§ SIR EDWARD SASSOONI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, in view of the capacity of India's grain productiveness and the labour awaiting industrial employment there, he contemplates the inclusion of India's commercial and fiscal relations with the United Kingdom and the rest of the Empire in the scheme of inquiry now being undertaken by His Majesty's Government.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOUROf course it will be impossible to exclude India, and it never has been excluded, from any consideration of the fiscal policy of this country and its effects. My hon. friend, I think, will feel that the general policy is not likely to be departed from by the Government.
MR. HERBERT ROBERTSI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Government of India will be consulted as to the effects upon Indian trade of any change which may be suggested.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURIf any change in this country affects India, India will be consulted upon it. As the hon. Gentleman is aware, there is a Secretary of State for India who is always a member of the Cabinet, and it is quite impossible that the Cabinet should do anything in which the Indian Government were concerned as to which that Government would not be fully informed.