3 OCTOBER 1914, Page 7

CURRENT LITERATURE.

Indian Finance and Currency. By M. de P. Webb. (P. S. King and Son. 2s. 6d.)—Mr. Webb, who is the Chairman of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce, in 1911 entered upon a campaign directed to bringing about improvements in the management of Indian finance and the development of Indian currency. An outcome of this campaign was the appointment of the Royal Commission under the presidency of Mr. Austan Chamberlain, which published its Report last February. Mr. Webb now endeavours "to explain, in the simplest language, stripped of all unnecessary verbiage, qualifications, and reservations, the actual findings and recommendations " of the Royal Commission. He regards the financial reforms suggested as wholly satisfactory, but holds that the new currency policy recommended by the Commission is fraught with dangers to India and to the Empire at large. In an

appendix he urges the establishment of a State Bank for India. Mr. Webb's views will deserve serious consideration when the present crisis leaves our statesmen time to deal with problems less urgent than that of crushing the aggressive militarism of Germany.