§ MR. C. E. SCHWANN (Manchester, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, whether in view of the opposition to the continuance of the Indian Cotton Duties expressed in Lancashire during the recent electoral contest, it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to suggest to the Government of India, or whether the Indian Government is itself prepared to abolish those duties, and to find alternative methods of taxation or economies in official salaries and expenditure generally to meet the deficit at present existing in the finances of our great Eastern dependency, and to meet the probable increased deficit which will arise when the outlay on the Chitral Expedition has to be paid for, and will be further increased by an annual charge for the maintenance of a military station in the Chitral district?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONThe hon. Member raises a series of controversial questions as to the Ways and Means of the Indian Government, to which it is impossible to reply adequately within the compass of an answer to a Parliamentary Question. If he will be good enough to raise them on the Indian Budget, I shall then be able to deal fully with them.