§ LORD HOTHAMbegged to ask a question of the hon. Under Secretary for the Colonies, relative to the Report of the Finance Committee of the Executive Council of Ceylon. During the sitting of the Ceylon Committee last year, it was stated that the Report of a Committee of Finance, composed of members of the Executive Council of Ceylon, and therefore, he concluded, appointed by the Governor of that dependency, had been sent to England, and was then in the Colonial Office; and inasmuch as part of the order of the House under which the Ceylon Committee sat, was to the effect that they were to inquire whether any measures could be adopted for the better administration and government of the island, he took the liberty of asking the hon. Under Secretary (Mr. Hawes) if he would give the Committee the benefit of seeing that document? The hon. Gentleman told him that the report, being a very voluminous one, it was necessary that Earl Grey should have time to make himself fully master of its contents, and that until he had so done he could not state whether the report could be produced or not. Subsequently it was admitted by Sir Emerson Tennent, the then Colonial Secretary for Ceylon, in answer to a question which he (Lord Hotham) had put to him, that the report alluded to recommended very extensive alterations in the existing establishments of the island. Twelve months having elapsed since he made these inquiries, he now begged to ask the hon. Gentleman (Mr. Hawes) if he was in a position to produce the report, and also whether any and which of the recommendations it contained had been or were intended to be carried into effect?
§ MR. HAWESsaid, the noble Lord's statement was perfectly correct, and in answer to his question he begged to say that the report the noble Lord had alluded to was one of very considerable importance, and entered into very great detail with regard to every department of the administration of government in Ceylon. On the breaking up of the Ceylon Committee that report was brought under 554 the notice of Earl Grey, who considered it fully in all its details; but inasmuch as a new Governor (Sir George Anderson) had been appointed for Ceylon, who was entrusted to carry out such of the recommendations in the report as it might be deemed expedient to carry out, it was thought advisable that the whole subject should be brought under Sir George Anderson's notice, and that he should be called upon to report his opinion upon the recommendations of the Committee of the Executive Council. The report, together with a despatch requesting the Governor to consider the whole subject, was accordingly sent to Ceylon in the latter part of last year, and the Governor's report thereon had not yet been received. He (Mr. Hawes) was not therefore in a position to give an answer to the noble Lord's question. At the same time he would mention, as soon as the Governor's report arrived, he had not the least doubt that his noble Friend (Earl Grey), after he had had an opportunity of considering it, would order the report to be laid upon the table of that House.