§ MR. BRADLAUGHI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the telegram of the Governor of India, of the 19th June, 1886, to the late Maharaja Scindia, was in reply to the dying request of His Highness, that his son should not be placed for instruction under a European tutor; and whether the Secretary of State will lay upon the Table the complete text of the letter of the late Maharaja referred to in the previous answer of the Under Secretary, and of any reply thereto?
*SIR J. GORSTThe character of the request of the late Maharaja Scindia is not correctly described in the question; but it was undoubtedly his wish in June, 1886, that his son, then under 10 years of age, should be under native and not European tutors. This wish was for three years complied with, and the young Maharaja was left during that time under the charge of native tutors only. He is now 13½ years of age; and in the judgment of the Government of India his own interests and those of his people require that, while neither his religion nor caste will be in any way interfered with, he shall be under the charge of a British officer. The Secretary of State does not think it in the interest of the Public Service to lay on the Table either the letter or the reply.