THE FISCAL QUESTION IN INDIA.
Sin,—By the Indian mail arriving on the 15th inst. we have a verbatim report of the words of Lord Curzon on the attitude of our dependency towards the Fiscal question. His Lordship spoke at the meeting of the Viceroy's Legislative Council at which the Budget was discussed. I venture to think that the words are worth printing in the Spectator.— I am, Sir, &c., "I may name one more respect in which the Government of India have, I think, faithfully championed the interests of the general community. I allude to their attitude on the Fiscal question. I observe that the Honourable Mr. Cable, speaking to-day on behalf of the commercial community, has most strongly endorsed the correctness of the position that we took up in our despatch of October 22nd, 1903. A little while ago it was stated with some authority in England that that despatch had been drawn up in a hurry, and that we were believed to have modified our views. 'There is no foundation for any such statement. We composed that despatch with full deliberation. It represented our matured opinions. We have not departed from them in any particular, and if the Government of India were invited to enter a conference, those, I am confident, would be the instructions with which our delegates from this end would proceed. Our claim is not merely that India should have a voice in the settle- ment of the question—that none will dispute—but that in any Imperial scheme there should not be imposed upon us a system detrimental to our interest or repugnant to our strongly enter- tained and unanimous views."
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