§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether it is true that Lord Elphinstone telegraphed to Lord Canning that he had steam vessels at Bombay which he could send, if desired, to Suez, to facilitate the conveyance of troops overland to India?
MR. VERNON SMITHWe have no information, Sir, of such a telegram having been transmitted by Lord Elphinstone to Lord Canning. I do not think it very likely that Lord Elphinstone would send, such a message, as I have a private letter from him, in which he speaks of the difficulty of providing transports, all the transport he could furnish having been required for the Persian war, and being then in the Persian Gulf. He also speaks 462 of the danger of navigating the Red Sea at that particular season. It is not very likely, I apprehend, that Lord Elphinstone would propose to do what he said in his letter to me was not only difficult, but almost impossible. I cannot, however, say that such a message was not sent.