HC Deb 12 April 1888 vol 324 cc1047-8
MR. LABOUCHERE (Northampton)

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether the case of Mr. William Tayler, formerly Commissioner of Patna, has ever been investigated and decided by any Secretary of State for India; if so, whether he has any objection to stating the terms of, and reasons for, any such decision; whether it is the fact that the late Earl of Iddesleigh, then Sir Stafford Northcote, left the case partially investigated and undecided at the term of his Office as Secretary of State, and that his Successor at the India Office never proceeded with the investigation, but recorded his opinion against re-opening the case; and, whether any investigation of the case has ever been completed, or any decision made upon it?

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)

The case of Mr. W. Tayler was first investigated and decided by the then Secretary of State for India, the Earl of Derby (then Lord Stanley), in 1859. His decision was to confirm the action of the Government of India and the Court of Directors, for reasons fully set forth in a despatch, dated June 1, 1859, which has been presented to Parliament. The communications between Mr. Tayler and Sir Stafford Northcote in 1867 are not recorded in the India Office. It appears, from Mr. Taylor's Memorial to the Secretary of State of October 13, 1868, that what Mr. Taylor originally asked Sir Stafford Northcote for was "a public and suitable recognition of his services." It is the practice of the India Office that all applications for honours are dealt with by the Secretary of State personally. There is no ground for the supposition that the Duke of Argyll neglected to investigate the case, or recorded an adverse opinion without due inquiry into the merits. The case has been investigated and decided by every subsequent Secretary of State. The grounds of their decisions have been generally that no facts or arguments were adduced to render it right, in their judgment, to reverse the deci- sion of Lord Stanley in 1859, or those of their subsequent Predecessors in Office.