rofess to reverence, when he delivered the inaugural
address at the first Industrial Conference held just 20 years ago at
Poona:--

There are some people who think that as long as we have
a heavy tribute to pay to England which takes away nearly
20 crores of our surplus exports, we are doomed, and can
do nothing to help ourselves. This is, however, hardly a
fair or manly position to take up. A portion of the burden
represents interest on moneys advanced to, or invested in,
our country, and so far from complaining, we have reason
to be thankful that we have a creditor who supplies our needs
at such a low rate of interest. Another portion represents
the value of stores supplied to us, the like of which we cannot
produce here. The remainder is alleged to be more or less
necessary for the purpose of administration, defence, and
payment of pensions, and, though there is good cause for
complaint that it is not all necessary, we should not forget
the fact that we are enabled by reason of this British connexion
to levy an equivalent tribute from China by our opium
monopoly.

If India must now forgo this tribute from China, it is not at any rate
the fault of the Government of India that the whole cost of the
awakening of the national conscience in England to the iniquity of the
opium traffic is being thrown upon India.

The question is not whether we have done well, but whether we might not
have done better, and whether the economic development of India,
industrial, commercial, and agricultural, has kept pace with that of the
rest of the world. If the answer in this case is more doubtful, we have
to bear in mind the idiosyncrasies of the Indian people and especially
of the educated classes. Indians have been as a rule disinclined to
invest their money in commerce or industry or in scientific forms of
agriculture. It is estimated that the hoarded wealth of India amounts,
at a conservative calculation, to L300,000,000, and this probably
represents gold alone. The annual absorption of gold by India is very
great. Lord Rothschild remarked to the Currency Commission that none of
the smooth gold bars sent to India ever came back. There is, in
addition, an enormous sum hoarded in silver rupees and silver ornaments.
It is no uncommon sight, in the cities of Upper India, to see a child
wearing only one ragged, dirty garment, but loaded with massive silver
ornaments. Indians who have