FINANCIAL COLLAPSE PREDICTED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 93, 13 January 1939, Page 9

FINANCIAL COLLAPSE PREDICTED

Over-Industrialization Of India COMMISSIONER CENSURES CONGRESS POLICY By Telegraph.—Press Asen.—Copyright LONDON, January 11. The annual report of His Majesty’s Senior Trade Commissioner in India and Ceylon, Sir Thomas Ainscough, predicts the financial and economic collapse of India if the policy of increasing domestic production is extended and if the system of maximum industrialization is pushed to the lengths contemplated by Congress and the Provincial Governments.

The report states that this would result, first, in a serious clash of interests with the agricultural element which constitutes 70 per cent, of the population; secondly, in a financial crisis because Customs receipts represented 60 per cent, of the central Government’s revenue; and thirdly, in inability to meet financial commitments in London and inability to maintain the exchange. The report points out that an enormous drop in imports of manufactured cotton goods has already resulted from the high tariffs and that the output of the Indian factories is soaring correspondingly.