LONDON INDIAN SOCIETY. REPORT OF THE Conference of Indians Resident Held on June 20th, 1898, AT ST. MARTIN'S TOWN HALL, LONDON, UNDER THE PRESIDENCY OF MR. DADABHAI NAOROJI. LONDON: PRINTED BY A. BONNER, 1 & 2 TOOK'S COURT CHANCERY LANE, E.C. London Indian Society. REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE OF INDIANS RESIDENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. A CONFERENCE of All the Indians resident in the United Kingdom, convened by the London Indian Society, was held on Monday evening, June 20th, at St. Martin's Town Hall, Charing Cross. There was a large attendance of ladies and gentlemen; and Mr. D. Naoroji, on taking the chair, was loudly cheered. The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, said: Ladies and Gentlemen, we are met together to-day to consider four important resolutions, and I am glad to say that the second will be proposed by our friend Mr. Dutt, so long and honourably connected and so well acquainted with the Indian Civil Service. (Cheers.) The third will be moved by Mr. Bose, a barrister of long standing and successful practice; and the last will be in the hands of Mr. Khalil, one of our hopeful and promising workers. I have been asked to move the first resolution. It is a very important one. We know there is a great deal of agitation about the currency question. It is a very troublesome question, it is true, but at the same time on it depends the welfare of hundreds of millions of people. The resolution is as follows: "That fall or rise in exchange does not in itself matter in true international trade, which adjusts itself automatically to the requirements of exchange; that closing the mints or introducing the Gold Standard does not and cannot save a single farthing to the Indian taxpayers in their remittances for Home Charges'; that closing the mints and thereby raising the true rupee of about 11d. of gold, to a false rupee of 16d. of gold is a covert act of exacting 45 per cent. more taxation from the Indian taxpayers, and at the same time of increasing the salaries of officials, and other payments in India by Government to the same extent; that the introduction of Gold Standard will simply add more to the existing grievous burdens of the taxpayers, to the extent of the cost of the alteration; that the real cause of the terribleevils of poverty, famine, plague, false currency, etc., is what Lord Salisbury truly calls the bleeding' of India (or, as he says, 'India must be bled'), and the 'bleeding' is further increased by the fall in exchange or rise in gold; that until this most deplorable bleeding' of India is stopped there is little chance, if any, of saving India and the British Empire from serious disasters or destruction; and lastly, that the constitution of the present Currency Committee is utterly unsatisfactory, as the suffering Indian taxpayer is not at all represented." The resolution speaks for itself to all those who know how mercantile transactions are carried on. I will direct the attention of the audience only to two important points, which will give a clue to the merits and to the effect of the whole resolution. The first is this: it is assumed that by closing the mints the Indian people will be saved a taxation of something like 11 or 12 crores of rupees, because it is said that, if the rupeenow only worth intrinsically IId. can be raised so as to be worth 16d., the Government will by this means save to the Indian. people so much money. On this assumption is the whole superstructure of the present proposal of the Government of India based. I say that assumption is altogether fallacious. (Hear, hear.) It is no such thing that the people of India are saved. this eleven or twelve crores of rupees. They are actually paying every pie of it, only in a concealed and covert manner so that it is not perceived by the world. The mischief of the closing of the mints does not stop there. If honest, straightforward taxation had been placed upon the people, then, owing to the circumstances under which they are placed, being political helots-(cheers)--they would have been obliged to find this eleven or twelve crores by taxation. This would have shown to the world that the condition of India is hopeless and bankrupt. But by the devices of closing the mints, etc., which have been adopted, all this money is raised from the people, and yet they and the world generally cannot know the evil results. But it does not end there. In this covert manner not only are the eleven or twelve crores raised, but a great deal more, equal to two or three times that amount, are got out of the people. The result is such upon the condition of the native population as people here can form no conception of. (Cheers.) It would take too long to enter into details. But I can very well stop here, because if you only grasp this one fact—that there is no saving of taxation to the people, you will see that the closing of the mints cannot be beneficial. The only place where this matter can be properly and fully discussed now is before the Currency Committee, and our most important work is to show that the assumption on which the whole Government policy is based in regard to the currency is altogether a delusion. If my humble evidence is at all desired by the Committee, my services are quite at their disposal. (Hear, hear.) The assumption about the relief from additional taxation being ill-founded, the whole superstructure of the Government's case breaks down. My second point is that the miseries of India will never be allayed until new conditions have been laid down in regard to the system of the Government of the country. (Hear, hear.) If that Government can convert 11d. into 16d. then they have done a thing which the world has never seen before. (Laughter.) If a rupee which is worth intrinsically only 11d. of gold is to be made by the Government suddenly equal to 16d., then I say they are superhuman beings. (Laughter and cheers.) The whole difficulty arises from the political situation. With the appreciation or depreciation of gold we are obliged to raise and send out more or less produce, because we have to pay a certain amount of sterling money to this country as our political tribute. All this has to be paid in gold, and therefore if gold rises we really have to pay in more in exchange. (Hear, hear.) You cannot get out of that. By no device of any kind can you ensure the people sending one ounce of produce less in order to bear and pay the "Home Charges." So long as these conditions continue, we are bled. A certain amount of produce goes every year clean out of the country, and no chicanery or no miracle will remedy the evil from which India suffers. (Hear, hear.) The fall in exchange of itself is no evil. Merchants know very well how to make allowance for it, just as they do for higher rates of freight or higher rates of insurance. It is only because we are compelled without any voice or choice of our own to send several millions of money here annually, simply for our subjection to British rule, that the exchange question comes in. If these points are fully brought out and are borne in mind by the Currency Committee, we shall be able to see what the Government proposals are worth. But so long as this fundamental proposition is not satisfactorily dealt with there is no chance of relieving the Indian taxpayers. The members of this Currency Committee may all be fair and judicially minded men. They may come with their minds perfectly open to take evidence, and with a desire to arrive at a right |