§ EARL STANHOPEasked the noble Lord the Under Secretary of State for India, If he will state upon whose authority "the entire cost of the occupation of Candahar and the adjacent territory" was estimated by him at not less than £1,400,000 per annum; whether that sum includes the ordinary cost of maintenance of troops within the old Frontier; and, whether he can give, in a general way, the details of the estimate?
VISCOUNT ENFIELDI am not able at present to give my noble Friend "the authority" which he asks for; but, as the Secretary of State for India stated yesterday in "another place," some details bearing on the Estimate to which reference has been made will be contained in the Papers which he proposes to lay upon the Table. I stated the other evening that I believed, speaking upon what I thought to be reliable data, that the annual cost of occupying the City of Candahar and the posts on the line of communication with our own Frontier had been estimated by competent authority in England at £ 1,400,000. My noble Friend the Secretary of State has said that this Estimate has been made on the basis of a smaller force than that which is now stationed at Candahar and on the line of communication. The cost of the present force, calculated at the ordinary Indian rate in time of peace, is rather over £960,000 a-year. Taking into account the additional charges, military and political, incident to service beyond the Frontier, it is considered that the whole expenditure would not be far short of double the ordinary Indian cost of a similar force, which would bring the amount to nearly £2,000,000. This rough Estimate is an Estimate of the force required for the occupation of Candahar and its communications. In Lord Hartington's opinion this would be a simple addition to the 876 ordinary military expenditure of India, which, he thinks, would rather have to be increased than diminished in consequence of this measure.