§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI bog to ask the Secretary of State for India what was the total amount subscribed by the princes and merchants of India to the Imperial Institute; what is the annual interest on those sums; what are the annual sums that have been paid out of Indian taxation towards its maintenance: whether the donors of these sums and the Government of India were consulted before the purposes for which the Imperial Institute was built were changed; and whether the sums subscribed by Indian donors and paid by the Indian Government will now be refunded with arrears of interest.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord G. HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingThe Indian subscriptions to the general fund for building and endowing the Imperial Institute amounted to £114,528. They were not earmarked for separate use, but were paid into the general fund, aggregating £426,000, from which the Institute was built and endowed; and it is not possible now to say what portion of the endowment of £140,000 represents Indian subscriptions. The total of the annual grants for its maintenance from Indian revenues over a period of eleven years amounted to £16,911 up to 31st March, 1902. As the Act for the transfer of the Institute to the Board of Trade fully provides for the carrying on of the work which these subscriptions and grants were intended to promote, there was no reason for consulting the subscribers or the Government of India, or for refunding the subscriptions. The Government of India has, however, been kept informed as to the progress of the transfer.