§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL (for Mr. BUXTON)asked the Secretary of State for India, Whether he has yet been able to discover the person who published in the "Standard" newspaper "the official Memoranda of an extremely confidential character," relating to Russian correspondence discovered at Cabul, or whether that person has, in accordance with the suggestion of the Secretary of State, yet come forward and 1646 stated the part he has taken in the transaction, in order to relieve a considerable number of persons from any suspicion upon their official discretion? The hon. Gentleman also asked whether the Cabul Correspondence was published in Calcutta long before it came to the country; and whether it was published there officially, or had also been obtained surreptitiously?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONIn reply to the Question on the Paper, I have only to say that I am sorry to state that I have no more knowledge of the person who furnished the correspondence to The Standard than I have of the person mentioned in the Notice just given by my noble Friend the Member for Middlesex (Lord George Hamilton) who corresponds with The Daily News. I have not thought it necessary to institute any inquiry, and the person, whosoever he may be, who communicated these confidential documents to The Standard has not availed himself of my invitation to come forward and relieve other persons from what I still think a very unmerited stigma. In reply to the last part of the Question of my hon. Friend, I think I can explain the publication of these Papers in India. I received a telegram from the Viceroy to the effect that it was announced in India that the Cabul Correspondence was about to be published in England, and ho asked whether there would be any objection to its being published in India also. I telegraphed back that it was quite true the Papers were about to be published, and that there would be no objection to the simultaneous publication in India.