§ Mr. GINNELLasked the number of deaths of human beings from starvation in India in each of the last ten years and in the whole period?
§ Colonel SEELYThe information asked for by the hon. Member is not forthcoming from the mortality returns of British India, as they do not show "starvation" as a separate cause of death. In times of famine special efforts have been made to secure a correct record of all deaths attributable directly to want of food, but without much success. In the 1907–8 famine in the United Provinces not more than eleven deaths were thus recorded. Famine mortality is due to the consequences of insufficient food, not to entire want of it.