§ MR. S. SMITH (Flintshire)asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether his attention has been directed to a statement made by the Rev. Alfred S. Dyer, dated Bombay, 30th March, 1888, wherein he states that—
A medical officer, in a private communication, says that respectable girls are forced into lives of prostitution. The poorer class of natives are in great awe of persons in authority. Officials go out into the villages, and say it is the order of the Government that so many girls should go and be registered as prostitutes. The poor people are afraid to refuse or resist, their daughters are delivered up, and thus virtuous girls are consigned to lives of infamy;and, whether the Government will inquire whether any such practices exist?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)Any person guilty of the offences described in the Question would, under the Indian Penal Code, be liable to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine. If evidence of the Commission of such offence were laid before the Public Prosecutor at Bombay, it would be his duty to institute proceedings; but an anonymous statement that Government officials are in the habit of committing such an offence does not afford any basis upon which an inquiry could be directed.