File 1262/1915 Pt 2 'Persia: Financial assistance: The Moratorium' [‎324r] (411/424)

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rhe subject of the capital requirements of India during the coming financial
year. &
.As regards the last paragraph I am to say that in the case of His
majesty s self-governing Dominions Their Lordships have insisted that the
capital requirements in respect of public works shall be confined to the
minimum possible in view of contracts which have already been concluded
or of commitments actually entered upon. They fear that They could not uith
justice to the self-governing Dominions who have accepted Their require
ments extend more favourable treatment to the Government of India and in
these circumstances They feel obliged to ask the Secretary of State for India
m Council that the item amounting to 333,000Z. for new lines which has
been included in the estimated capital expenditure on railways shown in
the hnancial statement for 1015-16 shall be omitted.
their Lordships have taken due note of the figures submitted by the
Secretary of State in regard to the revised estimates of the Government of
India for the year 1014-15 and the Budget estimates for 1015-16.
„ I am, &c.,
Lhe Under Secretary of State John Bradbury
for India. Secretary.
LOSUliL Xo. o .—India Offi.cc to Trcasuvy.
1. 1434. 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. ,
ir ’ T 16th April 1915.
1 am (lirecte d to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, Xo. 7202 of
. 1 A P rjl 1915 > asking the Secretary of State for India in Council, for reasons
?;\ e jh t° agiee to the exclusion from the Indian Railway programme for
1015-16 of the item of 333,000 for “ new lines.”
In reply I am to enclose, for the information of the Lords Commissioners
of the Ireasury, copy of a telegram from the Viceroy replying to the message,
on the subject of which a copy was enclosed in the letter from this Office to
the Ireasury, dated 17th March.
It; Wl11 9e seen that the Government of India ask that at least the
\ ishnupur-Santragachi line, for which they wish to provide 100,0(M. in
1915-16, may be treated as a special case. The Secretary of State in Council
does not desire to press this suggestion,, as he understands that the congestion
m the coed tiaffic which this line is designed to relieve is not at present felt,
and as, moreover, the commencement of the line in 1915-16 would involve
further heavy expenditure for its completion in the following year or years for
which it may not be easy to make provision.
He thinks, however, that there are special grounds for proceeding with
the Shan States extension. This extension, though described as a “ new
hue,” is really the completing section of a railway, the greater part of which
has been built. 1 he total cost of it will be very moderate. In the speech
of the finance Member of the Viceroy’s Council presenting the Financial
Statement for 1915-16 on the 2nd March, this extension was referred to as
follows :—
I he construction of this important pioneer line has been completed up
to the plateau which divides the Jule valley from the rest of Burma, and it
was at one time proposed that the construction of the remaining ’ section,
between the plateau and the Jule lake, should be temporarily deferred, it
has been represented, however, that the further development of the Southern
Snan States will be seriously hampered if this extension is not carried out at
once, and the matter is now being taken up.”
The Secretary of State regards it as very undesirable that he should le
obliged to disappoint expectations based upon this speech, which was
delivered before the Government of India had been warned of the contingencv
that the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury might offer objections to the
provision of funds for “new lines” in their railway programme, and he