662 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
How long ; have you any idea ? Some witnesses have said six months, some eight months.......?—I think somewhere there.
Do you think that six or eight months is a sufficient period for judging this stability ?—I say due weight should be given to it, and therefore you should strike an average.
But I think you have said in the course of your oral examination that you would be prepared to agree to
1s. 6d. ?— Yes, because it is nationally better; it would not inflate. That is what I say. If, even after 1s. 6d., the process of adjustment was not complete so as to enable us to say 1s. 6d. was really the level needed, I say we should establish it at that.
Regarding the adjustment in the industries here, have you any idea at all ? Can you give us any opinion ?— None whatever.
(Mr. Preston) : In case there should be any misunderstanding with regard to some of the answers which you gave to Sir Alexander Murray, in connection with that unfortunate reserve, the gold standard reserve, it may be well if we put on record some actual facts: the gold standard reserve came into being in the year 1901 and it resulted from profits earned from the previous April in 1900. The balance in the reserve to-day is 40 millions sterling, is it not ?—Yes ; I think it is about that.
6204 A . The Finance Minister when he made his report on currency last year made the following statement: “As will be seen from the statement, the bonds and stock purchased are due for repayment within the next few years. Of the amount now standing at the credit of the reserve, £ 27,449,950 represents profits on coinage and the remainder represents accumulated interest on securities held in the reserve.” You say that this reserve cannot increase unless there is more rupee coinage. How has that increase of one-third in the last three years come about ?—By interest on investments.
- Then if the interest on that reserve is kept being added to it, you are increasing that reserve for a useful purpose without having to adopt those methods which you so very strongly deprecate ?—Yes, undoubtedly.