INDIA’S NEW CAPITAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 31, 31 January 1912, Page 8

INDIA’S NEW CAPITAL.

The proposal to make Delhi the capital of India in commemoration of the Coronation Durbar was a complete surprise to everybody outside the innermost circle of King George’s advisers. The secret had been .kept with extraordinary success, although it seems that the Indian Government had taken steps that might have given an amateur Sherlock Holmes a hint of the truth. The great open plain that was used for the purposes if the Durbar was acquired by the Government before the ceremony and will be used now as the site of the now city that will come into being beside the historic temples and palaces of Delhi. A portion is to be allotted to the ruling chiefs who may desire to provide themselves with residences at the capital. During the last few months many people have remarked on what appeared to bo a grave waste of money at the Durbar camp, where roads and railways were built with' a lavish hand. But it is realised now that the works were never intended to be merely temporary, and will become part of the new Delhi, which will be built with their assistance. The architectural glories of Delhi are famous alike in Indian and European literature. The great palace of Shah Johan, one of the Mogul Emperors, is an amazingly beautiful building, and the chief mosque, the Jama Mosjid, is one of the sights of India. The city contains few modern buildings, either public or private, and the extensive quarters that will bo required for the purposes of the central Administration will have to he built. The cost of transferring the capital to Delhi is expected to exceed £5,000,000, but it would have been very much greater had the Government tried to buy all the land that it required in the open market after the Durbar. The Indian newspapers state that land values in Delhi have risen enormou'sly already and that some native owners have made big fortunes within a few weeks.