I have alluded to the losses that the measure must inflict on the planters of Southern India, and my remarks on that head apply equally to the tea-planters of India; but the latter have, besides, a special grievance which they share in common with the tea-planters of Ceylon, and this grievance is also shared in by the coffee-planters, though, as far as I can see, hardly to the same extent.  This well-founded grievance lies in the fact that if no international agreement (and there seems no probability whatever of such an agreement ever being come to within any time to be even guessed at) is come to between the silver-using countries in the East, the tea-planters of India and Ceylon will be brought into unequal competition with their rivals in China, and the coffee-planters of India and Ceylon will in like manner be unfairly weighted in their competition with the coffee producers of Brazil.  With reference to the tea-planters of India and Ceylon the case is very clear, and it is perfectly obvious that if in India you have silver artificially raised in value relatively to gold, and that in China silver remains unprotected, the Chinese will be able to accept a smaller gold value for their tea than the Indian producers, and the difference in the exchange may be such that China may regain her former position in the tea market, and that Indian teas may be partially driven from the field; and if we add to that that the Indian tea-planter will, in consequence of exchange being forced up, have fewer rupees to pay his coolies than he has now, it is evident that the result of the Government measure will be most serious to this industry.  The evidence (Currency Committee) that relates to Ceylon is very decisive on this point, and the witnesses examined with reference to tea expressed extremely depressed views as to the ruinous results that must arise if the monetary policy of the Indian Government can be carried into effect.  From the correspondence that has passed between the Government of India and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, it would seem that India has no objection to Ceylon establishing its own mint for the coinage of silver (the silver coins at present in use in Ceylon are rupees) and the island would then be in the same position as other silver-using countries.  But if Ceylon starts its own mint, and is thus able to prevent the evils of the artificial scarcity of silver to be created in India with the view of forcing up the gold value of the rupee, then it is plain that Ceylon tea-planters would retain their present advantages, which arise from a low rate of exchange, and thus be able to carry on their business on far more advantageous conditions than their Indian rivals.