§ * MR. HENRY J. WILSON (York, W.R., Holmfirth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that the Abkari Department Bombay has granted a licence for a new liquor shop in Sleater Road (a part of Bombay where there had not previously been any such shop), notwithstanding that an influentially-signed protest had been forwarded from residents in that 814 neighbourhood; whether granting a licence under such circumstances is at variance with the declared policy of the Indian Government as expressed in the Dispatches of the Secretary of State, No. 28, of 19th April, 1888, and No. 31, of 14th March, 1889, and of the Government of India, No. 157, of 25th May, 1889, and No. 29, of 4th February, 1890; whether the police interested themselves in discouraging opposition on the part of the inhabitants; whether the licensee had rendered useful service to the police during the Bombay riots; and whether facilitating the grant of this license was in the nature of a reward for such services?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingI have no official information as to the matters to which the hon. Member alludes; but it is the practice of the Department before new shops are opened to ascertain the wishes of the local residents.