§ MR. SAMUEL SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether the India Office has received a copy of the letter from the Amir of Afghanistan of the 4th December 1895, referred to in paragraph 4 of the Dispatch from the Government of India to the Secretary of State dated Simla, 22nd April 1896; whether he has received the information asked for in his Dispatch of 17th April respecting military operations and the fate of the tribes in Kafiristan; and, whether he will lay all the correspondence referring to Kafiristan on the Table of the House before the rising of Parliament.
§ * THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingA copy of the Amir's letter referred to has been received at the India Office, but it relates to other matters besides that referred to in the passage quoted, and it would not be in the public interest to lay it on the Table. My Dispatch of the 17th April was crossed by the letter from the Government of India of the 22nd idem. No subsequent reply has been received from the Government of India. There is no further correspondence relating to Kafiristan which I can lay on the Table.