§ MR. O'DONNELLasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether the Government has any objection to communicate to Parliament a Report of the proceedings of the Council of State for India during the three months ending the 31st day of December last, and thus to enable Parliament to judge of the influence exerted by the Council during that critical period of preparation against the impending calamity of the Bengal Famine?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONin reply, said, he must remind the hon. Gentleman that all the executive and administrative business of the India Office was transacted by the Secretary of State in Council the discussions and deliberations of the Council were secret, except when individual Members dissented from the conclusions arrived at by the majority and recorded their dissent, together with their reasons for it. But the results of the proceedings of the Secretary of State in Council were contained in the despatches and telegrams which were sent by the Secretary of State to the various Indian Governments. The 712 greater number of the telegrams and despatches that had passed between the Secretary of State and the Viceroy with regard to the Bengal Famine had already been presented to the House, and the remainder would shortly follow; therefore, even if the proposal of the hon. Member were practicable, which it was not, he would object to it on the ground that it would result merely in the transmission to the House, in a clumsy shape, of information which it already possessed.