§ SIR SEYMOUR KING (Hull, Central)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for India, with reference to the agreement arrived at between the Secretary of State for India and the Secretary of State for War that an additional payment of £300,000 a year shall be made from 1st May, 1908, from the Indian revenues to cover the cost of the training of troops and other services connected with the maintenance of the British establishments in India, whether the Indian Government recently sent a despatch to the Secretary of State setting forth objections to that arrangement; whether he can state the nature of those objections; whether the Indian Government was consulted or previously apprised of the proposed terms of that agreement before it was concluded; and whether he will lay a copy of the despatch upon the Table.
(Answered by Mr. Buchanan.) A despatch has been received from the Government of India setting forth certain objections of a detailed and technical character which cannot well be summa- 1648 rised. As I informed the hon. Member, in answer to a Question on 19th October, the arrangement between the Secretary of State for India and the Secretary of State for War was arrived at on the basis of the recommendation of the Romer Committee, on which the Government of India were represented by Lieutenant-General Sir B. Duff, Chief of the Staff in India. I have already stated that the Secretary of State does not think it would be in the public interest to present Papers on the subject.