§ SIR ARTHUR BULLERsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, The reason why the claims of the representatives of the Calcutta bankers, Monohur Doss and Dwarcah Doss, upon the Government and State of Oude, are to be referred for investigation in India; seeing that the agents of the claimants are in England, that the documentary evidence on which their claim is founded is also here, as well as all the official proceedings relating thereto, that the reference to an Indian Judge or other local functionary would be unsatisfactory and inconclusive, and would involve great unnecessary expense and personal inconvenience, and exclude the services of persons most cognizant with the facts and merits of the case; what is the nature of the inquiry proposed to be made, and whether it is to be limited, like the inquiry contemplated by the right hon. Gen- 1284 tleman's predecessors in office, Mr. Vernon Smith and Lord Stanley, to the question whether the claims submitted fall within the category of "public and bonâ, fide debts of the King of Oude;" or whether he proposes to leave it to the Indian Judge or Commissioner, whether he may be, to reopen the entire question, and to report his opinion as to the moral and equitable liability of the British Government; and whether, in finally dealing with these claims, he is prepared to adhere to the principles laid down by Lord Stanley in this House, when Indian Minister, that "the transfer of the Revenues of Oude to Great Britain did carry with it a liability for such debts of the former Government as were fairly and justly contracted?"
§ SIR CHARLES WOODstated, in reply, to the long question of the hon. Member, that an inquiry was ordered by his predecessor to be made into the subject referred to, and he had merely acted ministerially in carrying out the instructions given by the noble Lord the Member for Lynn (Lord Stanley). He had given no directions whatever; in fact, as the responsibility of ultimately deciding what was to be done would devolve upon him, he had carefully abstained from going into the merits of any one of the cases.