HC Deb 14 November 1911 vol 31 cc178-80
Mr. WATT

asked whether the Abors were ever asked, or given an opportunity by the Indian Government, to make reparation for the murder of Mr. Williamson; and will he say what is the nature of the reparation now to be exacted from that tribe?

Mr. MONTAGU

This question merely repeats with slight verbal alterations questions put to me during the last few weeks by my hon. Friend the Member for Salford and others. I would refer my hon. Friend to the answers given to them. I have nothing further to add.

Mr. SWIFT MacNEILL

Did not these Abors apply to be allowed to make reparation?

Mr. MONTAGU

If the hon. Gentleman will refer to the answers I gave the hon. Member for Salford on 31st October and 7th November, he will find that questioned answered.

Mr. SWIFT MacNEILL

Will the hon. Member refresh our memory?

Mr. SPEAKER

We cannot take up time refreshing the hon. Member's memory.

Mr. POINTER

asked whether he will inform the House what instructions have been given to the commander-in-chief of the expedition against the Abors; and whether they sanction the destruction of any life or property beyond those of such Abors as may be proved to have taken part in the murder of Mr. Williamson?

Mr. MONTAGU

It is not proposed at present to lay on the Table the instructions that have been given to the general officer commanding the Abor expedition. As regards the second part of the question, I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to question No. 20.

Mr. POINTER

Can the hon. Gentleman state whether the report in "The Times" of Saturday that some of the headsmen have been proclaiming their innocence in the matter is true, and whether there is any intention of arriving at a peaceful solution?

Mr. MONTAGU

The officer commanding the 8th Division is in telegraphic communication with the Government of India, and will seek their advice as incidents arise during the course of the campaign. A Blue Book upon the whole subject will be presented to Parliament in the course of a few days.

Sir WILLIAM BYLES

asked whether in the new edition of the "Imperial Gazetteer of India," published under the authority of the Secretary of State in Council, the maps of India show that the country of the Abors and the country of the Mishmis are both outside the external frontier of British India; and whether he can say when and under what circumstances the territories of these tribes came to be included in British India, what jurisdiction is exercised there, and what laws are now applied there for the government of India?

Mr. SWIFT MacNEILL

asked when or under what circumstances the Abor country has become part of British India, a fact which renders the cost of the present punitive expedition against the Abors to be payable out of Indian revenues; whether the Secretary of State is aware that a map published in 1888, and prepared by Mr. Trelawney Saunders, when geographical assistant at the India Office, with the authority of Sir Lewis Mallet as Under-Secretary of State, shows that the Abor country was then an independent country; and whether an explanation will be given of the fact that the Abor country, which was outside the external frontiers of the British Possessions in 1888, is now within those frontiers?

Mr. MONTAGU

The maps in the "Imperial Gazetteer" do not purport to show with scientific exactness the frontier between India and Tibet, which has never been demarcated. But the Country inhabited by the Abors has not been, and is not, regarded as lying beyond it for the purposes of Section 55 of the Government of India Act, which has never been held to apply to operations with frontier tribes, and not with an organised Power lying beyond such frontier. I have no knowledge of a map published in 1888 under the authority of Sir Lewis Mallet, who ceased to be Under-Secretary of State in 1883. But if the hon. Member is referring to maps published with the "Moral and Material Progress Report" in 1885, the Abors and other tribes are correctly described therein, not as an "independent country" but as "independent," in the sense, that is to say, that the Government of India has not taken them under direct administration.

Mr. SWIFT MacNEILL

The hon. Gentleman is aware that under this Section 55 of this Act of 1858 the Government of India provides for expeditions outside the external frontier to be charged upon British rather than Indian revenue?

Mr. SPEAKER

The hon. Gentleman is giving information.

Mr. MacNEILL

One word more!

Mr. SPEAKER

The hon. Member must put down a question of such importance as that.