§ LORD CAIRNSasked the Secretary of State for India, When the final 833 accounts of the Banda and Kirwee Booty can be presented to Parliament; and, whether Her Majesty has been, or will be, advised to take the necessary steps for referring any of the claims of General Whitlock's prize agents to the judgment of the High Court of Admiralty, under the Act 3rd and 9th Vic., c. 65?
§ VISCOUNT HALIFAXsaid, that the noble Duke the Secretary of State for India had requested him to state, in reply to the noble and learned Lord's Question, that he was not able to answer the first Question, as the information had not been received from India which was necessary to enable him to do so, and that there was no intention on the part of the Government to open up the subject to which the noble and learned Lord's second inquiry referred.
THE EARL OF LONGFORDsaid, that the troops concerned in this booty were not satisfied with the mode in which their claims had been treated by the Government Departments; they asserted, and maintained the assertion, that they had not received the booty granted to them by the Crown, part of it having been withheld by the Ministers of the Crown; they maintained that their dispute ought to be referred for the decision of a judicial tribunal, and they were not satisfied that their claim should be overborne by the arbitrary action of the Government.