Sir Richard Strachey is angry because the Government of India
is accused of breaking faith by absorbing the Indian Famine Fund, and writes to the Times to declare the imputa- tion not only unfounded, but absurd. " No such Fund," he says, " was created, and all that was done was to secure a suffi- cient surplus revenue to meet the consequences of famine." No one can know the facts better than Sir Richard Strachey, and he is clearly right about the " Fund ; " but he mistakes, we think, the gist of the accusation, which is that taxes laid on under pretence of preventing famine have been used for other purposes. The popular notion about a pledge may be " un- founded," but is hardly " absurd," when the Governor-General himself used these words, when speaking on the Budget :—" The sole justification of the increased taxation which has just been imposed upon the people of India, for the purpose of insuring their empire against the worst calamities of future famine, so far as such an insurance can now be practically provided, is the pledge we have given that a sum not less than a million and a half sterling shall be annually applied to it. We have pledged ourselves not to spend one rupee of the special resources thus created Upon works of a different character." The last official
description of the Budget certainly seems to admit that the proceeds of the new taxes have been applied to ordinary ex- penses. The coming debate in the Commons will, however, clear up the point. •
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