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Large Orders being sent to Great Britain as Result of Present Development Schemes. But it is a matter of groat satisfaction to the Government of India that there is at the present time unprecedented activity in India in development, and that the result of this activity is that we are sending home very large orders to this country. I made my position perfectly clear this morning. I do not mean to say that we; give any guarantee that we will always buy in England ; we do not; we buy in the best market; but as a matter of fact we; buy 90 to 95 per cent, of our material in England. At the end eif this year we shall have spent—on railway material alone—£3s,ooo,ooo in the course of three years, and about 90 per cent, has been, spent in this country. With the lull assent of the Legislative Assembly, only last year we decideel that we must make a real effort to rehabilitate our railways, anil for that rehabilitation programme we; have set aside, the sum of 100 millions sterling. We anticipate; that, in the next five, ye;ars £57,000,000 will be; spent on material usually imported into India, and of that £57,000,000 I am sure that the British manufacturer will see to it that the greater part is spent in England. That is by no means the whole, story. I have referred so far only to the. rehabilitation of the railways. We, hope to be able to embark upon some new construction, although I recognize that new construction does not interest His Majesty's Government as much as rehabilitation at the present time. New construction naturally does not mean immediate orders for rolling-stock. The Bombay Government has now also in hanel a, very large and very costly scheme for the, development of Bombay City. That scheme will cost many million pounds. It is already in process of execution, and iam quite sure that that scheme, has had the result of sending many orders to the British manufacture;!'. We; have just sanctioned an enormous irrigation scheme called " The Sukkur Barrage, Scheme;," which will bring several million acres unele;r cultivation, or, at any rate;, render assured, the cultivation of that area. There; are either irrigation and hydro-electric schemes in contemplation. As I have said, that, is what we have done so far. The Government of India are very anxious to co-operate; in whatever measures may be necessary, consistently with the interests eif India, to relieve unemployment in the Unitcel Kingdom, and they have expressly authorized me to say that, with this object in view, they will endeavour to push on the execution of schemes which are projected or are in progress anil which will involve considerable; purchases outside of India. Difficulty of accelerating Railway Rehabilitation Schemes. I shoulel just like, however, to safeguard myself in one point here. You, sir, asked me a definite question whether we should find it possible to accelerate our rehabilitation programme for railways and to execute this year orelers which in tho ordinary course would not bo executed before, say, the fourth en* fifth year. I am afraid that there may be difficulty in that. A railway programme, especially a railway programme of such magnitude as we have undertaken, a rehabilitation scheme, is not merely a matter of ordering rolling-stock or rails or locomotives, as the case may be; it, is a question of bringing the whole of our lines, all the lines throughout Inelia, into a proper state; of efficiency. In some places it, is a matter of regraeling the line, in either places it is a matter of crossingstations, in other places it is a matter of remodelling a station which at present happens to be a bottleneck. It is not merely a matter of rolling-stock, but having your line in such a state that you can make the best use not only of the rolling-stock that you have got, but of suoh additional rollingstock as the traffic requires. Now, when you have a programme of that kind it has naturally to be carefully thought out from year to year, and we are proceeding now at such a pace that it would bo impossible for me to say that wo shall be able to speed it up so much that we can place orders now for railway material and stock which ordinarily we should not require; until, say, five years hence. India may be interested in offer of Advance of Interest. As I have already said, however, we are prepared to examine such schemes as we have got in hand and to see whether they can be accelerated or expedited, We are prepared to do this without any reference to the offer which His Majesty's Government has just made. As the Prime Ministers of the Dominions have just said, in some ways the offer of guarantee of interest doe;s not appeal very much to us in Inelia, for in India, as in the Dominions, we; have; no difficulty now in raising what money we require; at reasonable rates. As regards the other suggestion, of an advance of interest, all I can say at, present is that if we can find, in regard to any particular scheme, that an arrangement of that kind would be, a sound business proposition we; will certainly consider it. That, lam afraid, is as far as I can go at present. I have no doubt that I shall get opportunities of discussing points of this kind privately with representatives of His Majesty's Geivernment who arc interested in this matter, when we shall be able to go into them more in detail. Suggestion that Trade Facilities Act be brought to Notice of Business Interests in India. I have only one other remark to make, because I know the President wishes to go. That remark is in reference to the use of tho Trade Facilities Act. I understand that private enterprise has already made use of the Trade Facilities Act in India. I have, already said, on another occasion, that, owing to stagnation of trade and general depression, there is a certain elisinclination at present on the part of private enterprise to embark on industrial undertakings, but, if I might make a suggestion, I believe it would have good results if this Act were brought to the notice of corporations and private firms in India. His Majesty's Government possesses the machinery for so bringing it to notice in the officers of the Department of Overseas Trade in India. I think that if action of that kind were taken by the Department of Overseas Trade in India it might lead to useful results and to business.