Chapter 253 The Plague Can Break Out

"But having said that, is Gandhi's hunger strike over?" Sir Barron said vaguely. The veal steak in his mouth obviously had a certain negative effect at this time, and the gravy remained from between his teeth, hindering the clarity of words. sex.

"A week of hunger strike, plus a month of one meal a day, it's probably over." Alan Wilson thought for a moment, took a sip of whiskey and continued, "The good news now is that we probably have Knowing the scope of the drought, it is already in mid-July, so the drought should not expand. This drought mainly affected the upper reaches of the Ganges River. The Central Province of the United Provinces is the hardest hit area. The precipitation in other places has also decreased compared to previous years. The Deccan The plateau has also been affected, but the loss is still acceptable compared to the north."

"They are all inland areas. This is good news, and it will help us control the situation." Sir Barron nodded and said with a relieved expression, "Like the Great Famine in Bengal, in the important industrial areas along the coast, everything is covered. No, that is the big deal, as far as the current situation is concerned, the Deccan Plateau is not a big problem, mainly the upper Ganges."

What Sir Barron said is not serious is that compared with the drought in the upper reaches of the Ganges, it is not that the situation in the Deccan Plateau is not serious.

The great famine in India in 1876 was mainly affected by South India, and the Deccan Plateau was the first place among them. Many photos of the great famine in India in later generations are left over from that famine.

In the eyes of some people, although the Deccan Plateau is a plateau, because it is located in a low-latitude tropical area, the water and heat conditions are very good. The production is rich; it is like the Boluofen Plateau in Laos. Although it is a plateau, it has the largest rice production in the country. granary.

The main thing about the granary is not output but stability, otherwise Punjab would not have become the granary of British India. The climate in most parts of British India is not stable, so the role of the roof of the world has to be mentioned.

For the subcontinent, the Himalayas are a ladder to the sky. Just looking at the straight-line distance from the snow-covered plateau, it should have belonged to India since ancient times, but in fact this is the same as Siberia in China. A place that can never be reached.

In general, the Governor's Office is still optimistic about the drought and famine. The book losses are only 200,000 people. Most of them are not due to famine, but the hot temperature leads to dehydration, heat stroke and other diseases. .

"In terms of statistics, the numbers of tuberculosis and cholera are too conspicuous." Sir Baron shook his head holding the statistics, knowing the inside story clearly, but he just put the number of deaths caused by famine on the disease, and said heavily , "Isn't there an outbreak of plague this year?"

Alan Wilson slapped his head, took the report with an apologetic expression, and solemnly assured, "It will explode immediately."

Negligence, isn’t there still statistics on plague? Even in the 21st century, almost all diseases in the world exist in the Indian subcontinent, including diseases that have already been eliminated by various countries. The plague is just a trivial matter.

Under the background that the plague has been almost eradicated worldwide, the plague broke out in India in the 1990s.

A hospital in the Indian industrial city of Surat received 30 patients in a similar condition. Their symptoms were: persistent high fever, coughing, sneezing and vomiting blood, before falling into fainting.

Within half a month, more than a thousand people were hospitalized with this symptom, and then news of the plague outbreak spread like wildfire. In order to avoid this disaster, the residents, old and young, used all available means of transportation to flee the plague-stricken city in a hurry.

Then, without accident, the plague was brought to the whole of India.

Even India in the 1990s was like this, and it is still in the period of British India. It is normal for the plague to occur. Otherwise, how could Sir Barron be a commissioner?

Alan Wilson was convinced, and quickly stated that the disaster was an order, and it would be too late if the plague did not break out.

"That's good. In many backward areas, the prevention and control of diseases is still very primitive.

It's really worrying. "Sir Baron said with a distressed face, "We also want to develop colonies, but the people in the colonies generally have a confrontational mentality, and helping backward nations is not an easy task..."

"It seems that the next stage of the work of the Governor's Office is to formulate a comprehensive health bill." Alan Wilson still held the report and nodded to Sir Barron before leaving the commissioner's office.

The house leak happened to be raining overnight, and when British India was united under the leadership of the Governor-General, the National Congress Party and the Muslim League gave up their differences, and the peace was like a chicken, a plague hit, and the British who had already gritted their teeth Adding insult to injury is India.

The plague came so suddenly and so violently that even the elderly in areas where the plague was recorded decades later had no memory of the plague, only remembering the hunger that year.

When fighting the drought, it is also necessary to fight the plague at the same time, so it is very normal to add an additional anti-epidemic appropriation. Now that British India has to supply local needs and fight disasters and epidemics, there is a slight financial strain.

A few days later, Alan Wilson, who had ordered a few health officials to formulate a health bill, went back and forth and returned to Sir Barron's office, saying that while delivering benefits to the mainland, while carrying out anti-epidemic work, the financial There will be a little difficulty.

"The plague doesn't exist at all. Can we use the funds?" Sir Barron chuckled, but it was just a matter of a statistical report, and Alan Wilson became serious, "What health bills should be enacted? Let Nehru and the others formulate them after independence." .”

"This is also for the sake of the British Empire's legacy, my lord." Alan Wilson lowered his head and said softly, "In fact, everyone is not afraid of having a job, but they are afraid that nothing will happen."

"Hmm!" Sir Barron, who heard the overtones, leaned back tactically, and nodded to indicate to continue.

"Sir, in fact, there is no way around financial appropriations." Alan Wilson organized the language, thinking about how to start persuading.

"Issuing public bonds? This is a colony, not a native land." Sir Barron frowned. He understood the motivation of civil servants to work, but this matter? It's really difficult.

Issuing public bonds in British India requires approval from London. Even if it is approved by London, as a group of colonists, the independence of British India has become a consensus, but it is forced by the drought to unite with the Governor's Palace. Is there anyone? Subscriptions for government bonds are still an unknown.

"Actually, we can print a little!" Alan Wilson said that your immediate boss is overthinking. The production line of the banknote printing machines in the suburbs is still open. He has been there, and even the recent consumption in New Delhi is the banknotes brought out last time. .

Are precious metals on the rise? In fact, Alan Wilson himself is partly credited, but he has never been a greedy person, and he also gave some banknotes to his subordinates in Hyderabad for market experiments.

"Printing money? Do you know that unlimited printing of money will eventually lead to economic collapse?" Sir Barron was taken aback and shook his head. "Once something serious happens, London will definitely hold it accountable."

"Sir, you are talking about unlimited money printing. We just want to get through the current difficulties. It is limited money printing. Just balance the appropriation of the health bill. With the huge land and population of British India , a grant of no more than 30 million rupees will not make the situation worse, isn't there a cover for famine?"

"Now that the capital flow of the people due to the drought is close to freezing, this is also done to increase the economic vitality of British India. It is not simply printing money. It is more appropriate to call it quantitative easing."

Alan Wilson, who was categorically rejected by Sir Barron, tirelessly carried out persuasion work, explaining what quantitative easing is.

Calculated in rupees, British India’s annual tax revenue is already close to two billion, and a mere thirty million health allocation will not be noticed by anyone, at least the Indians will not notice

Quantitative easing policy increases the base money supply and injects a large amount of liquidity into the market as an intervention method. Quantitative easing policy is used to encourage spending and borrowing. Quantitative easing refers to expanding a certain amount of currency issuance, and easing means reducing the financial pressure on banks.

Quantitative Easing When securities of banks and financial institutions are acquired, newly issued coins are successfully put into the private banking system.

Alan Wilson is a restrained gentleman, and he will not exhaust his resources. The last time he used it for himself was only 7 million rupees, and this time it was used to serve the health bill of the entire British India, and he asked for no more than 30 million health allocations.

"Alan, this is a big deal." Sir Barron wanted to veto it, but when he thought that this assistant was quite capable, mainly due to the relationship with General Mountbatten's daughter, he still didn't say the veto, it just showed the seriousness of the matter sex.

"Of course, sir. Our imperial civil servants have always been responsible when defending national interests." Alan Wilson did not mention quantitative easing, but he still gave a guarantee.

"You must exercise restraint." Sir Baron thought for a long time and finally nodded, telling Alan Wilson to pay attention to the scale and handle things.

Alan Wilson nodded, and then left the Governor's Mansion. It was not the first time he had gone to Delaru's banknote printing factory in New Delhi, and he was already familiar with it.

Coming here for the second time, Alan Wilson was still excited, and he was breathing a lot. It seemed that the air was filled with the smell of money. Anyway, after India became independent, it would take back the right to print money. It will not be used now. up.

This time printing money is to test the waters for the official start of quantitative easing in the future. Alan Wilson will naturally use this method with absolute restraint as promised, and spend all the money on the health bill.

As long as there is no problem this time, there will be much less opposition when using this weapon in the future.