§ MR. CRAWFORDasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether he can give the House any information with reference to certain alleged purchases by the Bank of Bengal of a large amount of private Bills of Exchange drawn at Calcutta upon London, on account of the Government of India; and of Five-and-a-half Promissory Notes of the Public Debt of India in London under orders of the Bank of Bengal on the same account?
MR. GRANT DUFFSir, no full and official account of the transaction alluded to by my hon. Friend has yet reached the Secretary of State in Council, but I know that certain purchases both of bills and of Government securities were made by the Bank of Bengal on behalf of the Government. For such purchases no sufficient authority had been given, but under the circumstances the Government of India did not consider it necessary to cancel them, although it clearly intimated that nothing more must be done in the same direction without explicit sanction. It may be convenient if I add that what has happened will not interfere with the regular drawings of the Secretary of State for India.