INDIA, HEMP AND FLAX. 59 



" The result of these inquiries has been to imbue them with 

 a strong conviction that it is from our Indian empire that this 

 supply is to be procured. Should their expectations be 

 realised, the benefit to this country would be very great ; but 

 the advantage to India itself would also be very considerable, 

 owing to the profitable employment which the cultivation of 

 Flax would afford to the native population. 



"As a proof of the magnitude of the linen trade, I may 

 mention that the sum annually paid by this country for Flax, 

 to Russia alone, amounts to fully 3,000,000. 



" As Dundee is the chief seat of the linen trade of this part of 

 the kingdom, I need hardly urge upon your lordship the vital 

 importance of this question to the memorialists, and to my 

 constituents generally. 



"I feel sure that it will receive from the Council for the 

 Government of India and from yourself, the attention which 

 its gravity demands, and that, every information which the 

 public records of India can furnish, and any assistance which 

 your Board can afford will at once be given. 

 " I have, etc., 



(Signed) " JOHN OGILVY, Bart, 



M.P. for Dundee. 

 ' The Rt. Hon. Lord Stanley, M.P., 



President of the Council for the 



Government of India." 



" East India House, 6th Nov., 1858. 



" SIB, I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in 

 Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th 

 ult. Lord Stanley fully appreciates the great importance of 

 the object which the memorialists have in view, and is most 

 anxious that no means to that end should be wanting which 

 are within the proper province of Government. The capa- 

 bility of various parts of India to produce Flax of good quality 



