LORD STANLEYsaid, he would now beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether it is intended to transfer the Straits Settlements from the Indian to the Colonial Department, or whether that project has been definitively abandoned?
§ MR. CARDWELLsaid, in reply, that the project had not been definitively abandoned, but the Government had not been able to settle the conditions on which it was to be carried into effect. The question of military defence was still under the consideration of the War Department, and, until that had been settled, the question of the charge upon the Imperial Exchequer could not be determined.