§ SIR H. COTTONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to Clause 55 of the Act of 1858, an Act which transferred the government of India from the East India Company to the Crown, which enacts that, except for preventing or repelling invasion of His Majesty's Indian 333 possessions or under other sudden and urgent necessity, the revenues of India shall not, without the consent of both Houses of Parliament, be applicable to defray the expenses of any military operation carried on beyond the external frontier of such possession by His Majesty's forces charged upon such revenues; whether he is aware that this clause was drafted by the late Mr. Gladstone in order to provide that the Indian Army should not be employed beyond the frontiers of India without the permission of Parliament; and whether provisions of this clause are applicable to the present expedition against the Zakka Khel which was sanctioned by His Majesty's Government without the consent of Parliament.
§ MR. MORLEYClause 55 of the Act of 1858 does not apply to the punitive expedition against the Zakka Khel, whose territory lies within the external frontiers of His Majesty's Indian possessions.