making due allowance for the capital sent to India in connexion with Government transactions, the average excess of exports over imports, or in other words payments by India to England for services rendered, is L23,900,000 per year during the three years that have been mentioned.  This payment is made up of, first, L21,200,000, being the average annual amount of the Government remittance during three years, which corresponds to the alleged political drain of L30,000,000; and, secondly, L2,700,000, the average annual amount of private remittances during the same period, which total has been most carefully examined and corresponds to the alleged commercial drain of L40,000,000.  Now let us examine for a moment the nature of these two remittances.  The Government remittance is mainly for the payment of home charges—­namely, those charges in England which are normally met from revenue.  These charges, in the three years to which I have referred, averaged L18,250,000, made up in the following manner:—­Interest on debt, L9,600,000; payments for stores, ordered and purchased in this country, which cannot be manufactured in India, L2,500,000; pensions and furlough pay to civil and military officers, L5,000,000; and miscellaneous, L1,250,000.  It will thus be seen that alter deducting L5,000,000 for pensions and furlough pay, the bulk of the remittance represents interest for railway developments and other matters with which the interests of the peoples of India are intimately bound up.  Besides the home charges proper, certain sums were remitted to England by the Government to defray capital charges.  These bring the Government remittances to the total of L21,200,000 already mentioned.  Now let us turn for a moment to the supposed commercial drain of L40,000,000 per year, which, as I have endeavoured to show, is in reality L2,700,000, being the difference during the period referred to between the private remittances from India, representing private profits, savings, &c., sent home to England, and the private remittances to India representing the transmission of English capital to that country.  We can therefore say definitely that whatever India may have sent to England within the three years, she received from England as capital a sum falling short of that amount by L2,700,000 a year; and perhaps I might incidentally remind the House that at the end of 1907 the capital outlay on railways alone in India amounted to L265,000,000 sterling, the bulk of which is British capital, but by no means represents the full amount of British capital invested in India, which has taken its part in commercially developing its resources and providing employment for the masses of people in that great continent.  Hon. members who have followed a recent discussion in the pages of the Economist as to whether L300,000,000 or L500,000,000 was the amount of British capital invested in India for its commercial and industrial development and for providing employment of the people in that land, will agree that the sum could not be placed lower than L350,000,000.”