Legislative Assembly Debates Thursday 6th March 1924 Official Report

In this connection may I draw the attention of the Honourable the Finance Member to the fact that this windfall is not the windfall which came to us only last year but the amount which has now been credited to the Indian revenues was from all accounts held by the Secretary of State in the year 1022-23 and mention is made of it in this Report on the Home Accounts of the Government of India. [...] The power must be reserved to the Governor General in Council of treating as sanctioned any expendture which the Assembly may have refused to vote if he considers the expenditure to be necessary for the fulfilment of his responsibility for the good of the country and it should be understood from the beginning that this power of the Governor General" in Council is real and that it is meant to b [...] It must really he a mock constitution which denies the representatives of the people a voice in the military expenditure of the country; The next item of expenditure in the Budget which to my mind is more objectionable than even the military expenditure is that in connection with the Ecclesiastical department. [...] Many things have happened during the last four or five years which have had the effect of shaking the faith of the people of India in the honesty and the bona fides of the British Government. [...] Gour said that the purport of that statement was that the British garrison or a part of the British garrison was maintained in India for the defence of the Empire for the relief of the British taxpayer.