§ Considered in Committee.
§ (In the Committee.)
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That it is expedient to authorise the 271 creation of Annuities to be charged on and payable out of the Revenues of India in lieu of the sum of money amounting to £34,859,217 17s. 6d. agreed upon for the purchase by the Secretary of State in Council of India of the undertaking of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company, and the payment of any costs and expenses incurred by the said Secretary of State under any Act of the present Session for vesting the said undertaking in the said Secretary of State in Council of India; and also any costs, charges, and expenses of obtaining and passing the said Act not provided by the surplus profits arising from the said undertaking for the half year ending the 30th day of June, 1900."—(MR. Caldwell.)
MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)I should like an explanation of this. It is the first time we have seen or heard anything of it, and we have no explanation of it. A doubt arises in my mind whether there is not a shifting of liability with regard to this matter on to the funds of the United Kingdom.
§ No one rising to reply,
MR. GIBSON BOWLESsaid: I move to report Progress. It is impossible to proceed without some explanation.
§ Whereupon Motion made, and Question, "That the Chairman do report Progress; and ask leave to sit again "— (Mr. Gibson Bowles)—put, and agreed to.
§ Committee report Progress; to sit again To-morrow.