HC Deb 10 December 1878 vol 243 c526
LORD ROBERT MONTAGU

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether "the information" which Lord Lytton placed before the Indian Council after personal conference, not only with Her Majesty's Government, but also with the Russian Ambassador in England, was in writing, or was given only verbally and from memory to the Council in India; in what way it "influenced the consideration," by the Indian Council, of Lord Salisbury's published instructions of 26th February 1876; and, the date of the last understanding between the Russian and English Governments with reference to Afghanistan or Central Asia generally?

MR. E. STANHOPE

The noble Lord can hardly, I think, really expect that I can give him any answer to his first two Questions. We have no information on the subject; and I am quite unable to say in what way the Indian Council were influenced by Lord Lytton's statements, beyond what they themselves explain in their despatch. In answer to the last Question of the noble Lord, I suppose that the last understanding to which he refers is the one of May 11, 1875; but the noble Lord is aware that there has been a great deal of subsequent correspondence on the subject.

LORD ROBERT MONTAGU

I asked is that the last?

MR. E. STANHOPE

So far as I know, I believe it is the last understanding.