[Confidential.]
Το
SIR,
No. 89 of 1894.
Military Department.
THE RIGHT HON'BLE H. H. FOWLER,
HER MAJESTY'S SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA.
Simla, the 5th June 1894.
WE regret to have to bring to the notice of Her Majesty's Govern. ment that an illicit trade in arms and ammunition has been carried on by sepoys returning to India from Hong-Kong. We fear that this trade is not con- fined to men of the corps in Hong-Kong, but that sepoys of other Colonial Corps and Police recruited in India have engaged in it.
2. We are taking the necessary measures to put a stop to the traffic, in which it appears, as will be seen from the paper enclosed, that the sepoys have in some cases been aided by the possession of passes obtained from their Com- manding Officers under the provisions of paragraphs 1527, 1528 and 1529, Army Regulations, India, Volume II. We would observe that these regulations are applicable only to the Native Army of India; and that Officers Commanding Colonial Corps composed of natives of India have no power to grant passes for arms to their men when returning to this country on furlough.
3. We request, therefore, that the Secretary of State for the Colonies may be moved to inform all Colonial Governments possessing corps or bodies
* Vide Finance and Commerce Department Circu- lar No. 101-S., dated 27th March 1894.
customs authorities in this country,
of Police recruited in India that such passes will not be recognized by the and to request them to take such steps as
may be necessary to prevent the illicit export of arms and ammunition from the Colonies to India. The matter is one to which we attach importance, as there
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