India has recovered from its financial depression, as it always
does. Sir J. Westland read his statement at Simla on Wednesday, showing that owing to the recovery in exchange, improvements in opium, and savings in military expenditure, the revenue for 1895.96 has so increased that, after paying for the Chitral expedition and assigning a million to the Famine Fund, there will be a surplus of 951,000Rx. Next year, though the average of exchange is taken at 13fd. per rupee, and £500,000 is allowed for a grand experiment in mobilisation— which in fact will place the northern divisions of the Army in readiness for action—the surplus will, it is estimated, be 463,000 Rs. This is creditable to Sir J. Westland's manage- ment, and if silver rises further the result will be most satia- factory, but there are still two weak points in Indian finance. The expenditure on the Army, 24,000,000 Rx. a year, is still frightful, at least four millions more than it ought to be, and the repayment of debt appears never to be thought of. The charge for the debt ought to be calculated at two millions more than the actual payment, and the balance employed in filling-up a sinking-fund.
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