§ MR. ERRINGTONasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether he has received information of the recent suspension from office of the Administrator General of British Guiana, in regard to whose accounts it was publicly stated in the Colony that a deficit exceeding £20,000 had been discovered by the Auditor General; whether, as stated in the Colonial press, the Administrator General justified himself for the irregularies which had led to the deficiencies in question, by declaring that his course of action in his office had been pursued with the sanction of the executive Government of the Colony for several years past; and, whether, under these circumstances, he will institute an independent inquiry to ascertain on whom the blame and liability for this serious loss to the Colony should rest?
MR. GRANT DUFFThis official has been interdicted from the discharge of his duties pending an inquiry into his alleged misappropriations, and he has made some such statement as that to which my hon. Friend alludes; but as most of the members of the present Executive Council which is inquiring into the matter are in no way inculpated by his statement, and as the Auditor General, who called attention to the alleged irregularities, is supported by the Governor in making the inquiry thorough and complete, there is not in the present stage of the affair any cause for further interference on the part of the authorities at home.