a, who in turn has to adapt himself to the
exigencies of Whitehall. The Finance Member, who lays down the annual
amount that can be allocated to railway expenditure out of revenue, cuts
the cloth of the Railway Board in accordance not so much with the needs
of the railways themselves as with the requirements of his annual
budget. For when the yield of the Indian railways began to constitute an
important source of Government revenue, the Finance Member, instead of
devoting it to the equipment and expansion of railways, however
essential to the future prosperity of the country, was easily prevailed
upon to regard it, in part at least, as a convenient lucky-bag to draw
upon, especially in difficult times, for meeting the demands of other
departments, and especially of the Army Department, always the most
insatiable of all. In the same way, however clear a case could be made
out from the point of view of the railways for capital expenditure to be
met by raising loans at home or in India, the decision was not based so
much on the intrinsic merits of such an operation as on the immediate
effect it was likely to have on the British or Indian money market in
respect of other financial operations with which the Secretary of State
was saddled. The result has been that before the war the Indian railways
were kept on the shortest possible commons, and that having been
inevitably starved during the war, without any reserves to fall back
upon, they are clamouring to-day for financial assistance for the mere
upkeep of open lines and the renewal of rolling-stock, without which
they are threatened with complete paralysis, whilst the Government of
India, confronted on the one hand with the categorical imperative of the
Esher Committee and the fantastic extravagance of the Army Department
since the Afghan war, and on the other with the appalling losses already
incurred in consequence of Whitehall's currency and exchange policy, has
never been in a worse position to give such assistance.

The keen searchlight of the war has been turned effectively on many weak
points in the government and administration of India besides railway
policy, and the Indian currency and exchange policy stands out now as
one of the most disturbing factors in the economic situation.

India played her part in the war, and played it well, but she was never
called upon to bear any crushing share in its financial burdens. The
Indian Legislature unanimously and spontane