SIR SEYMOUR KINGTo ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether, as the result of the consideration by the Committee which sat, under the presidency of Sir Robert Romer, on the question of the future apportionment between the Home and Indian Governments of the charges incurred in the United Kingdom in connection with the maintenance of the British Army in India, the Secretary of State has approved of the present payment by India to the War Office being increased by £300,000 a year from the 1st May, 1908; what direct representation of the interests of India, other than that afforded from the India Office, was furnished on the personnel of the Committee or examined as witnesses before it; and whether the Secretary of State will present the Report and Evidence of the Committee to Parliament, or, failing that, will agree to furnish a summary of the Report and Evidence to Parliament.
(Answered by Mr. Buchanan.) The recommendations of the Committee over which Sir Robert Romer presided dealt with questions of principle. On the basis of these recommendations the Secretary of State for India and the Secretary of State for War have arrived at an agreement that an additional payment of £300,000 a year shall be made, from 1st May, 1908, to cover the cost of the training of troops and other services connected with the maintenance of the British establishment in India. The representatives of India on the Committee were Sir John Edge, K.C., until recently a member of the Council of India, and Lieutenant-General Sir Beauchamp Duff, K.C.B., Chief of the Staff in India. The Committee did not examine witnesses. The Secretary of State does not propose to present the Report to Parliament.