§ SIR SEYMOUR KING (Hull, Central)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether an Official Report on the cost of the India Office Establishment was compiled in or about 1885 by Colonel Conway Gordon; whether Colonel Conway Gordon made any proposals for reducing the Home Charges of the Indian Government; and whether the Secretary of State will cause the Report to be laid upon the Table?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. GEORGE RUSSELL,) North Beds.Major Conway Gordon compiled at Simla, in the year 1883, a work entitled; Notes on the Accounts of the Home Treasury of the Government of India from 1851–8 to 1883–4. It was intended to deal with the whole subject of the Home Charges, including those for the India Office Establishment; but as the work was never completed—as the subject of the 562 Home Charges has been very carefully considered since then by the Secretary of State in Council, in communication with the Government of India, as most of Colonel Conway Gordon's suggestions had been either anticipated, or have since been acted upon, or are now out of date, and as the incomplete work consists of three folio volumes, the Secretary of State does not consider that any advantage would be gained by laying it upon the Table.