File 4673/1919 Pt 1 ‘Persian Gulf:- Visit to England of the son of the Sheikh of Bahrein + party. General arrangements + proceedings. Incidence of cost.’ [‎255v] (488/494)

6
this country of Indian representatives at the Coronation. My Lords will await
the statement of actual expenditure incurred by the Secretary of State for India
in Council, in order that the necessary steps may be taken to obtain a grant
from Parliament to repay the expense of the service.
Their Lordships readily agree to the suggestion of Lord George Hamilton
that an inter-departmental Committee should be appointed to report on the
course of procedure to be adopted, and the incidence of expenditure, in respect
of any Indian guests who may visit this country in future by invitation of His
Majesty’s Government. I ain to request that their Lordships may be informed
of the name of the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. representative.
1 am, &c.,
(Signed) E. HAMILTON.
No. 6.
I
Letter from the Government of India to the Secretary of State for India }
No. 301, Finance and Commerce Department, dated Simla, ZZrd
October. 1002.
We have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Lordship’s
Despatch No. 137 (Financial), dated 5th September, 1902, regarding the
expenditure incurred in connection with the visit of Indian Princes, delegates,
and troops on the occasion of His Majesty’s Coronation. A detailed statement
of the expenditure brought to account in this country is being prepared and will
be forwarded as soon as it is complete. In the meantime,, in response to the
invitation conveyed in the concluding portion of your despatch, we submit our
views upon the principles that should in our opinion govern the incidence of
expenditure in respect of any Indian guests who may hereafter be officially
invited to visit the United Kingdom.
2 . We have learnt with great gratification that His Majesty’s Government
have decided to assume the entire cost of the entertainment in England of the
representative visitors from India at the recent Coronation in the same manner
as that of the representatives of the other great dependencies and colonies of the
Empire ; and we are of opinion that the same principle should be followed on
similar occasions in the future. We are ready to admit that the analogy between
India and the colonies is neither perfect nor complete, since the quality and rank
of the guests and the standard of entertainment are likely to differ materially
in the two cases ; and we have considered the desirability of making anj T special
proposals in order to meet this inequality in the circumstances. The only
manner in which this could be done would apparently be by fixing a scale or
determining a limit of expenditure by His Majesty’s Government in the case of
Indian guests, and by the defrayal of any excess, over and above this limit, by
the Government of India.
3. On the whole, however, we earnestly deprecate any such solution
because of the inevitable misunderstanding and ill-feeling to which it would
give rise in this country. The situation of an Indian guest in England, pai«l
for partly by England and partly by India, would not be appreciated in India.
It would be regarded as a compromise, ungenerous in itself and even degrading
to India. The only sound principle upon which to proceed in the future is, in
our opinion, that the whole of the guest’s expenses, great or small, should be
defrayed by the Government that entertains him, from the time of landing to
the time of departure.