HC Deb 10 August 1916 vol 85 cc1354-5

Order for Second Reading read.

Sir J. D. REES

As I shall not be here when the Bill comes up for the Third Reading, I wish now to express my great satisfaction at the form in which this measure comes before the House without the Clause to which very strong exception was taken, and concerning which representations reached me from innumerable quarters in India, including chambers of commerce and other bodies of a highly influential character. When India was transferred to the Crown the rights of the subject to sue the Secretary of State were preserved, and they were saved by the Act then-passed. A Clause in this Bill, as it first of all came before the House, encroached upon the right of the subject in that respect. In Committee, Lord Islington, the Under-Secretary of State, and the hon. Member for Lincoln (Mr. Charles Roberts) met the objections raised to this Clause in the most conciliatory spirit, and finally, after it was fully discussed, they withdrew the Clause altogether. That result gives very great satisfaction to all those concerned with this Bill, and it is perhaps desirable that the earliest opportunity should be taken of expressing satisfaction which is so universally shared in India in all quarters. There was one other provision which, I am sure, will be acceptable to hon. Gentlemen opposite, and it is that which provides for extending to the subjects of the native States certain benefits which hitherto had been restricted to subjects of British India.

Happily, it is unnecessary to say anything on the present occasion as to the extent to which subjects of native States are or are not subjects of British India. I think the extension that is provided to native States will be very gratifying to the native princes and to the subjects who owe them immediate allegiance. The question of extra territorial jurisdiction was also satisfactorily dealt with, though I am not sure that the peculiar character of the case was altogether grasped by the Committee satisfactorily, as the general discussions were and wholly satisfactory as they were in their results.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill read a second time, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House for Monday next.—[Mr. James Hope.]