The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-14

The report of the royal commission oh Indian finance and currency, which has just been issued, settles some controver- sies and starts others, but it does not clear up the mystery of the hoarded gold of India. says a writer in the London Daily Mail.
 From time immemorial India has ab- sorbed gold as a sponge absorbs water. The flow of gold to India is always con- tinued. In the last 12 years she has re- ceived s1s6, ,oOoOOo in gold, partly in sov- ereigns and partly in bullion, in addition to enormous quantities of silver It all goes into the country. put very little ever comes out Lord Rothschild observed some years ago that he had noticed that none of the smooth gold bars sent to ln- dia from this country ever came back. What happens to this great stream of precious metal, which continuously dis appears like those rivers in desert lands which lose themselves underground?
 S5 Per Head of Hoarded Treasure
 The testimony of experts is most con- fiicting. Some say it is hoarded, while few are ready to prove by formidable array of statistics that it cannot be ex- tensively hoarded. Those who believe that India possesses a vast store Of hoarded treasure make the widest guesses at it's probable total. The most popular estimate of the hoarded wealth of India puts the total at ssoO0Oo.Ooo, which would amount to e1 per head of the pop ulation; but some credible estimates are far higher. The experts quarrel again about the probable effect of lndias ab- sorption of gold upon the worlds money markets and the prices of commodities. Some say that all gold-using countries benefit thereby. while others, such as Sir Edward Holden, appear to hold that the drain of gold to India is a potential menace. The commission, while declining to indorse either of these mutually de- structive contentious, has declared in ef- feet that an increased use of gold in In- dia should not in future be encouraged by the government, but India already seems disposed to resent this recommen- dation.
 Whether gold is hoarded in India or not is really question of terms. All na- tions hoard gold upon occasions. If Eng land were threatened with a great war to- morrow we may depend upon it that there would be a rush of gold on the part of those people who possessed both fore sight and a balance at the bank. It is estimated that during yhe Balkan crisis the people of Central Europe obtained and hoarded f600O0,O00 in gold. India has been subjected to repeated invasions and innumerable internal wars and her people have never completely lost their heredi- tary sense of insecurity. Banking facil- ities are still sparse, and it would be sur- prising if Indians did not hoard.
 But hoarding does not necessarily mean burying in the ground or conceal ment in the roofs of houses, though those practices are doubtless extensive. J. M. Keynes, a member of the commission, Bengal who even hoards currency notes in his roof Once week he retires priv ately- and spreads them out in the sun to remove the damp A very large pro- portion of the hoarded wealth of India is, however. in the form of gold and silver ornaments. It is into these ornaments that the bulk of the bullion and sover- eigns, as we'll as much of the silver, dis
 
 appears.
 One often sees in the bazaar of a pros porous Punjab town little boys naked save for one insufficient garment, but glittering with silver ornaments. The girls are far more lavishlS- laden. The fre- auency of chjld murders in India is al most entirely due tot motives of robbery. With the growth of prosperity gold orna- ments are largely replacing silver ones, especially among adults. One witness told the commission that at the Amr1tsar fair well-to-do agriculturalists, who form erly wore necklaces Of rupees, are now seen with strings of sovereigns round their necks.
 It is the women. however, upon whom gold ornaments are chiefly lavished, and the cause is partly found in the Hindu law of inheritance. A Hindu cannot alien ate any portion of his property, either by will or by gift to his wife or any Of the female members of his family. His male heirs are nevertheless precluded by law from claiming jewelry or ornaments given by him to his female relatives. These remain the property of the women, and Ahis curious custom, which is very old one, accounts for much of the pre- valence of hoarding in India
 MT. Sundara 1yer, a Madras economist, says that with the spread of western ideas Hindus now feel it their duty to make better provision for their wives and daughters and other female rela- tives The result has been an enormous increase in the melting of sovereigns to make gold ornaments. Tn middle-class family, by the time a girl is F or 13, 30 or 100 soverefgns will have been collected for her dowry and converted into orna- ments.r These ornaments cannot be att tached by any legal process or reclaimed by the giver. A Hindu wife must cease tot wear. the ornaments when her hus- band dies. but she then sells them and lives on the proceeds.
 Gold ornaments are not, however, made only as provision for the women. They are convenient method of guarding against rainy day, and they are par ticularly popular with prospective bank rllpts. MT. 1ver quotes the case of a merchant who failed. and who handed