ESTABLISHED 1875 Manawatu Daily Times The Oldest Manawatu Journal PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY JANUARY 11, 1913 SOME UGLY RUMOURS.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1820, 11 January 1913, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1875 Manawatu Daily Times The Oldest Manawatu Journal PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY JANUARY 11, 1913 SOME UGLY RUMOURS.

Some very ugly scandals have been made public in England in regard to the way in which the India office has used India's money. The first id that nea ly nine millions of India's cash balances are on loan to various approved bo rowew and banks in London ; of the gold standard re-erve nearly sixteen mi lions are invested in securities in England, and over a million is on loan as short notice. Mr Touche, -M.P„ has explaintd in the Morning Tost that Indian merchants have a longstanding grievance against the transference to London of these very large sums of money for no very obvious purpose except the advantage of the London firms concerned. Who a"3 these merchants who are making profits to the advantage of India? The British Government has promised to give their names. Another writer, Mr Rupert G wynne, has brought the second scandal to light. It concerns the purchase of silver for rupees by the Government of India. Ic is stated that no silver has been bought sinqa 1907 until last >ear and on th s occa-ion it wa> purchased through Messrs Samuel Montagu and Co., a firm through which no transactions of the sort-had ever previourly been made. The eyplanation fo- the employment of a new firm was that there had been a speculative rise in the price of silver against the Government and that

I this was avoided by the employment I of Messri Samuel Montagu and Co. i But in view of the fact that the head i of the firm in question is the bro ber ' of ths Under-Secretary for India I the Government should have preferred to lose the chance of a slight - [ ly better margin rather than risk the inferences which were only too likely | to be drawn from the facts now disi closed. The British Ministers have been subjected to f ome very strong 1 criticisms over this matter. The | Spectator says that one would have , thought they wou d have g'oded id ! practising a kiud of pedantry in affairs Oi the kind, and would have said, "Whoever else benefits com« u.ercially, where my influence can be exerteJ it shall not be a firm witL which I ha e a ramily connection.' Instead, the new style seems to be : '*As long as there is no personal profit on my part and no injury to the public, why should not my friends and relations have a look-in?" Unfortunately this is a j- hase of political life not entirely confined to the zone of British politics nor to one party. The P.tll Mail says there can be no doubt about the intenity of feeling in India The belief there is that India i 9 being rob: ed to bolster j up London credit. j