§ SIR ROPER LETHBRIDGEI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether sanction has been ac- 1480 corded by the Secretary of State to the concession of a monopoly in the working of the forests of Upper Burma to the Bombay-Burma Trading Corporation; and whether the Correspondence on this subject, with the text of the contracts or agreements between the Government of India and the Bombay-Burma Trading Corporation, will be laid upon the Table of the House?
SIR J. GORSTThe Bombay-Burma Trading Corporation were in possession of a monopoly, granted by the late King, at the time of the conquest of Burma. An agreement on the basis of the rights then possessed by the Corporation was made a year ago between the Corporation and the Secretary of State in Council. Papers on the subject, if moved for, will be laid on the Table.