for the unusually high mortality in Bombay is because the really hot weather has not yet sot in and the plague always diminishes rapidly once the hot weather sets in.
he Hon. P. M. Mehta, in his speech at the debate on the Budget at the Supreme Legislative Council, Calcutta, suggested that the Imperial Exchequer should take up all the direct plague expenditure of Bombay. He said thi to treat plague expenditure as anything but Imperial would be both a hardship and an injustice. It has been regulated by Imperial consideration, has been incurred under Imperial directions, and has been disbursed under Imperial agency." Bombay has certainly suffered more both in trade and other from Plague than any other city in India. At present all our Indian papers are full of 'THE POSITION IN CHINA, and a great interest is felt as to what steps Sir Claude Macdonald will take in regard tothe Yangtze Valley. Lord Salisbury does not seem to be blamed so much for his want of a decided policy by the people in Tndis as he is in China; on the contrary, the general impression here is that he is playing & deep game, that he is the opposite of the barking dog that never bites and that when he does bite it will leave a very decided mark. Whatever his policy may be time must eventually prove, and that time most probably is not very far distant.
Secunderabad, 6th April.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.