CO129-418 - Public Offices & Others - 1914 — Page 58

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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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