HC Deb 10 May 1864 vol 175 cc258-9
LORD STANLEY

said, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for India, Whe- ther he will lay upon the table his proposed despatch relative to the claims of Indian officers, reported upon by the late Commission, previous to the issuing of any warrant by the Crown bearing on that question, so that the House may have an opportunity of considering the plan therein proposed before a final decision shall have been come to?

SIR CHARLES WOOD

said, he fully admitted that the question presented some peculiar features, but he was not sure that it was sufficiently important to induce him to depart from the course which the constitution imposed upon him, as a Minister of the Crown, not to submit to the decision of the House of Commons a question of purely Executive administration.

CAPTAIN JERVIS

said, he wished to know whether the despatch which was the cause of all the mischief had been submitted to the Crown?

SIR CHARLES WOOD

said, that the warrant had been submitted to Her Majesty.