no LORD READING

Greece and Turkey may be continued, and that if the con-
flict in the Near East must proceed, Britain may not be
compelled to depart from her declared policy, and I trust
also that a just and reasonable peace may result from the
endeavours of the Allied Powers between Greece and
Turkey which will content the Moslems, and particularly
the Indian Moslems who constitute so great and important
a portion of the population of His Majesty's Empire."

These citations from the early speeches of the new
Viceroy, when he was still young in office, and had enjoyed
but few opportunities of measuring the ground and probing
the causes of Indian grievances, will suffice to show the
spirit in which he approached the two great problems which,
as stated at the commencement of this chapter, awaited
him, the one domestic and internal, the other external and
to a great extent mondial. In both cases there was a
certain measure of hope; but a greater measure of appre-
hension seemed to lurk in the background. The Reforms
had not been greeted with that loud volume of approbation
and applause that would have expressed the discriminating
and grateful acceptance which would have sealed their
success. The promises to observe a just neutrality between
Turkey and Greece did not dispose of the unpleasant fact
that both in Europe and in Asia Greek armies stood as
victors on territory indubitably Turkish, or wipe out the
stains by which these victories had been accompanied and
attained. Still the consolation remained to the Indian
Moslems that the Government of India, under both Lord
Reading and his predecessor Lord Chelmsford, had been and
was still doing its best to act in support of their views and
their cause, and that, while Mr. Montagu remained at the
India Office, they had a staunch friend and sympathiser
in Whitehall.

The personal side of the question must not be ignored.
Lord Reading's reception had been on the whole sympathetic,
and neither by the public nor in the Indian Press was there
any display of personal animosity towards him. In some
circles he was regarded as semi-Asiatic by his race. The
evidence is more positive, because he himself provides it,