§ MR. EDMUND ROBERTSON (Dundee)On behalf of my colleague the Member for Dundee, I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to a line of railway which has been surveyed through the territory of the Rao of Cutch which would link up Gujirat, Cathiawar, Cutch, and Scinde by a system of railways, facilitating communication in the presidency, developing local industry in the coal and metal mines, and diminishing the risks of famine, besides having strategical advantages; and seeing that memorials in favour of this line have been addressed to the Viceroy and Government of India on behalf of the population, and from the Cutchi residents in Bombay, praying for the construction of this line as part of the Bombay-Scinde Railway scheme, can he state why the line has been placed so low down as 17th on the list of new lines to be undertaken when funds can be found; whether the opposition of the Rao of Cutch has had any influence in the matter, and whether there is a prospect of the construction of the line being expedited.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONThe importance of establishing a more direct railway communication between Bombay and Scinde than that which at present exists is fully admitted; but there are railway projects of greater urgency awaiting execution, and I am not prepared to set them aside in favour of the scheme referred to, which only promises a return of 2 per cent. upon the cost of its construction. The views of the Rao of Cutch have received due consideration, but the reason why the line is low down in the list is what I have stated.