§ MR. LABOUCHERE (Northampton)asked the Under Secretary of State for India, If he can state why the Bombay Government has refused to sanction the payment of the money voted by the Directors of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company to be paid to Messrs. Dewey and Bedford, both Eurasians—namely, Rs. 8,000 and 6,000 respectively, as compensation for expenses incurred in defending accusations brought by the Railway Frauds Commission in 1877 and 1878, in which both were honourably acquitted and reinstated in their situations?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JOHN GORST) (Chatham)I am informed that the reason why the Government of Bombay, 10 years ago, withheld its sanction to the payments in question from funds under the control of the State was the conduct of Messrs. Dewey and Bedford in failing to repress malpractices of which they ought to have been cognizant; and the other circumstances of the case fully justified their prosecution in India by the agent of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company.