§ MR. M'LAGAN (Linlithgow)asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether the claim for 11 lacks of rupees submitted to the Nizam's Government by Sir Horace Rumbold, British Minister at the Hague, and which has been settled by the payment to him of three lacks, is the same claim as that referred to in the following extract from the Hyderabad Report for 1294, Fasli (1884–5):—
The usurious interest charged by the houses of Rumbold, Palmer, and Co., and Poorunmull and others is well known, and there is little doubt that all such creditors of the State in the old days were paid over and over again. A claim was put forward some years ago by the heirs of Sir William Rumbold, and revived from time to time, but on its last appearance it was rejected under the advice of the Government of India;and, whether this claim was settled with the knowledge and under the advice of the Resident, whose guest Sir Horace Rumbold was last winter, when he went to Hyderabad, armed with letters from Lord Lytton and other influential persons, as stated in the Indian papers; if so, upon what grounds the Resident advised the admission of a claim which had been rejected a few years before "under the advice of the Government of India?"
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)I must refer the hon. Member to my answer to his Question on April 9, when I stated that the Secretary of State had no official information on this subject. 1027 Both the Secretary of State and the Viceroy expressly refused to interfere in the matter of this claim.