In introducing the Indian Budget on Monday Lord George Hamilton
had an easier task than usually falls to the head of his Department. In spite of the famine, the Treasury has seen two years of full coffers. In the year which ended on April 1st, 1901, the surplus was £1,670,000, while for the year 1902 it was no less than £4,900,000, and there is every prospect of a surplus for the coming year. The surplus of 1902, we should add, was not due to the saving produced by sending troops to South Africa, for though that incident saved a million, the money was spent on military improvements. The truth is, every branch of the revenue is prosperous, the railways, for example, which were a heavy charge, now showing a profit of three-quarters of a million, while the arrangements for the new currency have been even unexpectedly successful. In the three years the total surpluses of the Empire have exceeded eight millions, and though twenty millions have been spent on railways, they will all prove remunerative. Official India is, in fact, so prosperous that more will be spent on the Army. on education, and on grants to the provinces, which are always discontented with the amount assigned them for publics works and the like. There is strong "Particularist" feeling in India, though official subordination prevents it from coming to the top.
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