§ MR. M'LAGAN (Linlithgow)asked the Under Secretary of State for India, If Sirdar Diler-ul-Mulk, who was attached to the Jubilee Deputation from the Government of H. H. the Nizam of Hyderabad, the same person who came to England to negotiate the conversion of the Nizam's State Railway with the present Company; did the said Sirdar Diler-ul-Mulk obtain £83,000 out of the sum subscribed for the said railway conversion, in addition to £10,000 given to him for incidental expenses, for performing the duty he came officially to England to execute; were the India Office Authorities aware of the fact that he had been promised this sum by the late Prime Minister of Hyderabad; or is it true that, though in constant official communication with the authorities as to this conversion scheme, he never disclosed this fact to them, but led them to believe that he was to reap no pecuniary advantage for himself, and was only a disinterested negotiator, acting solely in the interest of the Government which had entrusted him with this duty; is it true, as stated in The Times of 122nd July, that there is a probability o£ this same Sirdar Diler-ul-Mulk being appointed one of the two Secretaries of State, who, with the Pre- 718 mier, are to form the Cabinet of the Nizam; and, has the Governor General of India the rights of vetoing the appointment of a Secretary of State of the Government of Hyderabad?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)The facts are substantially as stated in the first three paragraphs of the Question. Neither the Secretary of State nor the Government of India was aware of the arrangement between the Sirdar and the late Sir Salar Jung. A proposal of the nature indicated in the fourth paragraph was mooted by the Nizam; but the proposal did not commend itself to the Government of India, and does not appear to have been further pressed by His Highness. As regards the fifth paragraph, Hyderabad is an independent State. Our influence over it is of a quasi-diplomatic character, and cannot easily be defined.