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15th instant whether units will require to be sent in relief,
as it is necessary to give them 6 months' notice to arrange
for the furloughs of Native Officers and Men prior to
embarkation for foreign service.
It will be within Mr Harcourt's recollection that
the provision made in Army Estimates for the current year
was based on the assumption that these troops would have
been returned to India at the beginning of the financial
year. Excess expenditure for their maintenance, at the
rate of £8,000 a month, is thus already being incurred over
the provision made. In addition, the cost of relieving
them would be some £50,000 for transport and other incidental
charges. Further, the Government of India asks for an
undertaking that Army funds will bear the travelling and
other charges (possibly £8,000) incidental to the furlough
proposed now to be given to the units warned for relief,
whether they eventually proceed to China or not.
The Army Council make no claim to be in a position
to forecast the probable course of events in China;
from such information as is at their disposal, it appears
improbable that there will be a general cessation of
internal unrest within the next few years.
but
Confronted as
they now are with the necessity for an immediate and definite decision whether the additional troops are to remain or return to India, it seems to them that if withdrawal is now held to be impossible on the grounds disclosed in the earlier correspondence, there is small
prospect
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