Mr. Deputy-Speaker, I think the House will allow me in the remarks that I wish to make, to refer to a communication that I had received, namely, the decision arrived at by the Transvaal Government in respect to the question of Asiatics.  Everybody in the House is aware of the enormous interest, even passionate interest, that has been taken in this subject, especially in India, and for very good reasons.  Without further preface let me say, this is the statement received by Lord Elgin from the Government of the Transvaal last night:—­“Gandhi and other leaders of the Indian and Chinese communities have offered voluntary registration in a body within three months, provided signatures only are taken of educated, propertied, or well-known Asiatics, and finger-prints of the others, and that no question against which Asiatics have religious objections be pressed.  The Transvaal Government have accepted this offer, and undertaken, pending registration, not to enforce the penalties under the Act against all those who register.  The sentences of all Asiatics in prison will be remitted to-morrow.”  Lord Selborne adds, “This course was agreed to by both political parties.”  I am sure that everybody in the House will think that very welcome news.  I do not like to let the matter drop without saying a word—­I am sure Lord Elgin would like me to say it—­in recognition of the good spirit shown by the Transvaal Government.

In reference to the Amendment now before the House, I have listened to the debate with keen, lively, and close interest.  I am not one of those who have usually complained of these grave topics being raised, when fair opportunity offered in this House.  On the whole, looking back over my Parliamentary lifetime, which is now pretty long, I think there has been too little Indian discussion.  Before I came here there were powerful minds like Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Bradlaugh and others, who constantly raised Indian questions in a truly serious and practical way, though I do not at all commit myself to the various points of view that were then adopted.  But, of course, this is a vote of confidence.  I am not going to ask members to vote for the Government on that ground.  But I must submit that His Majesty’s present Government in the Indian department has the confidence both of the House and of the country.  I believe we have.  An important suggestion was made by my hon. friend now sitting below the gangway, that a Parliamentary Committee should sit—­I presume a joint committee of the two Houses—­and my hon. friend who spoke last, said that the fact of the existence of that committee would bring Parliament into closer contact with the mind of India.  Well, ever since I have been at the India Office I have rather inclined in the direction of one of the old Parliamentary Committees.  I will not argue the question now.  I can only assure my hon. friend that the question has been considered by me, and I see what its advantages might be, yet I also perceive