§ MR. O'DONNELLasked the Secretary of State for India, Whether his attention has been called to the statement in the "Bombay Gazette" that the officials in the Bombay Presidency,
Taken as a body, are resisting Lord Ripon's scheme for associating the Natives in the work of Local Administration;and, whether, if this statement be true, he has received any information as to the grounds of such official opposition?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONSir, I have seen, in the newspaper called The Bombay Gazette, the statement referred to in the Question of the hon. Member, I have no reason to suppose 1726 that statement is correct—on the contrary, a telegram has been received stating that the Bombay Government have informed the Government of India that they would give a fair trial to the proposed experiment for self-government. Of course, there is some difference of opinion among Government officers as to the extent to which effect can at once be given to certain portions of the scheme of the Government of India; but there is no reason to suppose that the Bombay Government would obstruct the Government of India.
§ MR. E. STANHOPEasked whether Lord Ripon's scheme had been submitted to the Secretary of State for India in Council, and approved?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONsaid, that the Resolutions of the Government of India containing the principle on which they proposed that the scheme of local government in India should proceed had been sent home and approved. He proposed shortly to lay before Parliament Papers on this subject.