§ MR. DRUMMONDsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, On what grounds £43,000 of Public Money has been advanced to support a private speculation of the Eastern Archipelago Company? What security for the same has been given? Whether the Government is itself going to work the Coal Mines of Labuan; and, if not, whether the Government are mortgagees, and at what rate of interest? Whether the Government have guaranteed to pay to the Sultan his Royalties, or to ensure that they shall be paid? Whether the Government have taken any security that the money shall be bona fide employed in the way for which it has been asked? When the money is to be repaid?
MR. WILSONsaid, he had not had time to inquire into the matter, but would give an answer on the following day. The question assumed that public money had been granted for private objects; he doubted, however, whether that was the fact.