conditional on the acceptance by a number of the principal States of an agreement binding them, in some manner or other, to open their mints for a similar term to the coinage of silver as full legal tender in the proportion of 15½ of silver to 1 of gold, and the engagement on the part of India would be obligatory only so long as that agreement remained in force. I have received no official information of the speech said to have been delivered by Sir Louis Mallet at the Paris Conference, and, indeed, no information on the subject except that which appeared in The Times of, I think, the day before yesterday, and, therefore, can give no opinion upon the speech until I have received an authentic copy. I may, however, mention that before Coming down to the House I received a telegram from Lord Lyons, dated May 20, 4 P.M., in which Sir Louis Mallet says— "Times City Article, Thursday. I distinctly stated that the opinion on abstract question in reply to previous speakers was purely personal and individual, and that English Government had from the beginning absolutely refused to join bi-metallic experiment. Speech not yet received from printer; will be sent immediately.