§ 66. Mr. LEACHasked the Under-Secretary of State for India how many, if any, educated Indians are being trained by the Government as cotton-growing experts in India?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for INDIA (Mr. Montagu)No Indians have been specially trained as cotton experts out of India. But the course of instruction followed in the agricultural colleges in India includes the study of cotton cultivation, as also the study of other Indian staples.
§ 67. Mr. LEACHasked the number of European experts in cotton growing now employed by the Government in India, and the salaries paid to each?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe duties of the officers composing the Indian Agricultural Service are not, save in one or two exceptional cases, differentiated in respect of particular crops. A cotton specialist, whose work is largely of a botanical kind, is attached to the central bureau. A Return, giving the numerical strength and the salaries of the members of the Indian Agricultural Service, will be sent to the hon. Member.
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe mills of the world are said to require from twenty to twenty-one million bales of 500 lbs., of which about four million bales may be looked for from India.
§ Mr. MONTAGUReckoned on the import, the percentage was twenty in 1910 and thirteen in 1911.
§ 71. Mr. LEACHasked what percentage of the cotton used in Austria, Italy, and Belgium, respectively, is grown in India?
§ Mr. MONTAGUReckoned on the import, the percentage was 32 in 1910 and 22 in 1911 in the case of Austria; in the case of Italy 35 in 1910 and 29 in 1911; in the case of Belgium 44 in 1910 and 33 in 1911. In the latter case the import figure includes any cotton that may afterwards be re-exported.
§ Mr. MONTAGUReckoned on the import, the percentage was 62 in 1910 and 58 in 1911.