MR. VERNON SMITHsaid, he wished to be allowed to explain that a misunderstanding had arisen with regard to a question put to him on Tuesday night. The right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Disraeli) had asked him what was proposed to be done with respect to the sufferers in the recent events in India. He understood the question to refer to the widows and orphans of those persons in the civil and military services who had perished by the massacres, and he replied that the same scale would be adopted as in the case of persons perishing in action. His reply showed the impression he was under, but, he believed, did not meet the meaning of the right hon. Gentleman's question. He was told that the interpretation put by the public upon his answer was that the East India Company had under their consideration a scheme of compensation for the loss of property sustained during the recent mutiny; but the fact was that no such scheme had been in their contemplation. Such a question of compensation opened up a much wider question, into which the Directors of the East India Company were not prepared to enter.
§ MR. DISRAELIsaid, he had confined his inquiry to property, and had asked whether it was intended to compensate those European subjects of Her Majesty whose property had been destroyed during 1898 the insurrection. He had not put his question on the paper, and the right hon. Gentleman might, therefore, easily have been misled as to his meaning. He still wished to know whether it was the intention of the Government to take into consideration the claims of those European subjects of Her Majesty in India whose property had been injured or destroyed during the insurrection. The right hon. Gentleman would of course understand his question to refer in the first instance to the case of those officers whose property had been plundered, and then, if possible, to that of all Her Majesty's European subjects.
MR. VERNON SMITHsaid, he must reply that the question embraced so very wide a field that it was impossible to answer it without deeper consideration than had hitherto been given to the subject.