§ Sir JOHN ROLLESTONalso asked whether the profit on each rupee now current in East Africa and Uganda is appropriated by the Government of India on 1060W the ground that the Government of India agrees, to the limit of its ability, to convert these rupees into gold on demand at fifteen to the sovereign; and whether the sums of gold which constitute the Indian gold standard reserve, and which are the profit or seignorage on the coining of rupees, are the property of the British Treasury, and not of the Government of India, seeing that the Indian gold standard is the creation of this Parliament, and that Great Britain, and not India, guarantees, to the limit of her ability, the convertibility of the rupee into gold?
§ Mr. HAROLD BAKERThere was no profit on rupees coined before the introduction of the present Indian currency system in 1893. A profit has been realised on rupees coined since that year other than those coined from old rupees. The Government of India coined them in the ordinary course to meet its own requirements, and therefore transferred the profit automatically to its gold standard reserve. The gold standard reserve is not the property of the British Treasury, nor does Great Britain undertake any responsibility in connection with the rupee.