§ LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTONMy Lords, before the commencement of public business I would, with your Lordships' leave, ask the noble Viscount the Secretary of State for India, the Question which stands in my name on the Paper. It is as follows: To ask the Secretary of State for India, with reference to the publication in India of official Papers concerning the new Legislative Councils, when he will be in a position to comply with the provision in the Indian Councils Act of the present Session, "That all Regulations and Rules of Business made under the Act shall be laid before Parliament as soon as may be after they are made."
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (VISCOUNT MORLEY OF BLACKBURN)It is, I think, natural that the noble Lord should put this Question, because these Regulations will show really 730 what the Indian Councils Act means. They are very voluminous—between 300 and 400 pages. The House will understand, therefore, that it would have been impossible, or at least inexpedient, to send those 300 pages over by telegraph. The full distribution will leave Bombay on the 27th inst., arriving here about December 13, and they will be circulated at once. No time has been or will be lost.