HC Deb 24 March 1904 vol 132 cc606-7
MR. SCHWANN

To ask the Secretary of State for India whether His Majesty's Government proposes to sanction the Act to amend the Indian Official Secrets Act of 1889, lately passed by the Government of India; or whether, in view of the opposition to the Act voiced by the Indian and Anglo-Indian Press, and by large and influential sections of ‡See (4) Debates, cxxvi, 55. the educated classes of India, he will advise His Majesty the King to withhold his approval to the Act.

(Answered by Mr. Secretary Brodrick.) I stated, in reply to a Question in this House on the 9th instant,† that the Official Secrets Act required no sanction from the Secretary of State for India, or, I might have added, from His Majesty's Government, and that it had already become law. I also stated that as soon as I should receive an authentic copy of the Act I would lay it upon the Table. This I propose to do; and in the meantime I can make no final statement with regard to it.