§ MR. HART-DAVIES (Hackney, N.)To ask the Secretary of State for India whether the Chief of Aundh, now under trial on charges preferred against him by the political agent, before a Commission composed of ten European members of the Civil Service, has appealed to the Government to appoint another ruling chief on the Commission in the place of the Chief of Bhor, who has resigned; and, if so, what answer has been returned to his appeal; and whether he will take steps to secure that some Indian chief, or, at all events, some Indian gentleman of good position, should be added to the Commission should the accused desire it.
§ (Answered by Mr. Secretary Morley.) The Commission appointed to try the Chief of Aundh on a charge of instigating one Perga Manga to collect men and, with their aid, to commit a dacoity in the Kharbari's house and to murder him, consisted of two European members of the Indian Civil Service, Messrs. Logan and Kincaid and the Chief of Bhor. The Chief of Bhor having withdrawn from the Commission on the day before that fixed for the sittings to commence, the Bombay Government declined to entertain a request from the Chief of Aundh for the appointment of another chief, owing to the difficulty of finding an Indian of suitable rank willing to accept the invidious responsibility of sitting on a Commission of the kind, and to the grave inconvenience that would be caused by a postponement of the hearing at such short notice. The Commission completed its sittings on the 4th instant. I see no reason in the report which has been furnished me by telegraph for the Government of Bombay to interfere with their discretion in the matter. Aundh is a petty Satara Jaghirdar with an area of 447 square miles.