§ MR. MACDONALDasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If Her Majesty's Government have had any further communication from the Government of the United States as to frauds which are alleged to have been perpetrated on Dr. Hind, and which have been under the notice of the American Congress several times of late; if he could, without injury to the public welfare, prepare and lay upon the Table of the House a brief and clear statement of what these charges really were or alleged to have been; and, if there be any Papers that can furnish the information, will he lay them upon the Table?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKESir, Her Majesty's Government have not received any communication from the Government of the United States on this subject. No frauds are alleged to have been perpetrated on Dr. Hind. He was employed to make an index of certain papers for the Halifax Fishery Commission, and he has since stated that certain statistics presented to that 1235 Commission were inaccurate, and has charged those who prepared them with fraud. All the Correspondence that has passed between the Foreign Office and Dr. Hind has been forwarded to the Government of the Dominion of Canada, by whom these statistics were furnished, and he has been requested to address any further representations he may have to make to that Government. I have already informed the House that Dr. Hind's allegations are unworthy of serious attention. Her Majesty's Government consider that no good purpose would be served by giving currency and importance to charges of fraud which are groundless and incredible.