§ MR. BROADHURST (Nottingham, W.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether Her Majesty's Government will instruct the Government of India, in framing the amended India Factory Act, to accord the same protection to the working classes of India that has been granted by the English Factory and Workshop Act to the working classes of this country?
§ *SIR J. FERGUSSON (for Sir J. GORST)I must refer the hon. Member to the statement made on this subject by the First Lord of the Treasury on the 17th of February, to which the Secretary of State has nothing to add.
§ MR. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne)As the Under Secretary for India is not in his place at this moment, perhaps the right hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs will be able to say what remissions, if any, were made by the Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Province of Oudh to the State tenants in 1887–8, when the average price of food was more than one-third higher than the average of the six preceding years; and whether he can state how far there is any connection between the high prices ruling in 1887–8 and the fact that the recorded death rate in India in that year was the highest known?
§ *SIR J. FERGUSSONI am afraid that I cannot reply to these questions without notice. As the hon. Member knows, I am not answerable for Indian questions.