§ MR. ECROYDasked the Secretary of State for India, If it is true, as stated in the "Times" telegraphic intelligence, that a large quantity of petroleum, illegally landed some time ago on the banks of the Hooghly, and afterwards, by official direction to the Commissioner of Police, ordered to be trans-shipped within seventy-two hours, still remains, to the serious danger both of the shipping in the river and houses in the neighbourhood; and, whether the order for its trans-shipment has been suspended or withdrawn; and, if so, if he will state why?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON,in reply, said, he was not aware whether the order for re-shipment of the petroleum had been suspended, or whether it had been withdrawn. He had ordered a telegram to be sent, asking that the order for re-shipment should be postponed until Professor Abel's Report had been received. He was inclined to think it had not been complied with, because the petroleum had been re-shipped. He would lay upon the Table of the House the telegraphic Correspondence, and also the despatches sent to the Government of India, which would place the House in possession of the facts so far as the Government knew them.