§ MR. LEITHasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether it is the fact, as reported, that the Government of India have transferred or agreed to transfer, by way of gift or otherwise, to the Maharajah Holkar, of Indore, territory to the extent of upwards of three hundred square miles; whether a Commission of Inquiry, composed of Captain Wise, acting on behalf of the Bombay Government, and Major Cadell, acting on behalf of the Maharajah Holkar, had not previously decided that the latter had no title to the territory in question; whether such decision was not declared final by the Government of India; and, if such transfer has been made, or agreed to be made, whether the Government can state the reasons for making such transfer, and will lay upon the Table of the House any Correspondence or Despatches relating thereto?
§ MR. E. STANHOPEYes, Sir; the Government of India has ceded to the Maharajah Holkar about 350 square miles of territory. A boundary line between the territories of the Maharajah and Khandeish was traced in 1864, and his special appeal against the decision was rejected by the Secretary of State. Since that time the frontier has been in dispute, and has 1637 become a perpetual source of grievance. It is a tract of rough, unproductive, and unhealthy country, to which, however, the Maharajah attaches the greatest possible value. As an act of grace, therefore, the Indian Government has recommended, and the Secretary of State has sanctioned, this re-adjustment of the boundary line. This concession has been a source of peculiar gratification to the Maharajah. As these Papers contain references to personal feelings and circumstances, my noble Friend thinks it very undesirable that they should be published.