upkeep of open lines and the renewal of rolling-stock, without which
they are threatened with complete paralysis, whilst the Government of
India, confronted on the one hand with the categorical imperative of the
Esher Committee and the fantastic extravagance of the Army Department
since the Afghan war, and on the other with the appalling losses already
incurred in consequence of Whitehall's currency and exchange policy, has
never been in a worse position to give such assistance.
The keen searchlight of the war has been turned effectively on many weak
points in the government and administration of India besides railway
policy, and the Indian currency and exchange policy stands out now as
one of the most disturbing factors in the economic situation.
India played her part in the war, and played it well, but she was never
called upon to bear any crushing share in its financial burdens. The
Indian Legislature unanimously and spontaneously granted L100,000,000 in
1917 towards Imperial war expenditure, and another L140,000,000 of
Indian money went into the two Indian war loans and issues of Treasury
notes. But the increase in India's actual military expenditure during
the war was small, as the Imperial Exchequer continued to bear all the
extra cost of the Indian forces employed outside India, and the last
Indian war budget, 1918-19, showed an excess of only about L23,000,000
over the last pre-war budget, 1913-14--an increase easily met by
relatively small additional taxation. Moreover, the Indian export trade,
after a temporary set-back on the first outbreak of hostilities,
received a tremendous impetus from the pressing demand for Indian
produce at rapidly increasing prices, and the lucrative development of
many new as well as old industries and of natural resources too long
neglected. The balance of trade which before the war had generally been
slightly against India then shifted rapidly, and the scale turned
heavily in her favour till the end of the war. The total value of the
supplies of all sorts, foodstuffs, raw materials, and manufactured
products, sent out from India to other parts of the British Empire and
to Allied countries has been estimated at some L250,000,000.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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