INDIA IN WAR TIME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 230, 8 March 1915, Page 4

INDIA IN WAR TIME.

FUTURE OF THE COUNTRY. (Specially written for the Daily News, by Hugh Fraser.) The presentation of the Budget of lidift at Delhi last week ruvivus the unusual interest which the war has altacn«l and. provided un of * great British possession, t»*e» feaeroualy of men and money to •Mia* Great Britain at war, ' tmliug dow* to put its own house in order in * Spirit which only sound and healthy economic conditions would allow.' It has been said, and I believe with complete truth, that the Houss of Commons is never bo dull and empty as on the night that the Indian Budget is presented, for in times past the Englishman has shown that India only interested him when a handful of discontented Indians rioted or a party of warriors ventured from the northern hills into a peaceful agricultural community tb kill and plunder. Perfectly true of the past, but the grand wave of genuine loyalty which swept over India on the outbreak of war carried with it the clouds obscuring India from complete light, and left bare, for ail the world to see, the picture of India as India really is. And this is why the cable service sent to New Zealand an unusually long summary of the Indian Budget, which all men read with an interest which no previous Indian Budget has aroused in these distant Islands. The Budget siiows the position of India to he sound, but it was impossible that India should eseap e the commerce destroying influences of a great .European war, and the economic effects which the war has had upon India avo shown in the statement that "from August to December imports had declined by 17 millions, or 32 per cent., and exports by 27 millions, or 42 per cent." Similar influences may be found to have operated in reducing 'both imports and exports, for the value of India as a customer of the 'European countries engaged in the war is only exceeded by tile value of these countries to India as purchasers of Indian products., Tile latest fig-ures dealing with the trade of India which I have are tho3e for 1912-13, and from these figures it is possible to see the causes .for the decrease both in imports and exports. In 1912-13 India's imports from Germany were (i.4 per cent.; from Austria 2.2 per cent.; front France 1.3 per cent.; and from Belgium 1,9 per cent. About two-thirds of India's imports come from Great Britain, about 5 per cent, from the United States, and the temporary dislocation of trade by Great Britain and the United States would have given a decrease in 'imports which would combine with the closing of .the European markets to give India this deficit of 32 per cent. Looked upon in the light of these figures the docrease is easily explained. And the same position serves to explain the falling-off in exports of 42 per cent., for While India's exports to Great Britain are only 25 pei - ', cent., India exports to 'Germany nearly twice as much as she imports; the United States of America claims over 7 per cent, of India's exports; France over 0 per cent.; Belgium about 6 per cent.; and Austria about 3 per cent; The rains which fell- in India last year were the most generous for many years, and a bountiful season will be experienced; but India is essentially an agricultural coun-. try, and the fruits of a good season will ensure plentiful supplies of the necessaries of life and leave a surplus of wheat and other cereals for other British possessions if required.

IRRIGATION' AND EAILWAYS. The Budget goes on to show that important public works will not suffer greatly from the war. The full irrigation programme will he carried out, and thus India will go forward with lier great task of making sandy, waterless, barren stretches into productive land. 'About two-thirds of the agricultural land of India is N the result of a persistent policy of irrigation, and when the importance of agriculture to India is remembered—l think 07 per cent, of India's population of 315,000,000 are engaged in or dependent on agriculture —it will he seen that irrigation forma the basis of wealth-production in India. Irrigation had remarkable results in India. I have made journeys over several hundreds of miles in North-West India, and in Central India, where practically every acre was tilled, and carried a large population engaged in agriculture, and I have met men with fresh memories of the time when much of those lands was waste—before these lands were wrapped in the comprehensive networks of canals, which form huge irrigation schemes. And India has enormous areas yet ft be irrigated before green grass will come out of dustv plains. J

Irrigation i s the only item in public works which will receive full attention, and it will share with a reduced railway programme eight, millions. India is we 1 served with railways at present, and there are no very big railway works which require immediate attention. n nen the full irrigation programme lias taken its share out of eight millions, there should not be very much left for railways, and none of the railway schemes upon which the future progress of India will be assisted could progress much with what remains of eight millions, The two biggest railway prorosals winch I remember now are a coast railway from Bombay to Karachi (in hind), to tap the wealthy and progressive province ~of Sind, and the scheme revived lately to connect Calcutta witii Rangoon (the capital of Burma). Of tliese two schemes, the Calcutta-Ban-goon connection stands out as one of international importance, for it would give the first railway communication between India and Burma, and would give a clearer opening towards the day when India could have railway communica tion with China. But the proposal in «nly m its embryonic stages. It has long been advocated by many authorities in India, and again received putf> >ply at tho time the German cruiser JMnden assume! control of the Bay of Bengal, and so interrupted for many (lays communication between India and Burma. The Government of India, howovor > J'»s ,10w lna(le definite move and the surveyors are at present seeking the, best route, so that" when the "*o settles down to peaceful duties once more this great continental railway of probably nearly 900 miles in length will be taken in hand. The influences which it will have in the East and particularly in Burma, are enormous. But for. the present Tndia ia «o»>g ahead on sound lines by carryhic out the full irrigation programme, 'and she will reap, wealth thereby, while a reduced railway programme' will not arrest the general progress which Tndia is making.

THE COST OF TROOPS. "India's contribution to the Empire's ll" t '"" frrcra has ten costly The niulsrot shows that "India's 'cost of send'ng troops to the frovt was eatimated at two millions in the current Tear, and fonr and three-quarter millions in the, coming year." Those figures provide a key to the secret of the Censor as to how many troops have left India for the war. Since all the expeditionary forces landed at the various scats of -war, different newspapers Have snmrested the number of troops India sent, but if the remark' of one New Zealnnder that he "thought India, lia'd only sent about 10,000 men is a typical impression, he must now ace in what

glorious comfort tlicsc 40,000 travelled to drain the country of two. millions Bterling. As a matter of' fact, more than twice that number of-British soldiers left India. Well, 200,000 Would be a sober estimate of the number of In* dian soldiers who liave gone to Europe, Mat Africa, Egypt, and the Persian Uulf, And while India cannot recruit Englishmen, she can give many thousands more liidians, for the place of every Indian who liaa gone to war has been replaced, and this new material now fwrns a new Indian army in the making. India, the Budget shows, can continua to give men and money, and the country 7!, 11 the P o!ic y ° f "Business as usual. Iho future ia loftked fbrwarJ to with a sober confidence, which la materially strengthened by the agricultural situation. • ,