HC Deb 10 December 1878 vol 243 c525
MR. EVELYN ASHLEY

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, with reference to the Statement made on the 20th April 1877 by the then Under Secretary of State for India, in reply to the hon. Member for the Elgin Burghs, who asked, "Have the negotiations with the Ameer entirely ceased," namely— I believe that the Ameer has expressed a wish to carry on negotiations, and the matter is under the consideration of the Government of India. Whether any such expression of a wish to carry on negotiation was received from the Ameer; and, if so, why no record of it appears in the Papers now laid before Parliament?

MR. E. STANHOPE

I can give the hon. and learned Member no information beyond what is contained in the Papers already laid before Parliament. My noble Friend's answer was given before the despatch from the Government of India was received, and when no official report of it had yet reached us, and it expressed only his own belief in the matter.