MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether he will state what number of the 227,000 men and officers, now being voted as the established strength of the British Army for the year 1904–5, will be usually stationed in the Indian Empire; what is the estimated proportion that the Indian revenues will thus have to sustain of the whole cost of the British Army; whether the consent of the Government of India has been formally obtained to the maintenance in that country of such troops and to the charge on the Indian revenues consequent thereon during the coming financial year; and whether the despatch
§The German Estimates make no provision for pensions, which are included in a separate Budget and amount to about £5,000,000 a year.Exclusive of cost of Colonial troops serving abroad.827 recording that consent by the Governor-General in Council, together with any dissents, will be placed before Parliament.(Answered by Mr. Secretary Arnold-Forster.) The numbers quoted do not include troops who would usually be stationed in the Indian Empire, and whose cost falls upon Indian revenues, with the exception of those Native regiments now serving in Somaliland and North China, whose cost is borne by Imperial funds.