Directors to appoint a Secret Committee, who shall take Oath.XXXV. And be it enacted, That the said Court of Directors shall from Time to Time appoint a Secret Committee, to consist of any Number not exceeding Three of the said Directors, for the particular Purposes in this Act specified; which said Directors so appointed shall, before they or any of them shall act in the Execution of the Powers and Trusts hereby reposed in them, take an Oath of the Tenor following; ( that is to say,)
‘I (A. B.) do swear, That I will, according to the best of my Skill and Judgment, faithfully execute the several Trusts and Powers reposed in me as a Member of the Secret Committee appointed by the Court of Directors of the India Company; I will not disclose or make known any of the secret Orders, Instructions, Dispatches, Official Letters or Communications which shall be sent or given to me by the Commissioners for the Affairs of India, save only to the other Members of the said Secret Committee, or to the Person or Persons who shall be duly nominated and employed in transcribing or preparing the same respectively, unless I shall be authorized by the said Commissioners to disclose and make known the same.
Which said Oath shall and may be administered by the several and respective Members of the said Secret Committee to each other; and, being so by them taken and subscribed, shall be recorded by the Secretary or Deputy Secretary of the said Court of Directors for the Time being amongst the Acts of the said Court.
If the Board are of opinion that any Matters require Secrecy, they may send Official Communications through Secret Committee.XXXVI. Provided also, and be it enacted, That if the said Board shall be of opinion that the Subject Matter of any of their Deliberations concerning the levying War or making Peace, or treating or negotiating with any of the Native Princes or States in India, or with any other Princes or States, or touching the Policy to be observed with respect to such Princes or States, intended to be communicated in Orders Dispatches, Official Letters or Communications, to any of the Governments or Presidencies in India, or to any Officers or Servants of the said Company, shall be of a Nature to require Secrecy, it shall and may be lawful for the said Board to send their Orders, Dispatches, Official Letters or Communications, to the Secret Committee of the said Court of Directors to be appointed as is by this Act directed, who shall thereupon, without disclosing the same, transmit the same according to the Tenor thereof, or pursuant to the Directions of the said Board, to the respective Governments and Presidencies, Officers and Servants; and that the said Governments and Presidencies, Officers and Servants, shall be bound to pay a faithful Obedience thereto, in like Manner as if such Orders, Dispatches, Official Letters or Communications had been sent to them by the said Court of Directors.
The Court to submit to the Board an Estimate of Salaries of Directors and other Expences.XXXVII. And be it enacted, That the said Court of Directors shall, before the Twenty-second Day of April One thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, and afterwards from Time to Time so often as Reductions of the Establishment of the said Court or other Circumstances may require, frame and submit to the said Board an Estimate of the gross Sum which will be annually required for the Salaries of the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, and