Oral Answers to Questions — India. – in the House of Commons at on 27 March 1929.
Mr Frederick Pethick-Lawrence
, Leicester West
asked the Under-Secretary of State for India what were the reasons which prompted the Government to insist upon the Imperial Bank raising its rate from 7 to 8 per cent.?
Viscount Turnour
, Horsham and Worthing
With the hon. Member's permission, I will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT an extract, which is rather long, from a reply given by the Finance Member of the Government of India in the Indian Legislative Assembly on 26th February dealing with the point raised by the hon. Member.
Following is the extract:The action taken by the Government was taken in its capacity as Chief Currency Authority—a responsibility belonging in most other countries to a Central Bank. It is only natural that in this capacity the Government should take steps to see that money rates in India are so adjusted as to avoid a depletion of their gold and sterling Reserves. The main factors in the situation on the strength of which the Government took their decision were as follows:
- (a) The decision of the Bank of England to raise their rate from 4½ per cent. to 5½ per cent., a course which was forced on the Bank of England by the high rates prevailing in the United States and the consequent export of gold from England to the United States. The circumstances in which this rise in the English bank rate took place indicated that there was likely to be a period of high money rates in the big financial centres of the world. This may be described as the immediate cause for the action by the Government of India, and it must be remembered, when comparing the present 8 per cent. with the maximum rate of 7 per cent. prevalent in the last two years, that the Bank of England rate since March, 1927, had been steady at 4½ per cent. Our policy could not
2427 be unaffected by the sudden rise to 5½ per cent., for it is impossible to isolate policy in India from financial conditions in the outside world. - (b) While this special factor operated as an immediate cause, local conditions were such as to create a predisposition for making such a cause operative. In the height of the busy season, exchange was weak, the banks were borrowing heavily instead of placing themselves in funds by selling exchange, stocks of cotton were accumulating in Bombay and, generally speaking, the indications were that in order to maintain the equilibrium of exchange and to ensure that Indian prices moved pari passu with gold prices, it was necessary to raise the level of the money rates in India. If the implication of this question is that there is anything abnormal in such action or that it indicates an artificial control which is not exercised by the currency authorities in other countries, I wish to say most emphatically that any such implication is incorrect."
The UNDER-Secretary of State for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Lieut.-Colonel Sir Vivian Henderson):
My right hon. Friend is informed by the burial authority that in consequence of an allegation that the grave in question only contained four coffins, a trial excavation was made at the head of the grave and disclosed five coffins within 10 feet from the surface. It was impossible to ascertain without exhuming all the bodies how many more there were in the lower half of the grave, and as the allegation in question had been shown to be untrue further investigation was thought to be uncalled for. With reference to the latter part of the question, my right hon. Friend explained to the hon. Member on the 18th instant, that this is a matter for the Minister of Health. He has accordingly transferred the resolution to the Minister and told the Trades Council that he has done so.
Mr Harry Day
, Southwark Central
Is the hon. Member not aware that the register shows that there should be ten coffins there, and that the allegations made by many of the grave diggers in the cemetery is that tunnelling operations are going on there and that the bodies are moved by what is called humping.
Colonel Sir Vivian Henderson
, Bootle
I am not aware of anything in regard to tunnelling operations.
Mr Harry Day
, Southwark Central
Is it not a fact that this question was put down to the Minister of Health and has been transferred to the hon. Member's Department?
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
