§ Mr. KEIR HARDIEasked the Undersecretary of State for India whether it was due to want of confidence on the part of the Government of India that His Highness the present Maharaja of Nabha, then the Tikka Sahib of Nabha, was not reap-pointed to the Viceroy's Legislative Council to take charge of the concluding stages of the Anand Sikh Marriage Bill, which he introduced during his term of membership and was subsequently carried into law?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe Secretary of State is satisfied that there was no want of confidence on the part of the Government of India in the Tikka Sahib, who has recently been installed in Nabha as the successor of His Highness the late Maharaja. Any impression to the contrary is mistaken. The facts are as follows: "The Anand Marriage Bill was prepared, and introduced in the Viceroy's Legislative Council by the Tikka Sahib of Nabha, as he then was, on the 31st October, 1908, and lay upon the Table of the Council for some months. Meanwhile the Tikka Sahib's term of office, as an additional member of the council, had expired, and, in order to carry the Bill into law, the Government of India appointed Sirdar Sundar Singh Magithia as an additional member of the council. Thus the Tikka Sahib, the real author of the measure, to whom is due the entire credit for its inception and introduction, and, therefore, indirectly for its being finally passed into law, was unfortunately unable to superintend the final stages of the measure. Lord Minto has expressed to the Tikka Sahib his regret for any misunderstanding that may have arisen out1720W of the circumstances in which he was prevented from seeing his Bill carried through all its stages, and that feeling is shared by the Secretary of State for India.