MR. WILSONsaid, he would beg to ask the President of the Board of Control, whether any distinct information has been 1922 received that Lord Canning's Proclamation has been issued at Lucknow, and of the result which has been produced upon the Talookdars in their relation to the British Government. The reason for putting the question was, that it had appeared several times in the public prints, that information had been received at Calcutta as to the successful results of Mr. Montgomery's efforts for the pacification of Oude; and he was very much astonished two or three days ago, when the Attorney General for Ireland, having occasion to refer to the subject, took upon himself to say, that Mr. Montgomery had disobeyed and cancelled Lord Canning's Proclamation. Unless the Government were in possession of information to justify that statement, he thought it a most unwarrantable inference, from the slender facts of which we were cognisant, that because Mr. Montgomery had succeeded in pacifying Oude, therefore he had changed the policy of the Governor General. It appeared that those who disapproved the Proclamation and policy of the Governor General took the earliest opportunity of suggesting and supposing that any possible success which had attended the policy of Lord Canning was not attributable to his policy, but to the abrogation and reversal of it. If the Government were in possession of any information, he hoped the noble Lord would state that they had no objection to lay it before the House.
LORD STANLEYI am glad the hon. Gentleman has put the question, because it will give me an opportunity of correcting a slight inaccuracy in the reply which I gave yesterday to another question in reference to the same subject. I was asked yesterday by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Devonport (Sir E. Perry) whether any official documents had been received by the last mail relative to the pacification of Oude. When I saw that notice on the paper, I caused inquiry to be made in the department with which I am connected, and I received a positive assurance that nothing official on the subject had been received. I have again made inquiry to-day, and I find that I was right so far that no despatches have been received on the subject from the Governor General. But after my reply was given, and when the House had proceeded to the transaction of other business, so that I had no longer an opportunity of offering any explanation, there was forwarded to me a paper containing a short postscript to a miscellaneous despatch from the Secre- 1923 tary to the Chief Commissioner of Oude to the Secretary to the Governor General in India. That miscellaneous despatch, with its postscript, was transmitted from Calcutta, not accompanied with any official explanation, and is not of a very recent date. The date is the 3rd of April. The date of the covering letter which transmits it from Calcutta is the 20th of April; therefore it hardly represents the latest accounts which have been received in this country. It does not go fully into detail, but such as it is, as I have been unintentionally the means of misleading the House, I shall do well to read it:—
Secretary to Chief Commissioner of Oude to Secretary to Government.Lucknow, April 3.The talookdars are holding aloof [I believe that means holding aloof from the rebel cause]; and the Chief Commissioner fervently hopes that there will not be any very serious opposition to the permanent establishment of our rule in Oude. Two lists are sent, one of the landholders who treated with us at Alumbagh, the other of those who have come in under terms of the Government Proclamation, combined with the Chief Commissioner's letter of assurance that those who come forward and do good service now, will have their claims to the lands of which we dispossessed them reinvestigated.This is the only official paper which I can discover on the subject. From it, it will undoubtedly appear that a Proclamation had been issued to the people of Oude, but that Proclamation had been considerably modified from the draught sent home. I may say that, from the tenor of various private letters from different persons, I hope we have reason to believe that the policy actually pursued in Oude has been a policy of conciliation and justice, and that its results, as far as we can ascertain them, have been satisfactory with regard to the landed proprietors generally. As I shall not have an opportunity of speaking again, I hope the House will allow me to answer at once two other questions of which notice had been given. The hon. and learned Member for Devonport (Sir Erskine Perry) wishes to ask whether letters from the Governor General of India have not been received, covering Reports of a public character from Mr. Montgomery and other officers in Oude, relating to the pacification of that country, and whether there is any objection to laying such Reports on the table. It is true that, in a private letter received from Lord Canning, there were inclosures relating to various public matters; unfortunately the letter in question is not in my hand at the present moment, 1924 and though I endeavoured to obtain it in order to refer to its contents before coming down to the House, I have not been able to do so. It is a private letter, and, of course, cannot be officially produced; and without seeing it again, I cannot say whether there is anything in it which would make it impossible to communicate it without detriment to the public service. I cannot, therefore, of course, promise to communicate it at present. But it would be more convenient, I think, to wait until this information reaches us officially, accompanied by an official covering despatch, which will probably contain further explanation, and I have reason to believe that such a despatch will arrive by the next mail. The noble Lord the Member for Durham (Lord A. Vane Tempest) wishes to know whether Her Majesty's Government have received any official communication from India on the subject of the taking of Kotah; and, if so, whether they have any objection to the production of such papers. In answer to that question, I have to say that General Roberts' official despatch has been received, and is being published, I believe, in this evening's Gazette.