OCCASIONAL NOTE

With reference to the frontier scandals, it is to be hoped that, to whatever court of appeal the case of Public Opinion vs. the Government of India is carried, due weight will at last be given to the protests which have been raised from time to time against the spectacle of a Government burying itself practically the whole year round, first of all at Simla and then at Delhi. When Lord Hardinge carried out his arrogant and irresponsible coup d’etat eight years ago it was predicted that the efficiency of the Government of India, already sufficiently compromised by an eight months’ isolation in the Western Himalayas, would be largely paralysed as the result of an arrangement which would involve their permanent and increasing aloofness from the main streams of intellectual, commercial and political life in India. The sequel has abundantly justified these misgivings. The effect of the rise in exchange upon Indian commerce is the latest example of the inconvenience of having to deal in matters of such importance with officials in a remote hill station. The Bengal Chamber of Commerce is obliged to resort to abbreviated telegraphic messages in communicating with official departments upon urgent topics affecting the export trade which ought to be discussed on the spot. Can anyone imagine such a correspondence taking place in England?

OFFICERS HOUSES BURGLED

POONA, OCT 31

The police are making enquiries into a daring case of burglary in which thieves entered the houses of three officers and removed jewellery valued at Rs 12,560. The victims are Major E.H. Pott, living at No. 15, Right Flank Lines, and Major Frere and Lieutenant Love, residing at No. 1, Stanton Road. It is believed that three men were concerned in the affair and an Indian Christian named John Roshan has been arrested and property valued at Rs 1,188, which he had disposed of, has been recovered. Though the police have been endeavouring to trace the other two men, they have not as yet succeeded in bringing them to book. The man in custody will shortly be placed before the Cantonment Magistrate.

ORIENTAL CONFERENCE AT POONA

POONA, OCT 31

Exhibits for the exhibition to be held in connection with the first Oriental Conference from the museums of Lucknow, Jodhpur, Patna, Baroda, Madras, Mysore, Calcutta, Bhopal and Rajkot have arrived, and are being arranged in beautiful show-cases specially prepared for them in the Tata Hall, under the direct supervision of the exhibition committee. The Philharmonic Society of Western India have sent some musical charts. Some good Pouranik paintings of the preAkbar period belonging to the Chief of Alandh and Mr. Guzdar, of Bombay, will also be exhibited.

SALARIES COMMITTEE

MADRAS, OCT 31

The Local Government have issued orders directing the appointment of a Salaries Committee to examine generally the adequacy or otherwise of the rates of pay of Government subordinates and menial establishments in various departments, including village officers and others whose cases were not dealt with by the Royal Commission on Public Services in India. The Hon. N.E. Major has been appointed as President of the Committee, and the final recommendations of the committee are to be despatched to reach the Government by a date not later than the 31st March, 1920. The specific points on which the Committee should make recommendations are also detailed.

INDIAN TRADE

SIMLA, OCT 31

In the trade returns for September published by the Department of Statistics, India, imports amounted to pound 11,201,000, an increase of pound 1,625,000 and exports (including reexports) to pound 20,644,000 (this figure surpassed all previous records), an increase of pound 7,729,000 as compared with the corresponding month of 1918. There was a large decrease in exports of food, drink and tobacco, amounting to pound 2,528,000, mainly due to smaller shipments of food grains and tea, but raw materials and articles mainly unmanufactured showed a very large increase of pound 7,893,000 owing to large shipments of raw cotton, raw hides and skins, raw jute and seeds. Articles wholly or mainly manufactured increased by pound 2,311,000 due to larger shipments of cotton twist and yarn and tanned hides and skins. During September of the pre-war year, 1913, imports amount to pound 11,101,000 and exports (including re-exports) to pound 13,200,000.