§ THE DUKE OF SOMERSETasked the noble Viscount the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether he can give the House any information of how it is that Papers of very great importance, and which have been promised by the Government to be laid on the Table of their Lordships' House, have been communicated to the "Standard," and appear in that journal yesterday morning?
VISCOUNT ENFIELDMy Lords, in reply to the Question of the noble Duke, I have to state that the Department of the India Office is not aware how the statement or the Papers which appeared in The Standard yesterday morning were communicated to that organ of public opinion. I may inform the noble Duke and your Lordships that with regard to these letters 103 copies were printed in the India Office, all of them being marked "Very confidential." Thirteen copies were sent to India, including two to the then Viceroy, Lord Lytton. Fifteen others were either used at the India Office, or sent to official persons in England; and the remainder, no further issue having taken place, were counted yesterday morning at the India Office, and were found to be correct. Therefore, I am unable to explain to the noble Duke how those Papers came to be communicated to The Standard newspaper.