§ Mr. REESasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether, seeing that prior to British rule no mortality statistics were kept in India, that deaths attributable to famine and diseases resulting from famine have progressively declined during periodic failures of crops in the period for which statistics are available under British rule, and that the Mogul emperors collected from the territories under their sway a larger land revenue than the British Government obtains from its immensely larger empire, the Government can give any information regarding the mortality from famine in ante-British days for purposes of comparison?
The MASTER of ELIBANKSuch information as exists is necessarily of a general kind, but it points to the conclusion that the mortality from famine in former times was much in excess of anything that is now conceivable under British administration.