§ MR. O'REILLYsaid, he rose to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, with reference to the Statement of 281 the Under Secretary of State for India, that the earliest period at which the India Office could ascertain the course which the Colonial Secretary was likely to pursue with reference to the new appointment in the Straits Settlement was the 18th January, he is aware that those appointments were authoritatively announced in the public papers long antecedent to that date; and, if so, whether he can explain to the House how this occurred? He must beg to explain that it was announced in, November last in the newspapers that the new Governor of the Straits Settlements and other officers had been appointed; but in consequence of a Question which he put on the 11th March to the Secretary of State for India, he found that the first time the India Office ascertained the course which the Colonial Secretary would pursue in making the appointments was the 18th January, and he wished to know how it was that the newspapers were enabled to publish the appointments so long before?
§ MR. ADDERLEYreplied, that it assuredly was on the 18th of January that the Colonial Office made the communication in question to the Indian Department. Whether previous information on the subject reached Colonel Ord through the newspapers he was not aware. All he could say was that he could have got no authoritative statement before that date.