§ MR. BAINESsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether he objects to lay upon the Table of the House, Papers relating to the route of Captain W. C. McLeod, from Moulmein to the frontiers of China, and to the route of Dr. Richardson on his fourth mission to the Shan provinces of Burma, or Extracts from the same?
MR. GRANT DUFFSir, my attention having been called to the documents by an hon. Member, I found that, so far back as 1867, Colonel Yule wrote of them in the following terms:—
As the only modern records of visits to the 800 obscure regions of which they treat, and the sole trustworthy materials for their geography, surely they ought to be published.I have little doubt that, if the events of the Mutiny had not called off the attention of the Indian Government from the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, Colonel Yule's suggestion would have been followed up; and now, in happier times, I am glad to be able to show my respect for the opinion of that very distinguished man by laying the Papers on the table of the House.