§ SIR SEYMOUR KING (Hull, Central)To ask the Secretary of State for India whether, since the latest dispatches relating to the case of the senior Cooper's Hills engineers presented last year, and the India Office despatch to the Government of India, P.W., 214, 9th June, 1901, any further communication on the subject has been received from the Government of India; and if so, whether he is prepared to lay a copy of it upon the Table.
(Answer.) Some correspondence on a point of procedure, connected with the subject of this Question, has passed between myself and the Government of India, since the despatches to which the hon. Member refers were presented; but this correspondence has no bearing on the merits of the case, and I do not propose to lay it on the Table.—(India Office.)
§ SIR SEYMOUR KINGTo ask the Secretary of State for India whether he is now prepared to lay upon the Table of the House the following despatches relating to the case of the senior Cooper's Hill engineers, viz. : Despatch from the Government of India, No. 15, Public Works, dated 28th January, 1890; also copy of Sir George Chesney's Minute, written in 1890, referred to in that despatch; and Government of India's Despatch, No. 10, dated 30th March, 1899, covering memorials from Mr. A. S. Russell and others.
(Answer.) I laid upon the Table last year Copies of a Correspondence containing the final decision of the Secretary of State in Council upon the subject to which my hon. friend's Question refers. These Papers contain a full statement of the case of the I engineers and the decision of the 1388 Government. There has been no subsequent correspondence which in any way relates to the merits of the case, and I do not propose to lay upon the Table any papers antecedent in date to those which have been already published.—(India Office.)