Council of State Debates Friday 31st March 1944 Official Report

As regards the future organisation of the armed forces of India I have no doubt whatever that Government will welcome the advice and help of the members of this House and of the other House too and of course of the Defence Consultative Committee. [...] I would ask Honourable Members egain to remember that it is the tempo of the war effort in India which determines the volume and the rate of outgoings of rupees in this country and that the tempo of the war effort in India has to be regulated by military and opertional needs rather than by financial considerations. [...] The position is that the present role of the forces in India is exclusively for the defence of India and they are within the ceiling of the forces which His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief has already fixed as being necessary for that purpose. [...] It was mentioned in the Budget speech that the object of our borrowing at the present time is not so much to cover the budgetary gap as to fill in the inflationary ga$ so as to bring up ' the intaking of rupees to equal the outgoing of runees and so prevent a constantly growing pressure on prices. [...] Because of that and saving regard to the 'heavy intrinsic volume of Defence expendture old moreover the uncertainty regarding the exact apportionment of the iota Defence expenditure between His Majesty's Government and the Goeminent of India till after the close of the year the result in general is a net606 COUNCIL OF STATE [31ST MAR.