MR. HERBERT ROBERTSI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he will state the nature of the modifications proposed by the Select Committee of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General in the Official 553 Secrets Amendment Bill; and whether he can now give the House an assurance that the Bill will be confined to naval and military matters, and that the modifications referred to will provide for the retention in the Bill of those clauses in the original Act of 1889 which define the conditions under which a prosecution can be instituted and which place the onus of proving guilty intention upon the prosecution.
§ Mr. BRODRICKI have not received the Report of the Select Committee on the Bill, and do not know whether they have reported or what modifications they have proposed in it.