§ SIR WILLIAM WEDDERBURNI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that in the year 1884 the Viceroy in Council submitted to the India Office a proposal for the establishment of an agricultural bank near Poona, as an effective means of relieving the heavily indebted ryots, which proposal received the hearty sup-part of both ryots and money-lenders; that the Bombay Government was willing to conduct the experiment; that the Manchester Chamber of Commerce memorialised the Secretary of State in its favour; but that the Secretary of State, after long delay, ultimately withheld his sanction; and whether he will state for what reasons and upon what expertadvice he refused to permit an experiment, unanimously recommended by the Government of India, as being advocated on purely disinterested grounds, and as likely to be of incalculable benefit to the whole country?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONI am aware of the discussions to which the Question draws attention. The reasons which induced the then Secretary of State to withhold sanction from the scheme to which the hon. Member refers are stated at length at pages 55–58 of the Papers presented to Parliament on the subject in 1887. When the Poona scheme was negatived 157 the Government of India were invited to bring forward a revised scheme that would not be open to the same objection. A valuable report on agricultural banks in different parts of the world, with suggestions for action in India, has recently been prepared by an officer of the Madras Government. I am in hopes that a practical scheme for making a beginning with such banks may before long be brought forward. The question how best to mitigate and prevent the indebtedness of the Indian peasantry is one of the most, important that the Governments in India could, in ordinary times, possibly consider.