§ MR. COLVILLE (Lanarkshire, N.E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he has any official information showing that there are areas of land in India suitable for the raising of food which are at present used for the production of the opium plant; and, if so, whether the Government will, having re- 908 gard to the famine in India, take steps to have this land recovered for the production of food.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONI do not think the hon. Member would appreciably increase the food supply of India, as the area occupied by opium is about 500,000 acres out of a total cultivatable area of 223,000,000 acres.