INDIAN DEMAND

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1931, Page 5

INDIAN DEMAND

FOR REPAYMENT. OF COST OF BRITISH RULE. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Oopyrij^ht.) RUGBY, July .14. The report of the Committee .which was appointed by the Karachi Session of the Indian Congress to iepi rt on th e financial negotiations between Britain and India, during the whole period of British rule in India, includes items in respect of the first Afghan War and the other wars which occurred during the regime of the East India Company, prior to the year 1858. In aggregate the items' total £546,(100,000. ‘ln addition to the foregoing total, relief in respect of the Indian public debt, which is put at £825,000,000, is demanded.

Newspapers here treat it as a fantastic report, and refer to it with ridicule.

“The Times” reproduces the report under the heading “A Comic Congress Report.” The “Morning Post,” in a satirical note, says: “Mr Gandhi, or the precise genius who devised this little bill of costs, might have done much better. He does not seem to have charged us anything for irrigation works for which we have been responsible in India. By a ludicrous error, he omitted to file claims in damages for famine relief. He must have overlooked til© nefarious and expensive trouble to which we have put ourselves In fighting pestilence In India. Mr Gandhi had better revise his estimates.”

The “Daily Maill” describes the report as “'insolence.”