SIR MANCHERJEE BHOWNAG-GREE (Bethnal Green, N.E.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies if the order of the Town Council of East London requiring British-Indian traders to vacate the town in fourteen days, regarding which he has called for an inquiry and report from the local authorities, will not be enforced until he has considered and given his decision on the report, and to state if definite instructions are sent out to hold the order in abeyance till then; and if he will lay the Papers on the subject upon the Table of the House.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton.) I am not in a position to give instructions in regard to a law in a self-governing colony under which powers have been conferred on a local authority. I am not able to lay Papers at present; the Governor has sent me a despatch on the subject which is on its way.