§ SIR WILLIAM WEDDERBURN, (Banffshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, whether he can now state what answer has been given by the Government of India to the memorial of Sir W. Hudson, President of the Behar Planters' Association, dated 28th January 1894, on the subject of the slaughter of kine in India; whether Mr. Arthur Rogers' scheme recommended in that memorial, for restoring friendly relations between the Mahomedans and Hindus, has been considered by the Government of India and reported on as requested by the Secretary of State in his despatch of 3lst May last; whether the Viceroy in Council has approved of Mr. Rogers' scheme, and that it has been partially introduced by two Local Governments; whether he is aware that Mr. Rogers has been dismissed from his appointment as an engineer on the Bengal and North 1094 Western Railway; and, whether he will explain the reasons for Mr. Rogers' dismissal, and will lay upon the Table of the House a memorial from Mr. Rogers in which he sets forth the facts of his case and prays for inquiry and redress?
§ *MR. H. H. FOWLERA question similar to that of my hon. Friend was put in the Legislative Council of the Viceroy on the 25th January last. Sir Antony MacDonnell, the Member of Council in charge of the Home Department, stated in reply that Mr. Rogers' scheme, though not brought before the Government in the regular way, had been brought under their notice un-officially; that the Government of India had made no use of Mr. Rogers' remedy, and that it appeared to them to contain no proposals of a practical character which the Government of India had not adopted independently of it. I believe that Mr. Rogers was for about four years in the service of the Bengal North Western Railway Company as an Assistant Engineer and that his services have been dispensed with by that Company. In consequence of an allegation by Mr. Rogers that he had been dismissed from the service of the Railway Company through pressure alleged to have been exercised upon them by the Governments of Bengal and the North West Provinces and Oudh, I am informed by the Government of India that, so far as they are aware, the Board of the Bengal and North Western Railway Company has dispensed with Mr. Rogers' services for its own reasons, and that
no pressure was brought upon it either by the Government of Bengal, or that of the North Western Provinces and Oudh or by the Government of India in the matter".I observe that Sir Antony MacDonnell made a statement in the Legislative Council to the same effect.