HC Deb 27 July 1874 vol 221 cc758-9
MR. EVELYN ASHLEY

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether in the matter of the claims of the Troops to further captured property as part of the Kirwee Booty of War, Her Majesty's Government intends to follow the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Army Prize, and the precedent set in the same matter by Lord Palmerston's Administration in 1854, by submitting these claims to the decision of the High Court of Admiralty, under the Act 3 and 1 Vict. c. 65?

LORD GEORGE HAMILTON

In reply, Sir, to my hon. Friend, I must remind him that the question which Lord Palmerston referred to the High Court of Admiralty in 1864 was, what forces or portion of the Army in the field should share in the amount which had been granted by the Crown as prize-money. The question which my hon. Friend now asks us to refer is, what should be considered prize-money. That being a matter decided on the responsibility of Her Majesty's Advisers, Lord Salisbury is not disposed to reverse the decision of his Predecessors, who refused to allow the question to be submitted to the tribunal referred to.