§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLasked the Under Secretary of State for India, If it is true that on the 26th December last General Roberts held a Durbar at Hagarpir, in the Khurum Valley, and made a speech to the Khans and headmen of the tribes, impressing on them emphatically that the Ameer's rule had for ever passed away, and that they must henceforth look to England as their sovereign power and to the Government of the Empress; and, whether the Indian Government had the authority of Her Majesty's Government to cause that declaration to be made, or Her Majesty's Government has since accepted and adopted that declaration?
§ MR. E. STANHOPESir, with the permission of the House, I will answer at the same time a similar Question which stands in the name of the hon. and gallant Member for Longford County (Mr. O'Reilly).We have not as yet re- 1189 ceived, either in official despatches or in private letters, any information on this subject. I have read the statements in the newspapers as to General Roberts to which the hon. Members refer; but' the House will see that I am not yet in a position to say whether those statements are accurate or not.