§ MR. FIELD (Dublin, St. Patrick)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he can fix the date for the introduction of the Indian Budget, and whether the Report of the Famine Commission will be printed and distributed previously to the discussion of the Budget.
§ *LORD G. HAMILTONThe Budget will be taken on the day fixed for the Committee stage of the Appropriation Bill. The Report of the Famine Commission has, within the last few days, been received officially from India, together with the comments of the Indian Government and a statement of the action which they propose to take upon it. I cannot undertake to present these Papers to Parliament until I have had time to consider them in council, and as the questions raised are complex and most important, I shall not be able to come to a conclusion upon them for some little time.