§ MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for India, in view of the fact that the estate of Penrose, Simla, was purchased from the Rana of Koti in 1879, will he explain why Mr. A. Meredith, Deputy Commissioner of Simla, made an order altering the boundary of the estate without giving the Rana the required notice; and, seeing that in 1903 a similar interference in the affairs of a Native State resulted in an order by Mr. Meredith being cancelled after an independent inquiry under the direction of Lord George Hamilton, will he again consider the expediency of ordering a similar 381 independent inquiry in regard to the Penrose estate case.
(Answered by Mr. Buchanan.) No objection, so far as the Secretary of State is aware, was raised by the Rana of Koti at the time of the Deputy Commissioner's order of 1900, but it is still open to the Rana to make any representations he may think fit to the Government of India. The Secretary of State will not be in a position to consider any such representations till they are brought before him in the form of a memorial in accordance with the rules. It is the fact that in 1903, in a case which was hardly similar to the present one, further inquiry was ordered by the Secretary of State in Council on the consideration of a memorial. But, as stated in my reply of the 23rd instant, the Secretary of State in Council saw no reason, on consideration of the memorial submitted to him in the present case, to interfere with the orders passed.