§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether the expenses of the 22,000 troops withdrawn from the Indian establishment to servo in China will fall on the Imperial or on the Indian Exchequer; and whether provision will be made, having regard that no fewer than 90,000,000 persons in India are affected by the famine now devastating that dependency of the Crown, that the maintenance of the regiments, native or otherwise, now serving out of India be not charged directly or indirectly on the Indian revenue.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord G. HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingI have on several occasions stated that all the cost, both ordinary and extraordinary, of any Indian troops sent to China would be paid by the the Imperial Exchequer. The number so sent is not 22,000, but less than half that number.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLDo I understand that the actual ordinary expenses of the regiment will be paid not by the Indian, but by the Imperial Exchequer? We have had this point raised before, and I want an explicit answer.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONI have answered.