§ MR. H. T. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN (Kent, Faversham)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether the Government of Bengal obtained the consent of the Behar Planters' Association to the Bill for the maintenance of the Record of Rights, and for recovering the costs of Cadastral Surveys, imposing on the land of Bengal heavy additional taxation, on the express pledge of the Government that the Patwari Regulation of 1817 should be abolished; whether the Secretary of State in a subsequent despatch encouraged the expectation of abolition; whether the Government of Bengal, at the last moment, when the Bill came from the Select Committee to be passed into law by the Legislative Council, admitted the promise, but stated 1615 that they had amply redeemed it by their endeavours to get the Regulation repealed, but stated that the Government of India had decided against repeal, and that, consequently, they had struck out the repealing Clause; whether the Maharajah of Durbhanga, as an elected member of the Council, thereon declared that this would be generally regarded as a breach of faith on the part of the Government; and, whether the Secretary of State will either veto the Bill, or instruct the Government of India to permit the Government of Bengal to fulfil their promise?
MR. GEORGE RUSSELLIt was stated by the Bengal Government that a part of their scheme was to repeal the Patwari Regulation; but the Secretary of State for India is not aware that an express pledge was given that it should be repealed. The Secretary of State, in July 1894, assented to the proposal for repeal. The Report of the Bengal Council proceedings of the 9th March, when the Bill was discussed and referred to a Select Committee, has not yet reached the Secretary of State; so he is unable to verify the quotations from speeches made at that debate. But, so far as he is aware, the Select Committee have not yet reported on the Bill. The Secretary of State is unable to say what action he will take until he receives the Act in its final shape, and the discussions of the Bengal Council thereon.