§ Sir T. BENNETTasked the Under-Secretary of State for India if any of the Provisional Governments of India are in possession of typical household budgets from the families of officials, showing the cost of living in an Indian district in relation to the current scales of pay in the public Services; if he can produce any of these budgets or state their general tenor; if they indicate the existence amongst the servants of the State of a condition of penury and strait-ness of means incompatible with the efficiency of the Services; and if he will consider the advisability of having this question submitted to inquiry by a Committee fully representative of Indian and non-official opinion, so that the people 320W of India and of this country may have an opportunity of knowing of the conditions under which those who serve the State in India are compelled to live?
§ Earl WINTERTONYes, Sir, I have seen a note on the cost of living in one province, which contains particulars of the kind described in the question. It is not an official document, and I regret that I cannot lay it on the Table. The difficulties which members of the Services are experiencing owing to the rise in prices are fully recognised, and the whole question is receiving most careful and sympathetic consideration by the Secretary of State.