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LIBRARY

CALifO.vNIA

SAN DIEGO

The Rt. Hon. Mr. E. S. MONTAGU
ON INDIAN AFFAIRS

WITH FOREWORD

Dr.Bir S. SUBRAMANYA AIYAE, K.C.I.E., LL.D.

GANESH & Co, MADRAS.

At the risk of incurring the anger of my crtics,
I would express once again my behef that here
is a growing spirit of nationality in India the
direct product and construction of British rue :-
Budget Speech— (1912.)

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CONTENTS

PAGE.

{Foreword ... i to xii

The Indian Budget, 1910 .... 1

1911 .... 66

1912 .... 143

1913 .... 204
The Indian Railways and Irrigation .... 256
The Condition of India .... 268
Indian High Courts Bill .... 282
The Indian Police .... 287
[Liberalism and India ' .... 295
'The Government of India Bill .... 313
•Opium Traffic .... 345
Mr. Montagu's visit to India •. .... 354
The Land Problem in India

and England .... .358

The Council of India Bill 389

Tribute to Sir K. G. Gupta .... 394
iKeport of The Mesopotamian Com-
mission .... 397
-Mr. Montagu's Future Policy .... 418
Index .,„ 423

Dr. Sir S. Subramania Aiyar.

FOKEWORD.

On no Secretary of State for India has fallen
till now so critical a responsibility or so fascinating
a task as has at the present hour devolved wpon
Mr. E. S. Montagu. He is still on this side of
forty, having been born in 1879. Of a virile stock,
he represents the robust and self-reliant side of
British character, which knows its mind, is cons-
cious of what is expected in the highest interests of
the nation and is prepared to face the real issues
that call for a decisive attitude. Within a remark-
ably brief period of 11 years, Mr. Montagu has as a
matter of course taken his place in the front rank of
British Parliamentarians. Representing one of the
most intellectual parts of the United Kingdom in the
House of Commons, he has been, if 1 may say so, a
wide-awake student of world's affairs, retaining a
quickness of grasp and an instinctive liberalism of •
mind which we generally associate with purely
intellectual pursuits. There is not much of romance
in him as in the case of Mr. Churchill who is five years
older than Mr. Montagu but is likely to continue for
some years yet the favoured youth of Great Britain.
Mr. Montagu is a man of facts, of details, of

routine even. One might say he would have succeed-
ed as a watchmaker quite as well as a politician and
5'et he is one of those who never forget the
mainsprings of human motive and action in handling
statistical details and attending to the requirements
of official technique. It is this readiness to enter
into details without withdrawing himself from an
incessant regard to the principles underlying them-
that must have constituted the secret of his Parlia-
mentary success and made him so valuable a
lieutenant to one of the greatest of Parliamentary
chiefs, Mr. Asquith.

He entered Parliament as one of the represen-
tatives of Cambridgeshire when he was twenty-seven
and at a time when the Liberalism of Great Britain,
bursting open the Conservative embankment which
was losing its cementing principles, filled the country
with a great wave of democratic victory. It was
just then also that Mr. John Morley, in his
68th year, staked his high reputation' in accept-
ing the untying of the tangled skein which
Lord Curzon had made of Indian affairs during a
Viceregal term of about 7 years of unhampered au-
tocracy, barring the single incident with Lord
Kitchener. Mr. Montagu as Parliamentary Secre-
tary to Mr. Asquith awaited his opportunities of
greater individual responsibility, as he was witnes-
sing the rush of Liberal Parliamentary programme
on the one hand, and the efforts Mr. Morley was

Ill

making in defending an amazing negation of the
very rudimentary principles of Liberalism on the
other. From 1906 to 1908, until he sought the im-
munity of the House of Lords, the saint of radicalism
had to play the part of the apologist of executive
despotism, without any convincing reason for his
attitude, taking shelter in a Papal spirit of finality. He
started in 1906 with the late Kt. Hon. John Ellis as
his Under Secretary with a cloudless sky over him, the
anti-partition agitation still hoping for immediate
redress at his hands, and a phalanx of stalwart
Liberals of unimpeachable Indian experience stand-
ing behind him in support of a policy of rescission.
Mr. Ellis, only three years younger in age to Mr.
Morley, belonged to the old generation of upright
politicians of the Society of Friends and could not
understand the' strange feat of looking upon
admitted blunders as settled facts. He was-
too old to be yoked to such a policy even in
conjunction with an older man and that of the
classic reputation of Mr. Morley. Had they pulled
together from 1906 to the closing days of Mr. Ellis,
the fate of India would have been cast in a differ-
rent mould from the one that took form and shape
between 1906 and 191 1. However, the place resigned
by Mr. Ellis had to be occupied by two other
members of the House of Commons during the next
two years Mr. Morley continued in the Commons.
So long as Mr, Morley was in the Lower House ^

the brunt of the attack and the dnty of the defence
fell upon him, yet it was not every body that could
^_^tandwhatMr.Morley's reputation alone could stand.
And even Mr. Morley finding the task too gngroug
for his age and probably also prompted by the feeling
that Indian Reforms would be seriously obstructed
in the unreformed House of Lords where the forces
of reaction were in absolute ascendancy, made up his
mind to enter the chamber of retired reputations.
< The Master of Elibank, a tried, elderly and valued
- supporter of the Treasury Bench, who was the fourth
Under Secretary after Mr. Morley's a.^fy^^l; to the
India Office, succeeded in a way on account of his
standing in the Liberal Party, in maintaining his
footing; but yet it was as an echo of the policy of
^^yA settled facts, that he was regarded by a House that
had become apathetic to Indian troubles. When
he was translated from this trying position, the
choice of an Under Secretary who could bear the
burden of his chief in the House of Commons,
when the Indian Unrest was still without a satis-
factory solution, fell upon Mr. Montagu then only
in his 31st year and with a Parliamentary expe-
rience of four years. Many others might have
hesitated from an ordeal of that kind, especially
if they had to face it at the very beginning" of a Parlia-
mentary career, Mr. Montagu however took it up
with a resolve to master the details of the India
Office and the problems of the Indian Empire,

;as he was making himself answerable in the
House of Commons to the direction of his chief.
From February 1910 to February 1914, until
his appointment as Financial Secretary to the
Treasury, he got into intimate touch with the
affairs of India with a growing sense of confidence
in regard to what India required in internal
reforms and a purified system of political and
administrative control in England. In reading
his Parliamentary speeches between these years the
oritical Indian reader will have to bear in mind that
from 1910 to the end of 1911 he had to stand by
the declared policy of Lord Morley and that he
had yet to acquire a close acquaintance with India
as will justify the assumption of any individual res-
ponsibility in regard to the critical topics of the
period. With the Royal visit to India during the
closing fortnight of 1911 and the beginning of 1912, v^
commenced a new era throwing into the oblivion ;;
of the past the egregious blunders of distrust and<^*^ ^
division which the amateur statecraft of Lord .
Curzon had produced in copious abundance. Mr,
Montagu not satisfied with a knowledge of Indian
questions from blue books and the wardens
of the bureaucratic system in the India Office
mad^ up his mind to visit India on that historic
occasion and to complete his equipment by a personal
study on the spot of the main features of Indian
Government. The task of Lord Cr#we and Mr.

VI \

Montagu became easier from 1912 onward. In 1914
he found he could leave the Under Secretaryship-
without any disadvantage to India if his services were
required elsewhere. In February he left it and in
August broke out the War.

Lord Crewe had ample experience and insight,
and as Lord Hardinge was in India, there was
no need for anxiety of any kind and no need
either to think of Mr. Montagu in connection
with India. But the progress of the War neces-
sitated the formation of a United Cabinet, represent-
ing a United Party without Parliamentary-
Opposition. The offices had to be redistributed in a
way that the Cabinet might contain representatives
of the Leading Parties. Earl Crewe and Mr. Roberts
had to give place to Mr. Austen Chamberlain
and Lord Islington respectively. Although it
was a Coalition Cabinet, in the distribution of
places India had to be allotted to a Conservative
politician, rather, an office of the first rank had to
be allotted to a leading member of the Conservative
Party, and Mr. Austen Chamberlain became
Secretary for India. Mr. Chamberlain's succession to
the India Office was not a matter that could have
made a vital difference from May 1914 to April 1916,
because of Lord Hardinge's presence in India as
Viceroy. The Master Charmer of the loyalty of
Indians, England owes to Lord Hardinge what it
owes only to three other of her greatest of Empire-

"Vll

builders, Lord Clive, the Marquess of Wellesley,
and Lord Canning. His departure from India
little over an year ago threw Indian affairs
into comparatively inexperienced hands and the
control that should have belonged to them passed
into the hands of the permanent Bureaucracy. The
inevitable results of a policy of repression followed
at a time of unprecedented political and national
upheavals in Modern History. It is hard to say
what would have been the fate of India if the Meso-
potamian Failure had not come as a timely saviour
of the situation to pass the control of India from
Mr. Chamberlain who knew little of India, knew less
of its budget of troubles in the immediate past,
and knew least of all of the character and tradi-
tions and of the tenacious love of vested interests
of the Indian Bureaucracy. But if that control
had to pass from Mr. Chamberlain to somebody
else as a matter of party consideration and not
of personal fitnesss at a critical moment the change
would have been of no use. Mr. Lloyd George
deserves the gratitude of the Empire for passing
it on into the hands of Mr. Montagu. Young as he
may be considered to be, he has his feet on no slip-
pery ground, having been equipped for his task by
study, personal knowledge and the spirit of Lord
Morley's "individual responsibility" which he
has imbibed fully to the benefit of the vast
millions of this country. The bombastic pretensions

Vlll

of ex-pro Consuls which when pricked will disclose
what sorry bubbles of misapprehension and
ignorance they are will not intimidate him. Nor
could the threats of a press, which has been habi-
tually the pampered child of Indian authorities
and the members of which are decorated at their
recommendation, but none of whom have been
brought under the operation of the punitive
'provisions of the common laws of the country in
spite of gross slander in which some of them have
indulged against the fountain head of govern-
mental authority in India, ever thwart him from
pursuing a policy of straight service to his fellow-
subjects of the Crown in a country but for
whose inclusion under the British flag, British
Empire will be a healthy shrub, but not the
magnificent banyan tree which can shelter all
the component divisions of an army marching
to victory. He cannot be diverted from his duty
to such a land by a handful of frantic, ill-balanc-
ed and opprobrious critics.

Few can ever have the opportunity of national
and imperial service that has fallen to him now. He
has shewn by his mettle that he will not lag behind
it. The speeches contained in this volume bear ample
evidence of that mettle. Differences of view will
arise as one goes through them. But they are
differences that in no way detract from the estimate
of the man as we have formed here. His latest

speech, delivered just before he put on the harness of
the India Office, shews that the man has come with
the hour. That speech is bound to take its place
among those delivered on momentous occasions
without expectation of what was to come but wnth
a presentiment of the national duty that awaits an
individual. Hardly had the echo of his words
ceased to be heard, they almost seem to have recoiled
on him to put him to a positive test.

Burke himself could not have impeached with
greater directness or warmer conviction England's
neglect of Indian Government. Burke's was a
labour of love for an India that knew him not ; his
was a task for generations of Indians to whom
his name was to become an invaluable heritage and
a monument of British sense of justice. Had he
not been animated by a sub-conscious responsi-
bility for an India that was yet to come to know
him he would have considered his gigantic task
an ephemeral undertaking.

To-day, on the other hand, Mr. Montagu's
responsibility to India is one of which not only he
but his fellow-citizens in India as well are equally
and fully conscious. To-day India repeats word for
word Mr. Montagu's speech on the Mesopotamian
muddle. To-day Indians know what Burke's-
contemporaries in India never knew — how
oourageous British sincerity can brush aside the

meshes woven by sectional self-interest. Mr.
Montagu has now become the hope of India, as
Burke would have become, if Indians could then
have followed his labours on their behalf.

Equally great and talented friends of India
Avith Mr. Montagu England has produced. But they
had no mission, such as Burke took upon himself or
has now fallen to Mr. Montagu. In Mr. Montagu's
•case, unlike as in the case of Burke, it is coupled
with power to accomplish it. Mr. Montagu would
almost seem to have in fact a commission to effect
what he unfolded in the course of that illuminating
and masterly speech.

If even he should fail India after all, there can
be no greater misfortune we can think of to England
and India. So pessimistic a supposition we refuse
to entertain after the magnificent proof he has
given of his courage in handling the question of
internments — for which there seems to be no god-
father now as in the case of the Partition when it
had to be annulled and Lord Curzon himself had
to admit that conditions had changed. Mr. Montagu
has now to make, if not the reputation of his life-
time, a great and memorable part of it. Aliens to
him in race and religion, but one with him in
•devotion to British Sovereignty and to Imperial
Solidarity, the educated classes of India, who after
all is said and done are more to and in this country

than people who look upon it as a field for earning
pay, profit and annuity, regard his coruing to India
as a part of the fulfilment of Providence for the
good of the Empire. So sincere and spontaneous
a faith, so solemn and sanctified an expectation will
not go in vain if Mr. Montagu will prove true to hie
convictions as expressed in his own words. In this
faith this volume, of speeches so timely brought out
by a leading and patriotic firm of publishers, is placed
in the hands of the public with a Foreword the main
object of which has been to present to the reader a
very brief, fair and true though humble sketch of
the gifted author's public career almost from its
commencement as Parliamentary Secretary to
Mr. Asquith. I should be wanting in duty if I did
not add that this Foreword would have been im-
possible but for the hearty and aljjle co-operation
of my friend K. Vyasa liao with his clear and
up-to-date knowledge of Indian politics acquired
not only by a diligent study here in India,
but also in England during his stay there and
through actual contact with British political life.
His forthcoming work. The Future Government
of India, to be published by Messrs. Macmillon &Co.
will furnish an independent contribution to the
solution of the great problems which will have to
be grappled with in the immediate future by Mr.
Montagu among others. There can be no doubt
that Mr. Montagu has understood India aright ; the

Xll

supreme question now is whether after cogent and
courageous consideration he is not to act in the
light of that understanding.

Beach House,

Mylapore, Madars.^ S. SUBKAMANIEM.

27th Sept. 1917.

)

SPEECHES

THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

THE INDIAN BUDGET— 1910.

On the motion to go into Committee on the-
East India Eevenue Accounts,

Mr. Montagu said : This motion would not
sound to a stranger to our proceedings as a highly
controversial one, but the discussion which will
arise upon it is rather inaccurately known as the
Debate on the Indian Budget, and it gives the
House an opportunity, somehow markedly inade-
quate— (hear, hear) — for a review of the whole
circumstances of Indian Government and condi-
tions. In the very large draft which I shall have
to make upon the patience of hon. members I trust
they will make all allowance for certain obvious
disadvantages under which 1 labour. My noble
friend, Lord Morley, has now been Secretary of
State for five years. It was only during the first
two of them that he was able to make his own
annual statement in the House, and for the last two
years and on this occasion the House has to listen
to wliat I believe it will agree is a story of con-
spicuously successful administration from different.

SPEECHES OF THE RT, HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

spokesmen, each one of whom — and I hope I shall
not be guilty of any disrespect to my predecessors
when I say it — has felt the almost insuperable
difficulty of adequately representing not only a
great administrator, but so gifted and individual a
personality as Lord Morley of Blackburn. (Hear,
hear.) Concerning my own predecessor (Master of
Blibank) I can only say that I regret, and never
more than at this moment, the fact that he has
been translated from the India Office, within those
gifts of lucidly expounding any case he has to
defend, and has gone to another sphere of action.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

I do not think it is necessary for me to say
much this year about the foreign affairs of India.
The North- West Frontier has been in a peaceful
and undisturbed condition during the year that has
just closed. There have been a few small raids
which are the ordinary features of frontier life.
The Amir of Afghanistan has appointed Afghan
representatives to the Joint Commission which has
been appointed to consider with a view to settle-
ment various boundary disputes and claims of many
years' standing. The Commission met for the
first time last month, and the attitude of the
Afghan representative was such that I do not think
it is too sanguine to expect that the Commission

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

will soon be able to arrive at a satisfactory
•settlement. On the North-East Frontier the chief
events of the year have been the conclusion of a
new treaty with the Bhutan and the flight of the
Dalai Lama from Tibet. With regfard to the treatv
with Bhutan the effect is to give Great Britain con-
trol over the foreign relations of the State. It may
be taken as an indication of the firm determination
of His Majesty's Government in no circumstances
to allow foreign interference in the froutiei- States
•of Nepaul, Sikkim, and Bhutan — a determination
which 1 am glad to be able to say is fully shared by
the rulers of those States themselves. The flight of
the Dalai Lama from Lhassa was due to the des-
patch to that city of Chinese troops. Hon. members
will find a com[)lete account of the events in the
Blue Book on Tibetan affairs which has just been
presented to the House. His Majesty's Government
have found nothing in them to necessitate a depar-
ture from their policy and the policy of their prede-
•cessors of non-interference in the internal affairs of
Tibet, or, with the domestic relations between Tibet
and China, but they have made it r;le^;r to China
that they will require a strict conformity with the
provisions of the Anglo-Tibetan Convention of 1904
and with the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 190G, and
they have no reason to doubt the good faith of the
assurances which have been received from the

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

Chinese Government. The reason for the despatch-
of troops to Lhassa was to maintain order in that
city and at the trade marks.

THE AGRICULTURAL OUTLOOK.

Then, coming to internal affairs, I am not in:
the position of my predecessor, who described India
in March, 1909, as still under the effects of famine
and distress. The autumn rains of 1909 were
eminently satisfactory, and the autumn harvest has.
been followed by an equally fine spring harvest.
Almost ail the crops have been exceptionally produc-
tij^. The cotton crop gathered in the winter months-
of 1909 was one of the best on record. The
estimated yield is 4,500,000 bales, being an increase
of 22 per cent, on the yield of the previous year.
The rice crop has been equally good. In the province
of Bengal, where rice is the staple article of food,
the yield is put at 78 per cent, better than that of
the previous year, and 47 per cent, better than the
average for the previous five years. The wheat
crop of 1910 now coming into the market is one of
the best of recent years. In 1908 the yield was-
6,000,000 tons. In 1909 it was 7,600,000 tons. This
year the final estimate is no less than 9,500,000
tons. The agricultural prosperity of India may
thus be said to be completely re-established, and
it immediately begins to have an effect on the-

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

increase of exports and of imports, and a diminution
of prices of the commoner food grains. The export
trade has increased from i* 100,000,000 sterling in
i908-9to .£123,000,000 sterling in 3 909-10. Should
wheat and seeds continue to be exported through
the autumn and winter months to the extent
-anticipated, the export trade of 1910-11 will be of
a very large scale indeed.

TRADE PROSPECTS.

Of course, the import ti-ade has been slower to
move because there was a great accumulation of
stocks, and the slump of 1908 was so severe that
recovery cannot be expected very quickly. In
1909-10 the imports fell from £8(3,000,000 to
^£8-2.000,000, but in the closing months of the year
there was a considerable upward movement. The
■third sign of improvement, the fall in general prices,
is in some degree of great importance to large portions
of the population of India, particularly those who
■dwell in towns, and is the most gratifying sign of
improvement, when we recollect that the common
food grains are 20 per cent, cheaper now than they
were a year ago. But, of cjurse, it must not be
forgotten that the agriculturists of India have bene-
fited very largely by the increase m prices of what
they have sold, while the land revenue and other
dia.^es have remained stationary. Twenty years ago

SPEECHES OF THE ET HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

it took 401b. of wheat to pay the land revenue on
an acre of land in tlie Punjab ; now it takes only
29113., and meanwhile the average sale price has
risen from 38 to 98 rupees in the Pimjab. It is a
much higher figure in the irrigated provinces.

PLAGUE AND MALARIA.

This picture that we have been able to sketch
of a practically wholly agricultural community is a
very satisfying one, but I have got something
rather less optimistic to say upon two subjects ■
which have always got to be mentioned in Debates
on Indian aifairs — they are the plague and the
malaria. Last year my predecessor was able to-
say that the plague was decreasing, that it had
shown decreasing virulence in 1908 and 1909.
Experts thought that the worst had been seen of this
disease before 1906, which had shown the biggest
rate of disappearance of its great virulence. The
mortality in that year dropped from 1,000,000 to-
157,000. In 1907 it rose again to 1,200,000. In
1908 it decreased to 150,000, and in 1909 the
mortality was only 175,000. But this year it has
flared up once more, and to the end of June the
mortality was 374,000, and, as informer years, the-
death-rate has been most severely felt in the United
Provinces and the Punjab. It is a local disease in
the sense that it seems always to recur in particular

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

provinces and in particular districts of particular
provinces. But on the other hand scientific evidence
all seems to show that it is unconnected with any
peculiarities or* local circumstances such as drains,
and is wholly unconnected with the comparative
wealth or poverty of the inhabitants. The exter-
mination of rats and fleas, the prevention of their
importation from an infected district to a district
not infected seems to be now agreed as the essential
way of tackling the disease. Inoculation, and the
temporary evacuation of infected premises are usei
as subsidiary measures. Although the statistics are
not hopeful, it is satisfactory to think that the
population of India are getting more a id more to
realise the necessity for co-operriting in the adminis-
tration of laws for enforcing remedial measures and
carrying on the continual war which the Govern-
ment of India have undertaken against the ravages
of the plague. But I may point out that in British
India with a population of 230,000,000 the death
rate annually is 8,000,000, so that in all the year
the contribution which the plague makes to the
death rate is a very small one. Malaria is far more
important to the population of India at large, and it
is very difficult to gauge accurately the ravages of
this disease, because the death returns under the
heading " Fevers " in India are not very scientific ;
but, of course, in regions where malaria is active

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

the death-rate under the heading " Fevers " in
British India shows its activity. In 1908, when
malaria was very severe in Upper India, the death
rate from fever rose from 4,500,000 to 5,424,000 or
an increase of 900,000, which may roughly be set
down to the ravages of this disease. The causes
which bring about epidemics are obscure. They
seem to be connected with excessive rainfall that
floods country and increases the facilities for the
breeding of the infecting mosquito. In October,
1909, a Committee was convened by the Viceroy at
Simla, and the results of this Conference are such
that when they are adopted we may hope for a very
profitable and satisfactory effect. In the towns' site
improvements may be made that will have the effect
of limiting the breeding places of the mosquito. I
fear that we must still have resort to active mea-
sures such as the distribution of quinine, which has
always been provided by. means of plantation as
widely and cheaply as possible, though since the
Conference the production of quinine has been still
more facilitated, and its distribution at a still
•cheaper price as widely as possible is being helped
— and by grants in aid of various municipal bodies
for drainage and improvement of sites, while at the
same time remedies are being attempted in the
towns where the malarial mosquito abounds and
breeds.

the indian budget — 1910.

India's financial position.
So much for a general view of the material
■conditions of the people of India. Up to now I have
dealt with matters affecting the condition of large
masses of the population of India, but, as the subject
of this Debate is, officially at least, the accounts
and estimates of the Government of India, it is my
duty to say something of the financial position of the
•Government of India in 1909-10 and 1910-11. I
shall endeavour not to weary the House with an
unnecessary display of figures. I have so much to
say, and I recognise so clearly that the longer I
take to say it the less time there is for members of
the House to say what they want to say, that I pro-
pose to deal very briefly with the financial stateinent
for the year. The BIuq^ Books which have been
laid before the House on the subject contain a full
account of it, and for the first time this year they
contain, in addition to the financial statement of the
financial member of the Viceroy's Council, and the
ordinary tabular statement, the very instructive
debates in the Viceroy's enlarged Council, and I
would recommend to all students of Indian affairs a
perusal of these books. They will find them of
exceptional and absorbing interest. At the begin-
ning of the year 1910-11 the chief topic of interest
is how far the results of the past year actually
coincide with the Budget Estimate of March, 1009.

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

This Estimate shows a surphis of £230,000, while
the revised Estimate shows a surplus of £289,000,
and I am happy to say that later figures show the
surplus as £526,000, so that the difference between
this final figure and the £230,000 estimated for is
not a very serious matter, having regard to the large
amount of expenditure involved. But the resem-
blance is only superficial, and the discrepancies
between the results of the year and the Budget
Estimate are very large indeed. There was, as the
Budget had anticipated, a great improvement in
revenue as compared with the preceding year, but
with the exception of opium, the improvement fell
very short of what had been anticipated. Land
revenue, taxation and commercial undertaking
produced together £476, 300 less than the Budget
Estimate, and a deficit was only avoided for two
reasons. First, expenditure on both Civil and
Military work was kept well within the Budget
Estimate. Having regard to the very great im-
portance of economy in India, this is not only
satisfactory in itself, but" augurs very well for
the future of the finances of the country. The
second reason was that owing to the good results
of the opium sales in the year, and the higher
prices paid than was expected, opium produced
£'900,000 more than the Budget Estimate. The
House will agree that this sum, exceptional as it-

THE INDIAN BUDGET— 1910.

was, was rightly treated by the Government of
India as a windfall, and a large portion of it was
expended in making grants to those Local Govern-
ments whose rinances had been depleted by the
famine arrangements of three years ago. Aiter
making these grants to Local Governments they are
able to show, as I was saying a surplus for the
year 1909-10 of i* 526,400.

A Comparison with Past Years.

As regards the present financial year, 1910-
1911, new taxation is necessary for the first time
in sixteen years. Since 1894-95 there has been no
new taxation in India, while the relief granted to the
tax-payer in land cesses in 1905-6 and the reduction
of the Bait, Tax in 1908, and again in 1905 and
again in 1907 and the reduction of the Income Tax
have relieved the taxpayer and have cost the State
no less than £4,500,000 a year. This year, in order
to show a balance of i'376,000, additional taxation
to bring in ii'l, 126,000 is being imposed. The main
cause of this additional taxation is that while the
revenue, owing to the remission of taxation under
certain heads, has not expanded, there has been a
very large increase in the expenditure under certain
heads with which the revenue has not been able to
keep pace. I will not make a compari.son with the
revenue of 1907-8, because that was a year of

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

famine, or of 1908-9, which was a year of exceptional
depression in trade, or of the year 1909-10, in which
there were abnormally high opium prices. The last
normal year was 1906-7, and if I compare the
Estimate for the year 1910-11 with that year, I find
that while land revenue, stamps. Excise, and
Customs have increased, railways, salt. Post Office,
and irrigation have decreased by almost the same
amount, so that if there was no increase in taxation
the revenue would be very nearly the same as in
1906-7.

RAILWAYS AND SALT REVENUE.

Let me explain for one minute briefly, this
question of decrease in revenue. Eirst, as to railways.
The gross receipts have increased by £ 3,000,000,
but the working expenses and interest charges have
increased by £ 4,750,000, leaving a net decrease of
£ 1,750,000. These increases and expenses were fully
explained by the Chairman of the Railway Board
during the discussion in the Viceroy's Council. They
are attributable partly to increases in wages and
salaries, partly to improvements in facilities, and to a
large expenditure in strengthening and doubling lines
-and improving and enlarging stations. Such expendi-
ture is not immediately productive, but there is every
reason to hope that, in course of time, its value will be
very great. I am spared the necessity of developing

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

further the subject of railways, because a few
months ago I was able to lay before the House, in
introducing the Loans Act of this year, an account-
of the convenience and profit to India of this, which
is one of the best examples of Socialistic under-
takings which the world has to show. As regards-
salt, the loss of revenue is due to the reduction of
the duty in 1907-8 from H rupees to 1 rupee per
maund. If the reduction of the duty has caused
the revenue to fall in the same proportion the loss
would have been £1,365,000, but there has been a
considerable increase in consumption in this neces-
sary of life, reducing the loss to £967,000. Of the-
.i'481,000 loss under the heading of " Post Office,.
Telegraph, Mint and Exchange " there was a
reduction m postal rates in 1907-8 which costs
£208,000 a year.

The Growth of Expenditure.

When I turn to the expenditure figures I find
an increase for 1906-7 of £2,48.5,000. Neverthe-
less, I would point out that there is a decrease
under the heading of " Military Services " of no
less a sum than £463,900, although the figures for
1910-11 include the costs of the increase granted to
the pay of the Native Army, £426,000. The chief
cause of this economy is that the expenditure on
Lord Kitchener's scheme for the improvement of

SPEECHES OF THE BT. HON, MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

the Indian Army has been greatly reduced, owing
to the completion of some measures, the modification
of others, and the improvement of the international
-situation. As regards the increases, expenditure in
the Education Service has increased by half a
million, in the Medical Service by £300,000, in
the Scientific and Agricultural Departments by
£224,000, and in buildings and roads by £185,500.
I do not think I need dtrfend these increases. In addi-
tion to this, there has been an increase of £881, 300
in the cost of the police force, in accordance with
the recommendation of the Police Commission of
1903. There have been also increases in the pay of
-subordinate establishments employed on the collec-
tion of the land revenue and in other departments,
necessitated in some cases by the general upward
movement of prices and wages. There is one
aspect of the growth of expenditure which I ought
to mention, because it was referred to at some length
in the financial statement of India — I mean the
increased amount assigned to the Government of
Eastern Bengal and Assam. The income assigned
to the Province in 1906 was found to be inadequate
for its needs ; the Province was somewhat backward
in educational facilities, in medical establishments,
in means of communication, and so on, and the
experience of the last four years has shown the
necessity for increasing the funds available for its

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

development. The Government of India has,
accordingly, made to it a grant of about i;255,000 a
year, with effect from 1910-11, and this is the charge
which has to be met in this year's Budget.

Opium and the Chinese Agreement.

The Finance Member of the Viceroy's Council
also laid special stress upon the prospective
loss of revenue from opium, compared with
1908-9 and 1909-10. It is a fact well known
to members in all parts of the House that new
sources of revenue will have to be discovered to
replace the opium revenue which is to be lost to
India during the next ten years. Actual receipts
for any particular year may vary, because the
reduction in the output may lead to an increase in
price, but the larger the receipts to any year the
greater the loss that will be felt when the trade
is ultimately stopped and that source of revenue
disappears. During the five years 1901-5 the
average total annually exported irom India to
countries beyond the seas was 67,000 chests, of
which China took 51,000, and this amount the
Government of India undertook, with effect from
January 1, 1908, to reduce by 5,100 chests per year
for three years. The Chinese Government on their
part undertook to reduce progressively in the same
way the production of opium in China. There are

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. 3. MONTAGU.

no returns as to the amount of this production, but
recent estimates put it at eight or ten times the
amount of the Indian import. It was further agreed
that if the Chinese would fulfil their share of the
agreement, the Indian Government would continue
to reduce their export by 5,100 chests annually for
seven years more. The present year is the third
year of the agreement. The Indian Government
have limited the export of opium, and the Imperial
Chinese Government on their part claim to have
reduced production by more than three-tenths of
the area formerly under poppy. Although this,
cannot be substantiated by statistics there is no
reason to doubt that this is true. But the Foreign
Office, before agreeing to the renewal of the agree-
ment, have deputed Sir Alexander Hosie, lately,
Consul-General at Tientsin, to make euquiry. The
condition that statistical proof should be furnished
has been waived, and the Chmese Government have
been offered an extension of the existing agreement
for another three years.

THE EFFECT ON INDIA.

As regards the average annual net revenue
before the agreement with China it was i3, 500,000
sterhng. In 1908-9, the first year of the agreement,
it rose to ^'4,645,000 ; in 1909-10 it was i.'4,432,000.
This improvement, despite the reduction of export, is.

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

lue to higher prices obtained for Bengal opium, to
ihe decrease on expenditure in Bengal, owing to
■educed operations, and the fact that Pass Duties on
^lalwa opium have been received in advance on
)pium that will be exported up to the end of 1911-
^n 1910-11 there will be no receipts from Pass Duties,
)ut a higher price has been estimated for Bengal
tpium, and the revenue budgeted for is £3,500,000
terling. In 1911-12 receipts on account of duty on
ylalwa opium will not commence until January,
.912, and there w^ill then be monthly sales from that
late of the rights to export the fixed number of
:hests of Malwa opium. Assuming that Bengal
»pium will continue to fetch Rs. 1,750 a chest, a
let revenue of about £3,000,000 a year may be hoped
or in 1911-12 and 1912-13. It will thus be seen
hat the first half of the agreement with China will
)ass without injury to the Indian revenue, but the
econd half will be more serious. Now, the Secretary
>f State is receiving representations from members
if this House urging the shortening of the ten years'
)eriod. (Hear, hear.) This period was proposed by
he Chinese Government themselves, and the
Chinese have suggested no alteration. I can only
ay that any alteration would lead to serious
inancial and administrative questions. I would
irge members to be satisfied with the very satis-
actory arrangement that has been made, and to

17
2

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

forbear to ask that an excessive strain should be
placed either on the finances of India or on the
temper of the opium cultivators, the taxpayers both
in British Provinces and in Native States, and the
relations of the Indian Governments with those of
the Native States. It is generally known that the
United States Government have issued an invitation
to His Majesty's Government to take part in a
proposed International Opium Conference to be held
at the Hague, in order to give effect to the
recommendations of the Shanghai Commission and
to consider otherwise the opium question. His
Majesty's Government, in examining in a friendly
spirit the tentative programme which the United
States Government have suggested, is inclined to
think that it may require some revision before it
can usefully serve as a basis for a conference, and
that some preliminary understanding between the
Powers as to the subjects to be discussed may be
desirable. His Majesty's Government, for instance,
could not agree to submit to discussion at the proposed
conference the diplomatic relations subsisting bet-
ween this country and China, and it may probably
desire to know whether the Powers, accepting the
principle of a conference, will assent to the Confe-
rence dealing fully with the cognate question of
regulating the export of morphia and cocaine to the
East, and will undertake to have the necessary

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

information collected if it is to arrive at a useful deci-
sion. However that may be, the fact remains that
-despite the prosperity of India, the increase in its
expenditure on subjects such as I have mentioned,
the condition of the revenue, owing to remission of
taxes, the prospective loss of revenue from opium,
account for the necessity for new taxation this year.
To meet a deficit of £750,000 and to turn that
deficit into a surplus of ,^376,000, the Govern-
ment have proposed new taxation amounting to

£1,126,000.

The New Taxes.

This money is to be found by increasing the
Customs Duties on imported liquors, to yield
£135,000 with a corresponding excise on beer
manufactured in India to yield i'33,000 ; an increase
in the duty on silver to yield £307,000 ; on petro-
leum to yield £105,000, and on tobacco to yield
£420,000, with an increase, on Stamp Duties t©
yield £12(5,000. No increase, it will be seen, has
been proposed on any necessary of life, and the
easy expedient of once again increasing the Salt
"Tax or the land rates has been verv nronerlv avoid-

V A. Jo *'

ed. There has been little discussion of the Liquor
Duties an increase in which will have satisfactory
results if it stops fjome of the import of cheap foreign
spirits with their corrupting and demoralising effects
on the natives in some parts of India. The duty oa

SPEECHES OF THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

silver has been seriously canvassed, and the debate-
thereon in the Council is one of the mosc valuable
and instructive. The duty vi^as formerly 5 per cent.,
but the increased duty is 16 per cent., or a rise from
about i]^d. to 4rf. per ounce. One incidental effect
of the duty will be to raise the value in India of the
large amounts of savings held by the Indians as
silver. It was expected in some quarters that,
in consequence of the imposition of the Indian duty
the prices of silver outside India would fall, and this
would involve a fall in Indian exchange on China.
It was argued that, in consequence of this, the
exportation of goods from India to China would
become less profitable, while the Chinese producer,,
not being exposed to this same disadvantage, would
gain. I will not go now into the question as to
whether the trade of one country is permanently
fostered, or that of another injured by the rise or fall
in the rate of exchange ; but these objections to a
very good revenue-producing duty have been answer-
ed, and the question has become academic only
because the prices of silver and the Indian exchange
on China have risen since the imposition of the in-
creased duty. The price has risen from 23 7-1 6d.
per oz. to 25^d, and the China exchange has risen
from Ks. 129J to Ks. 1321 per $100. The increased
tax on petroleum is not likely to cause much
comment. The import of petroleum is increasing,

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

:and rose in India from 83,000,000 gallons in 1904-5
to 90,000,000 gallons in 1908-9. There has been
considerable objection to the new duties on tobacco.
These were imposed for revenue purposes only. The
amount of tobacco imported into India in 1908-9 was
five and a half million pounds. If duty had been paid
on this import at the rate now in force in the
United Kingdom it would have produced ?gl, 449,000,
^instead of £39,000. It was only reasonable that,
when in need of revenue, an attempt should be
made, as in other civilised countries, to obtain from
this source a substantial amount. The new duties
are less than half those now in force in the United
Kingdom In so far as they will stop or reduce
the importation of inferior cigarettes into India,
cigarettes which sell for ^^d. per packet of ten, or
even cheaper, and do something to check the
growth of cigarette smoking, no one will be sorry.
If they were protective they would defeat the
object of the Secretary of State, and the Govern-
ment of India, in raising revenue. I may add that
the Indian tobacco which is alleged to compete
M'ith the imported article is of very poor quality.
The natural conditions in India are hostile to good
curing, for the climate is too dry, and the fermen-
tative changes necessary do not take place. The
average value of such unmanufactured tobacco as
is produced in, and exported from, India, is shown

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

"by the Trade Returns to be about l^d. per lb. As
I have so often said, their effect has been watched,
and is being watched, with the greatest care, and
the desirability and possibility of a corresponding
excise will always be considered. I may say,,
before leaving finance, that the need for economy
is obvious from what I have said. The Secretary
of State is now considering what steps may be
desirable in order to secure a more economic-
administration.

The Political Unrest and its Genesis.

I have now done my best to enable the House
to form some opinion of the material condition of
the people of India. There remains the even more
important task of examining the political condition'
of the Empire. I say it is more difficult, because
we Western people, bred in the tradition of self-
government, do not easily realise the complexities
that involve the ruling power in India — (Hear,,
hear) — the diversities of interest through which the
path of compromise must be found, the multifari-
ous elements that must be welded into a large and
steady policy. The conflicting claims of different
classes may bulk largely at home, but underlying
them there is, generally speaking, an essential
■unity of religion, of tradition, and, on the whole, of
interests. In India are associated under a single

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

rule varieties of races far wider than can be found
in the whole of Europe, as many different religions
as Europe contains sects of Christianity. Stages of
civihsation range from the Hindu or Mahomedan
Judge on the Bench of the High Court to the naked
savage in the forest. Grafted on to this diverse
population, numbering nearly 300,000,000, is a
European element, numerically insignificant, less
than 200,000 in all, a population in no sense resi-
dent in the country, but of an importance in the
spheres of education, commerce, and administration
wholly disproportionate to its numbers. The res-
ponsibility for the government of such a country
rests ultimately on the people of Great Britain, and
is exercised through the Secretary of State in his
Council. The problem before us is to yoke a govern-
ment, as complex and irresponsible to the peoples
which it governs as the Government of India, to a
democratic system in England which every year
shows itself more determined to do its share in
the government of this great dependency. The
mechanism for performing this duty lies in this^
House. The views expressed in it on an infinite
variety of subjects must be duly considered by the
Secretary of State, who is, in effect, the servant of
the House. To achieve this responsible task in the
House requires dignity, reserve, and a sense of pro-
portion vshich it is difficult to overrate. In the

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

last Pa,rliament there was one who was accustomed
to take a prominent part in Indian and Imperial
affairs, who differed widely from me and my friends
in his views, whose methods might well be taken as
a model for such discussions as these. I should like
to add a word expressive of my p^^rsonal sense
of loss on the death of Lord Percy, which has
already been widely lamented.

The Larger Audience.

I fully realise that my words, and, indeed, the
words of all who follow me, are not only likely, but
certain, to be over-heard, and that our discussions
are awaited thousands of miles away by people of
little experience of political government, of growing
political ambition, with inherent and acquired charac-
teristics totally different from our own. Our words
must be chosen not onlv for Englishmen accustomed
to Parliamentary Debates, but for Englishmen
impatient of Parliamentary Debate — not only for
English audiences, but for Indian audiences. I
know full well that recent changes in the Indian
attitude are confined to a very small portion of the
population. One must never lose sight of the remark-
able fact that nine-tenth3, or over 200,000,000 of
the vast population of India are still uneducated and
illiterate. All talk of unrest, of which one hears so
much, is talk of that small fraction of a vast number

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

•of the people which education has reached, and
within this small fraction are to be found all those
divergent forces which are classed together as poli-
tical unrest. We must remember, however, that
the amount of yeast necessary to leaven a loaf is
very small ; when the majority have no ideas or
views the opinion of the educated minority is the
most prominent fact in the situation. (Hear, hear.)
How much earnest thought and hasty judgment
centres on the word "unrest." (Hear, hear.) Of
course there is unrest. It is used by some, adorned
by instances of the inevitable friction of complex
government, as a proof of the failure of the British
occupation. It is used by others, ornamented with
details of crime statistics, as evidence of. the lack of
strength of British rule, of the lack of firmness of a
particular political party in this country, and it is, of
course, used by that portion of the Press which
considers only its own circulation for sensational pur-
poses. (Cheers.) May I say how strange it seems to
me that a progressive people like the English should
be surpised at unrest ! We welcome it in Persia,
commend it enthusiastically in Turkey, patronise
it in China and Japan, and are impatient of it in
Egypt and India ! Whatever was our object in
touching the ancient civilisation of the Indian
Empire, whatever was the reason for British
occupation, it must be obvious that Eastern civilisa-

•25

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

tion could not be brought into contact with Western
without disturbing its serenity, without bringing
new ideas into play, without infusing new ingredients
without, in a word, causing unrest. And when we
undertook the government of the country, when,
further, we deliberately embarked on a policy of
educating the peoples on Western lines, we caused
the unrest because we wished to colour Indian ideals
with Western aspirations.

The Eevolt Against Authority.
When we came into India we found that the
characteristic of Indian thought was an excessive
reverence for authority. The scholar was taught to
accept the assurance of his spiritual teacher with
unquestionmg reverence: the duty of the subject was
passive obedience to the rulers ; the usages of society
were invested with a divine sanction which it was
blasphemy to question. To a people so blindly
obedient to authority the teaching of European,
and particularly of English thought was a revolu-
tion. English literature is saturated with the praise
of liberty, and it inculcates the duty of private and
independent judgment upon every man. We have
always been taught, and we all believe that every
man should judge for himself, and that no authority
can relieve him of the obligation of deciding for
himself the great issues of right and wrong. The
Indian mind at first revolted at this doctrine. Then

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

one or two here and there were converted to it.
They became eager missionaries of the new creed of
private judgment and independence, and the conse-
quence is that a new spirit is abroad whereverEnghsh
education has spread, which questions all established
beliefs and calls for orthodoxy, either political, social,,
economic, or religious, to produce its credentials. We
are not concerned here, except in so far as they are
important causes of political unrest, with either reli-
gious or social unrest. It is not necessary for me to
do more than state the platitude that religious un-
rest produces among those who have experienced its
political results. There can be no departure from
religious orthodoxy with out its being accompanied
by its fierce reaction to orthodoxy. Side by side
with the unrest produced dii-ectly by English example'
comes the indirect result of a religious revival. The
activities of those who are questioning the teaching
they have inherited call into action those who fiercely
combat the new religious heterodoxies, abominate-
the Western example producing them, emphasise
the fundamental and, they say, the unconquerable
dififerences between the East and the West, and
demand freedom from alien influences. These two
counter forces — the reform movement and the sur-
vival that opposes it — involve not only those directly
affected, but their parents, relations and friends,^.
and cause political and social unrest.

speeches of the rt. hon. mr. e. s. montagu.

The Work of Social Eeform.
For an example of social unrest I would call
the attention of the House to the social reformers who
are devoting their attention to the education of
women, the abolition of infant marriage, freedom of
travel and sea voyage, and similar social work, with
the far-reaching effects on the domestic sphere, and
result in questioning the usages which claim divine
sanction, and were hardly in olden times distin-
guishable from religion. Despite ostracism and
sometimes boycott, pecuniary loss and moral obloquy,
the efforts of the reformers are in a small degree
bearing fruit. And just as religious reform produces
religious revival, so social reform brings its counter
movement. Those forming it recent interference
with the old-established usage, disapprove of the
reforms achieved and proposed,' and hate the tea-
ching which has produced them and those who
gave the teaching. And then there is, of course,
economic unrest — the necessary concomitant of
an advance in the material well-being of the
masses, indicative of impatience with the mcom-
modities of life which were once accepted as
inevitable, of changes in industrial conditions of
increasing wants and of quickened desires. There
is a perceptible advance in the general well-being,
but the start is from a very low point. The enlarge-
ment of the wants of people accustomed to an

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

extraordinary simple standard of living is bound to
manifest itself in ways which are indicative of
economic unrest. Viewed broadly, India may be
said to be passing from the stage of society in which
agricultural and domestic industries of the cottage
order have predominated, in which each village has
been an isolated community, and each individual
attached to a particular spot and hereditary occupa-
tion, to the stage of organised over-seas commerce
and capitalised industry. As yet the transition is
visible only in a few exceptional districts, where
factories or coal-mining have taken hold, and in
the maritime cities through which the commerce
of India to other countries pours. Indirectly,
the whole continent is affected ; the demand for
labour for the industrial centres penetrates to the
most secluded villages, raising the local wage rates,
and increasing the farmer's wage bill. The demand
of foreign countries for the food grains, the oil seeds,
the cotton and the jute of India raises local prices,
widens the cultivator's market, and changes the
crops he grows. The competition of machine-made
goods with hand-loom industry impoverishes the
village weaver, or converts him into a mill hand and
drives him into a town. Of these three movements
— the religious movement, the social movement, and
the economic movement — each produces its quota of
political unrest, and the counter movements of

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

those who abominate the new teaching, resent the
-alteration of the time-honouued social customs,
■dislike any departure from orthodox religion, ques-
tion thfe teaching that produces it, and also show
resentment to those who teach it. All these things
together make that curious, differently produced
force in India which is known as political unrest.

The Handling op Political Agitation.

It would be very surprising indeed if the religi-
ous and social reform movements, such as I have
described, together with the opposition to them, the
desire for economic trade, the tendency to preserve
uneconomic and ancient industries, together with
the spread of education and the growth of the Native
Press, the fermentation of new ideas, stopped short
of the political sphere. Of all forms of liberty
England has always shown the most jealous solicitude
for political liberty, and I think we can regard
political unrest in India as being but the manifesta-
tion of a movement of Indian thought which has been
inspired, directly or indireetly, by English ideals, to
which the English and the Government of India
themselves gave the first impetus. It is constantly
being nourished by English education given in
Government schools afid colleges. In so far as
this political unrest is confined to pressing the
^Government to popularise the government of the

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

country, so far as the conditions of India will
permit, I do not believe that anybody in this house
will quarrel with it. You cannot give to the Indians
Western education from carefully chosen and care-
fully selected teachers, trained either in Europe or
in India ; you cannot give to the Indians Western
•education either in Europe or in India and then turn
round and refuse to those whom you have educated
the right, the scope, or the opportunity to act and
think as you have taught them to do. (Hear, hear.)
If you do, it seems to me that you must cause
another kind of unrest, more dangerous than any
other, among those bitterly dissatisfied and dis-
appointed with the results of their education, who
use methods which have been taught them in
Western countries to vent their disappointment.
For this reason, it seems to me, if I may say so, that
the condition of India at the moment is one which,
handled well, contains the promise of a completer
justification of British rule ; handled ill, is bound to
lead to chaos. (Hear, hear.) English thought may
be responsible for the fundamental principle of revolt
against authority, but it cannot be responsible for
■ all the changes which that principle has undergone
in its adaptation to Oriental environment. It would
be absurd to suppose that old beliefs can be unseated
and old usages altered without some element of
■danger. There have been recently in India mani-

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

festations of political unrest with which no one can
sympathise, and with regard to which difference
of opinion is not legitimate. There have been
assassinations and conspiracies to murder ; there
have been incitements to murder ; there have
been attempts to create hatred against certain
sections of His Majesty's subjects. If this pernicious
unrest were allowed to spread it would result in
widespread misery and anarchy — (Opposition cheers)
it would produce a state of things in India which
would be more inimical to progress than even the
most stringent coercion. (Hear, hear.) It would
spread chaos, from which society would seek refuge
in a military dictatorship. For these reasons, if the
Government was prevented from doing its duty in
preventing this, it seems to me it would be a great
step backwards, and a tragedy in history.

A Statement op Policy.

The majority of the Indians themselves, as the
House well knows, realise fully the danger, and will
exert themselves to suppress those extremists who
are jeopardising their position. I do not want to
risk any assurance which the conditions do not
justify, but I can say that within the last six months
there has been a considerable revulsion in our
favour. Horror at the assassinations and political

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

outrages, which are wholly repugnant to the true
spirit of Hinduism ; the strong line taken by the
Government and the Eajas in regard to sedition ;
the general feeling that political agitation carried
on by students and school-masters is doing infinite
injury to the rising generation, and attempts that
have been made in public and private life to
promote more intimate relations between the
different races — all these combined with the liberal
policy pursued by the present Government in
affording to Indians a wider entry into public life,
have had their effect. But I would ask the House
to consider what, in the face of these different
spirits of unrest arising from the complex and
contradictory causes that I have tried to show should
be the root principle of government in India. The
answer is easy to give, if difficult to act up to. True
statesmanship, it seems to me, ought to be directed
towards separating legitimate from illegitimate un-
rest. The permanent safeguard must be a systematic
government, which realises the elements of good as
well as the elements of danger, and which suppres-
ses criminal extravagances with inflexible sternness.
HisMajesty'sGovernment, acting upon this principle
are determined to arm and to assist the Indian
Government in its unflinching war against sedition
and illegitimate manifestations of unrest, while it

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

shows an increasingly sympathetic and encouraging
attitude towards legitimate aspirations.

THE PRESS LAWS.

I propose, if the House will permit me, to
give the latest example of the two branches of policy
which I have outlined. The latest example of the
first part of the policy is the new Press Act. After
full debate in new Council the measure has become
law, and has been in force for some months — I believe
already with beneficial effects. Its object may be
said to have been to create a responsible instead of an
irresponsible Press. In this country public opinion
may usually be trusted to produce this effect ;
but in India, with its differences of race, of creed, and
of caste, public opinion in this sense can hardly be
said to exist. Therefore something is required in
the manner provided by this Act, which I propose to
examine in some detail, because I recognise fr.inkly
that it is an exceptional measure which the House
is justified in demanding should be thoroughly
examined, and because I believe that a large amount
of the criticism which has been directed against it
is due to a misapprehension of its provisions. May
I assume that it is common ground that a certain
section of the Indian Press has done incalculable
mischief during the last two years ? It was certainly

THE INDIAN BUDGET— 1910.

-common ground in the Viceroy's Council when the
Bill was under discussion. There was criticism of
the remedy proposed by the Government, but nobody
■questioned the necessity for some remedy or the
•existence of the disease. I think it would be difficult
to exaggerate the dangerous effect of seditious
literature on the unformed and impressionable
dninds of students. I need not labour the point ; it
will be admitted by all who have a knowledge of
Indian affairs, and terrible tragedies have brought
it home to us. No one better realises than the
Indian parents themselves, the gravity of the evil,
or more earnestly seek to remedy it. I would ask
permission to read to the House a leaflet which has
already been disseminated in Bengal : —

Dear Readers, — We have made our appearance
at this juncture as the situation is one of extreme
importance. Do not be led away by false hopes and
temporary conciliations. Let not any conciliatory
measure of the Government pacify you and scare
you away from your path. Sacrifice white blood
unadulterated and pure to your gods on the altar of
freedom ; the bones of the martyrs are crying for
vengeance, and you will be a traitor to your country
if you do not adequately respond to the call. Whites,
be they men, women or children, murder them
indiscriminately, and you will not commit any s in,

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S, MONTAGU.

but simply perform the highest Dharma. We shall^
appear again with more details. Adieu !

The leaflet was signed " Editor, " and then
follows a postscript. "The Editor will be extremely
obliged to the readers if they translate this into all
languages, and circulate it broadcast." That being
an example of the sort of thing that is sometimes
circulated among school boys in village schools, it is
absolutely necessary that the Government should
seek some weapon with which to try and prevent
the dissemination of such nauseous stuff. Of course,
the question presents itself. " Why not be satisfied
with the existing law ? You can punish sedition
under the Penal Code and you can prevent sedition
under the Criminal Procedure Code. Two years
ago you passed a very stringent Press Act, which
enabled you under certain circumstances to crush
newspapers out of existence." To this the reply
must be that, notwithstanding careful trial, the
existing law cannot cope with the evil which the
new law is designed to meet. '

The Failure op Past Eepression.

The policy of prosecution under the Penal
Code has been given a thorough trial during the last
three years ; its result has been to make martyrs of
misguided and insignificant youths ; to advertise
sedition, and to enhance the circulation of offending.

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

newspapers. Its deterrent effect on the worst class
• of papers has been negligible. The preventive
-clause in the Criminal Procedure Code is not much
good. It empowers a magistrate to call upon a
printer or publisher to furnish security to be of good
behaviour. This is easily evaded. The person
bound over has only to cancel his registration as a
publisher and to register a dummy publisher and
the newspaper goes on all the same. The Act of
1908 has been successful in preventing the open
advocacy of murder ; but the Act only concerns
itself with open incitements to violence. What
we have now to deal with as well as that evil are
methods which are just as dangerous even if less
flagrant — incessant misrepresentation, the imputa-
tion to the Government of malevolent motives,
incitements to revolution under the guise of religious
exhortation, implied justilication of assassination by
reference to revolutions in other countries. This
preaching by innuendo has proved just as mischie-
vous to the Oriental imagination as any direct
incitement to murder which would have come
under the Press Act of 1908. In these circumstances
the Government determined to make an effort to
•create a sense of responsibility and to prevent rather
than to punish. Let us see what the Act does.
Instead ot concerning itself with the individual, like
-the clause of the Criminal Procedure Code referred

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU..

to above, it transfers the security to the newspaper
or the Press itself. No security is exacted from any
registered newspaper which was existing when the-
Act was passed, unless it is guilty of publishing,
seditious matter. All new publications alike, so
that it does not involve any invidious distinction,
furnish security varying from £33 to £133, unless
the magistrate thinks fit to grant an exemption,
owing to the fact that, in his opinion, the funds of
the newspaper are not sufficient to find the money
necessary. In the event of a newspaper which has
given security against the publication of seditious
matter, publishing seditious matter, the security
and all the copies of the offending issue may be-
declared forfeit, and a new and larger security
demanded. On a subsequent offence, subject tO'
appeal to the High Court, the Press itself, ^as well
as the security, is forfeit.

The New Act Defended.

Such are the main provisions of the Act. I
would submit to the House that this Act really
provides a far more humane procedure than the-
procedure by prosecution, which some members^
seem to prefer. Instead of putting the offender to
the ignominy of prosecution and imprisonment, he
is, on the first offence, merely warned in a friendly

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

manner. If he proceeds in his infringement
of the law he does so with his eyes open. Even
then he is only asked for a modest security, upon
which he will be fined interest by the Govern-
ment. Even after a further offence, if his security
is forfeited, he has only to furnish a further
security in order to have further chance of doing
well. Nobody can represent this as drastic ! It
certainly would not prevent anarchy of which the
Press is not the cause, but only the manifestation.
We only hope that by this means we shall be able
to check the contamination, by deliberate mis-
representation and inflammatory doctrine, of those
who might otherwise be useful members of the
community. The Press remains free to publish what
it likes. Honest papers will not be affected by it.
Those papers which have anything to fear from it
have so abused the full measure of freedom,
previously granted, that the continuation of their
unfettered freedom will become impossible. The
fear that the smaller concerns may be extinguished
by their inability to find security has been met by
the orders issued by the Government of India that
in these cases the requirement should be waived,
and no security should be taken. Personally, I am
not impressed by the picture some have drawn of
the nervous editor, not knowing whether he may
have incurred the displeasure of a crouching

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

Government. The Act enumerates very definitely
the sort of writing that consitutes an offence, and
it expressly exemuts from its purview the honest
expression of disapproval of the Grovernment action.
May I quote to the House a remark of Sir Fitzjames
Stephen, which was quoted in the debate in the
Viceroy's Council '? It runs : — " I do not believe
that any man who sincerely wished not to excite
disaffection ever wrote anything which any other
honest man believed to be intended to excite
disaffection." I believe there is nobody in this
House who will not in his heart of hearts
agree with that remark. I can only say that the
Government of India have always kept promi-
nently before them the necessity of avoiding at all
costs, what might impair the right, which is not less
valuable to the Government itself, of frank and
honest criticism of Government measures and
action. They have issued Administrative Orders
with a view of securing uniformity of obligations,
and with a view of avoiding, if possible, hardships.
In the circular in which they issue instructions to
refrain from demanding security in the case of papers
whose resources cannot supply it, it is also stated,
or laid down, that existing newspapers should be
warned before demanding security, and that the
security should be fixed at the minimum that may
reasonably be expected to enforce obedience to the

THE INDIAN BPDGET — 1910.

law. I should like to quote one paragraph of the
recent Order, because I do not think you can find
better evidence of the determination of the Govern-
ment not to use this Act in any harsh or oppressive
way : —

It is the earnest wish of the Governor-General
in Council that the Act should be administered with
careful discrimination between those newspapers
and Presses which are generally well conducted and
those which transgress from a deliberate intention
to excite disaffection. No order of forfeiture should be
passed without previous consultation with the Law
Olficers, and in coming to a decision due weight
should be given to other articles published by the
offending journal which indicate the nature and
tendency of its writings.

The Approval of Indian Opinion.
I am now going to ask the House's permission
to quote an Indian paper on the way in which the
Act is ^eing administered. The editor of certain
vernacular papers had been warned by the Deputy-
Coiamissioner of Lahore against continuing to
publish matter which might excite disaffection and
cause a disturbance of the peace between the Hindu
and Mahomedan populations. The " Tribune " a
daily paper edited in English by an Indian gentle-
man, commented as follows: —

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU,

Where the authorities think it necessary tO'
move, it is certainly wise and far-sighted to put in
friendly counsel before taking action under the law.
The fact that the Deputy-Commissioner of Lahore
had demanded an undertaking in the first instance,
is a clear and welcome indication that the authorities
have no desire to work the law in a harsh or
rigorous manner.

That is a welcome tribute with which I trust
the House will agree. Let no one imagine that this
Act has been thrust upon an unwilling India. If
there is anyone who thinks that, I would beg him
to study an account of the debate in the Viceroy's
Council, which has been issued as a White Paper^
and note the way in which speaker after speaker
arose and acknowledged the lamentable necessity for
such action. I believe that the Act, taken in con-
junction with the Seditious Meetings Act, will
complete the armour necessary, so far as one can
foresee, for the repression of the campaign of
calumny and of sedition. It will, at any rate, j)revent.
that horrible form of sedition-mongering which
consists in disseminating cruel mis-statements among
young boys at school.

What is "Sedition?"

May I ask the House to consider for one
moment how difficult it is by quoting words to decide

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

what is and what is not seditious. Let me
give an example. It is constantly said by sedi-
tious people that the English have caused malaria.
There are apologists who say — and on one occasion I
heard my hon. friend Mr. Ramsay MacDonald
adopt this attitude — " But this is an interesting
scientihc fact. Canals are the breeding places of
anopheles. The English build canals. It is a good
wind that blows nobody ill ; they, therefore, produce
malaria. This statement, which is seditious in your
opinion, is merely an attempt from the man who
utters it to disseminate an interesting scientific
result incontrovertible and remarkable." How
harmless is the sentiment if this were all ! But what
sophistry all this is ! When it is uttered with the
deliberate attempt to make the ignorant believe that
the British Government have introduced malaria
deliberately, by building canals and even railroads
to diminish the troublesome population, it ceases to
be a scientific fact ; it becomes a dangerous, libel-
lous and malignant calumny.

The Police.

I will take again, as another example, the sub-
ject of the Indian police, and I will say as I have so
often said in the House, that no one can deny the
imperfections of this force. But you cannot produce a
complete reform of a faulty force in a year, a decade-

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

or even fifty years. The improvement has been the
most earnest attempt of the British Government —
yes, and of the Indian people — during the last sixty
years, during which the pohce have formed the
subject of a series of Commissions of Enquiry, the
last of which was appointed in 1902 by Lord Cur-
zon. It recommended comprehensive reforms in all
branches of the service, the annul cost of which was
estimated at over £1,000,000 sterling. Its findings
were adopted by Government Resolution, and effect
has already been given to most of the proposals, and
the work of reorganisation is still in progress. Let us
consider for one moment the force with which the
Report deals. The Civil Police in British India
number 176,000 men, who have to deal with a popu-
lation of nearly 232,000,000, scattered over
1.000,000 square miles. Let me give a typical
district. In a district of Bengal there is a Euro-
pean superintendent of police, with the assistance
of an Indian deputy-superintendent, who has to
control nine inspectors, seventy-nine sub-inspec-
tors, eighty-three head constables, and 778 consta-
bles. The are* of the district is 5,186 square
miles, the population is nearly 3,000,000, there
are twenty-six police stations and twenty one
■outposts, some of them very difficult of access*
and in 1908, 4,170 cases of serious crime to
investigate. These statistics illustrate, far more

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

than any words of mine, the difficulties under which
the police work is done in India, and when one
reflects that educated Indians regard police duties
with abhorrence, that to work for a " confession,"
as it is euphemistically termed, has been inherited
from pre-British times as the best mode of procedure
in a criminal trial, that little help is obtained from
the people in bringing criminals to book, some faint
idea of the difficulties will be realised. Having
regard to all these circumstances, it is not surprising
that isolated instances of abuse may sometimes be
found. But by improving the police, by the vigorous
prosecution of malefactors, by the expenditure of
money, reorganisation must be gradually effected,
and is going on with a determination which no
honest man can doubt. Let me ask the House to
compare some extracts which I have taken from
the Commission on Torture in Madras in 188-5
with the Keport of the Curzon Commission of 1902.
The Commission of 1855 quotes and endorses the
words of an official witness : —

The so-called police of the Mofussil district is
little better than a pollution. It is a terror to well-
disposed and peaceable people none whatever to
thieves and rogues, and if it were abolished in toto,
property would not be a whit less secure.

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MB. £. S. MONTAGU.

The Commission of 1902 says : —

It is significant that a proposal to remove a
police station from any neighbourhood is opposed by
the people. They know that, on the whole, the
police are for their protection.

The Commission on Torture in Madras in 1855
: spoke of • the universal and systematic practice of
personal violence," and said "it was still of enormous
proportions, and imperatively calling for an im-
mediate and effectual remedy." The Commission
of 1902 wrote : — " Deliberate torture of suspected
persons and other most flagrant abuses occur occa-
sionally, but they are now rare." Again, I say, a
marked improvement has been seen. Nevertheless,
so keenly and rightly sensitive are the English
people about reform in the police force that defects
are quickly pointed out. To point out defects in
the police force, if it is considered that they still
require pointing out, and to suggest new remedies
and palliatives which have not yet been discovered,
if there be such, is useful work, demanding the
sympathy of all men, but to collect instances of
abuse, many unproved, some proved to be false, to
take quotations from their context and garble them,
to represent as findings of a Commission what is
merely report of popular opinion, to quote a state-
ment of an interested party, as being " an account
of what happened in the very words of the official

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

resolution," to say that the Indian Government has
Hever prohibited torture, when it is punishable with
«even years' penal servitude, to ignore any Govern-
ment action to stop these abuses, and to represent the
Government as ignorant or supine, callous, and tole-
rant of bad practices, I say, whether this be the work
■of a Hindu agitator or an ex-Member of Parliament,
it is seditious, dangerous, and ought to be stopped.

Indian Students in England.

Turning now from these unpleasant subjects, I
want to say that it is undoubtedly true that, hand in
hand with any repressive measures designed to deal
with manifestations or symptoms, the root causes
must be dealt with too, and chief among these we
must look for an improvment in the matter of educa-
tion. The worst danger which threatens India is the
lawlessness or disregard of authority which exists
amongst students or schoolmasters. Now, I have
described the political difficulties which exist to-day
as largely the consequence of Western education.
If there is a solution it is surely to be sought in
some reconsideration of the system which caused it,
both in India and England, even at the cost of other
economies or new taxation and large expenditure
from the revenues of India. Let me first deal with
the position of the Indians who come to England

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MK. E. S. MONTAGU.

for purposes of study. The number now in England
cannot be less than 1,000 they are far removed froni
the influence of their parents and guardians ; they
often arrive wholly friendless and ignorant of western
customs. Their position is one of great difdculty and
considerable danger, and they afford a problem
urgently demanding solution. Last year my
predecessor outlined the means by which we hoped to
deal with the question, and the House will expect ta
hear what progress have been made. These measures
fall under three heads, namely; (1) The appointment
of Educational Adviser to Indian students at the
India Office ; (2) the appointment of an Advisory
Committee ; (3) the provision of a house for the
National Indian Association and the Northbrook
Society for the purpose of a joint clubhouse. The
educational adviser, Mr. T.W. Arnold, was appoint-
ed in April, 1909. His duties are multifarious. He
must be a store of information upon educational
matters of every kind. He must advise students as-
to their residence if they do not become members of
a residential university or college. He is a staDd-
ing referee for educational institutions as to the
qualifications of Indian applicants for admission.
A doubt was entertained whether Indian students
would be willing to avail themselves of the assistance
of an official agency situated at the India Office.
This doubt has been resolved in a most satisfactory

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

manner. The students come in very large numbers,
and the immediate problem is to cope with the very
large amount of work with which the educational
adviser has to deal. In the last twelve months his
personal interviews with Indian students have
numbered upwards of 1,300. In addition to the work
which was originally assigned to him, he has been
entrusted by parents in India with the guardianship
of their sons in no less than seventy cases. This
entails closer supervision than is attempted in
ordinary cases, and involves, among other duties,
the care of their money. The Advisory Committee,
appointed in May, 1909, consists of Lord Ampthill
as chairman, six Indian gentlemen of standing, re-
sident in this country, and two English members of
the India Office, with correspondents in the various
provinces in India. This Committee makes recom-
mendations to the Secretary of State upon all
questions referred to them regarding Indian students
and holds receptions from time to time in the India
Othce of students recommended to them by the
University Committees in India. The Committee,
and especially the Chairman, have thrown them-
selves with ardour into their work, and have proved
very useful to the Secretary of State. The Secre-
tary of State has leased a house (No. 21) in CromweH
Road, facing the South Kensington Museum, to
which the Northbrook Society and the National

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

Indian Association will shortly be transferred. The
educational officer will also have his office in this
building. Bedrooms will be reserved for the use of
Indian students upon their first arrival in this
country. Arrangements have been made for meet-
ing students on their first arrival, and, instead of
wandering about as at present in search of lodgings,
they will be welcomed at the house in Cromwell
Hoad, and given a bed and meals at once. Subse-
quently they will be given information about the
many details which a stranger wants to know on
arrival, and advice as to their studies, and they
will be furnished, it is hoped, with introductions
to English friends and see in fact that they
are not friendless in London. The Northbrook
Society will run a social club in the rooms
assigned to it. Both the societies give receptions at
regular intervals, to which Indian and English ladies
and gentlemen are invited, and where opportunities
of making acquaintance are frequent. The house
will be opened, it is hoped, in August, and will be
available for students who come to this country at the
beginning of the next academic year. A good start
has been made on the right lines. The Secretary of
State intends to proceed vigorously on these lines
and, as time goes on and opportunity offers,
to enlarge the scope of organised effort. Let me
add one word, addressed not so much to those within

,50

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

these walls as to such audience as I may have outside
them. Our efforts cannot bear real fruit unless we
•have the co-operation of those among whom the lives
of Indian students are thrown. Many a friendless,
sensitive lad looks back. I fear, on the period that he
*pent in England as one long spell of loneliness and
unhappiness. Nothing that the India Office can do
will remedy that. The remedy lies in the endeavours
of those among whom their lives are spent to over-
come insular reticence and prejudices, and to extend
-a real welcome which, if it is given in the spirit of
true and frank comradeship, and not in patronising
tolerance, will meet with warm-hearted reciprocation
and will bear fruit of which the giver did not dream.

A Minister for Education.

Turning now to India, we must make the
teaching more practical, encourage and extend
technical instruction, for which there is a great
demand, supervise and improve the hostels. The
educational system now in existence has undoubtedly
been successful in purifying the judicial service. It
is capable of great extension in improving the moral
tone of the country, spreading discipline and
disseminating useful knowledge by means of well-
paid and contended teachers. Now education is left
to the Member in charge of the Home Department.
He is overburdened with work as it is, and his

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

duties will be multiplied by the enlargement of the-
Council. Adequate consideration of educational
questions touching the foundations of life in the
many communities of India cannot be reasonably
expected from a Department placed in such
circumstances as these. A responsible Minister for
Education has been an indispensable Member of a
British Cabinet for some time, and there is no reason
why the same necessity should not be just as strong
in what I may call the Cabinet of the Government
of India. Steps are needed to secure a coherent
policy towards education, and to control the
expenditure of the money allotted for this purpose.
We have, therefore, decided to revive the sixth
membership of the Council, dormant since the-
abolition of the Military Supply Department, and
to appoint a member of Council for education.
The head of an Education Department will
be all the more likely to perform his work in
a broad and comprehensive spirit if he is brought
into living contact with the currents of Indian
affairs, and this is most effectively secured by
knowledge of the general deliberations on public
business. It is no object of ours to take a step to-
wards centralisation, but I would remind the House
that the Decentralisation Commission have given
their reasons for thinking that the general control
of educational policy is within the legitimate sphere

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

•of the Government of India, and does not hamper
development in accordance with local needs and
conditions. I may say that such a man, it is con-
fidently hoped and believed, has been found, and
His Majesty has approved the selection of Mr.
Butler — a man who has been occupying up till now
the position of Foreign Secretary to the Government
of India. He will, I am sure, become the head of a
Department which will ensure to India one of its
greatest needs — a better and co-ordinated system
of education.

The Appointment op Mr. Clark.

Whilst I am on the subject of the Viceroy's
Council, I desire to put an end to public anxiety by
announcing that Mr. W. H. Clark, of the Treasury
and the Board of Trade has been appointed, and
His Majesty has approved his appointment, as
Member for Commerce and Industry. No one who
knows his high attainments and conspicuous achieve-
ments in this country and in the East, and certainly
no one among his friends, of whom I am glad to
think he has many in this House, will question that
he brings to a difhcult and imoortant task great
qualifications which will be invaluable to the Govern-
ment of India.

The Indian Councils Act.

I pass now to deal with the other branch of the
policy I have outlined, to give some account of the

SPEECHES OF THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

latest contribution in the direction of meeting'
legitimate aspirations by saying something of the
Indian Councils Act, the working of which has done'
much to improve the condition of affairs in India

during the last six months. I think I may claim
for the Indian Councils Act, the working of which has
done much, as I have said, to improve the condition
of affairs in India during the last six months, that it
has been a great success. The House will expect me
to make a few remarks, necessarily brief, on its w^ork-
ing. It provided, it will be remembered, for a large
increase in the number of the various legislative
councils in India, introduced a true system of election,
making its members more widely representative,
and greatly widened their deliberative functions.
At the same time, though they did not form part
of^^the Act, it was decided to abolish for the future, in
all councils, save that of the Governor-General the
pi-acticeof maintaining a majority of official members.
The Act also provided for the enlargement of the-
Executive Councils of the Governors of Madras
and Bombay, and the establishment of an Execu-
tive Council to assist the Lieutenant-Governor
of Bengal. Our proposals were subjected to
much criticism, both here and in another place,,
and although we met with no actual opposi-
tion in the Division Lobby — except on one point,.

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

which was eventually settled by compromise — the
right hon. gentleman the Leader of the Opposition
deliberately disclaimed on behalf of his party any
responsibility for the consequences that were likely
to follow the passing of the Act. We are quite
content to accept sole responsibility for the conse-
quences, which so far — though it is early yet to speak
— not only falsify the gloomy anticipations expressed
in some quarters, but I might almost say actually
surpass our expectations. The regulations that were
necessary before the Act could come into operation
were published on Nov. 15 last. No time was lost
in holding the elections, and the new councils were
able to meet early in the present year. Since then
there has been no inconsiderable amount of legisla-
tion. In every council a budget has been discussed
and passed, and full use has been made of the newly -
granted right to move resolutions on matters of
public importance. So although the time is short,
the material for forming a judgment on the work-
ing of the Act is not wholly inadequate. There are
two salient points in which particularly the fears of
our more conservative critics have been falsified.
The one is the admirable dignity and .sense of res-
ponsibility displayed by the non-ofticial members ;
the other is the conspicuous and gratifj^ing success
with which the official members, after the
manner of old Parliamentary hands, have explained

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

and defended their policy in debate. Let me take
one illustration — an excellent illustration, for it is
drawn from a case in which the circumstances were
such as to have strained the system to breaking
point if it had possessed the defects that some saw in
it. About a year ago, before the revised councils
had come into existence, a Bill to amend the
Calcutta Police Act was introduced into the Bengal
Council. It was largely uncontroversial, but certain
of its provisions which in the opinion of the Govern-
ment were needed for the efficient discharge by the
police of the duty of maintaining order, excited the
liveliest disapproval from a certain class of Indian
politicians, and a certain section of the Indian
Press disapproval which found an echo in this
country and within these walls. Even after its
stringency had been modified in certain respects
this opposition continued and the Lieutenant-
Governor wisely decided not to pass the measure at
once, but to reserve its final stages for the reformed
Legislative Council.

The " Spirit op Independence."

Now, of all the revised Councils, Bengal has
the largest unofficial majority, and, as everyone
knows, what I may call, for want of a better term,
the " spirit of independence" is more active in
Bengal than anywhere else. We had therefore the

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

interesting experiment of a Bill that had excited
vehement protests as an encroachment on liberty
being considered by a council with a large unofficial
majority drawn from, politically, the most pro-
gressive province of India. What happened ? The
Bill became law after a reasonable and temperate
debate. Only one amendment was put to the vote»
on a point which must, therefore, presumably be
considered the most contentious in the Bill namely,
the proposal to empower the Commissioner of Police
to prohibit processions if likely to cause a breach of
the peace. The amendment was lost by thirty-
six votes to five, nineteen non-officials voting with
the Government. I have dwelt upon this example
because in it were present in a peculiar degree all
the elements of danger that our critics apprehended
and because a single actual instance is more illu-
minating than a profusion of generalities Inciden-
tally, I may observe how much stronger is the posi-
tion of a Government when they rely on legislation
passed in such a way than when their legislation
bears the quasi-executi«ve stamp of an official majo-
rity. As in legislation, so in non-legislative
discussions the debates have, on the whole been
notable for moderation and reason. Such debates,
especially the preliminary debates on the financial
statement, have an educational value that must not
be overlooked in that they bring home to non-
57

SPEECHES OF THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

oificial members the real difficulties of administra-
tion. Every question has been fully discussed ; all
opinions have been represented, and the Government
has had ample opportunity for stating its views,,
explaining its motives, and bringing out the diffi-
culties of a particular line of action. And in these
discussions there has been no sharp line of cleavage
between officials and non-officials ; the old idea that
non-officials must necessarily be in opposition seem&
to have disappeared. I would commend many of
these debates — as, for instance, the debate on
primary education in the Governor-General's-
Council on March 18 — to the careful attention of
students of Indian matters. The House is aware-
that in fulfilment of the other part of the Act of
1909— the part relating to Executive Councils — we-
have appointed Indian gentlemen to the Executive
Councils of the Governors of Madras and Bombay.
We have also sanctioned proposals for the establish-
ment of an Executive Council for the Lieutenant-
Governor of Bengal ; I hope an announcement will
be made on this subject at a very early date. In
effect, the Councils ,'Act has resulted in producing
excellent debates, creating opportunities for the
ventilation of grievances and of public views,
creating public opinion, permitting the Governors
to explain themselves, giving to those interested in
politics a better and a more productive field for their

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

persuasive powers than the rather more sterile-
debates in Congress.

Disaffection and Eeform.

I have now described not only the latest
measure for dealing with disorder, the measure to
create a responsible Press, but also the latest
measure for an attempt to popularise the Councils
Act. The material which I have now laid before
the House will give the least imaginative member
ample food for thought and profitable thought on
the most difficult problems which the science
of government has ever offered to students. I am
fully conscious of the impossibility of presenting
a true picture, and of the audacity that I have
been guilty of in endeavouring to analyse nations
and attempting to assign causes for their emotions.
Let me frankly tell the House that I could never
have found the courage to make these attempts or
to occupy the attention of those who have survived
so long, did I not find strength, courage, and inspi-
ration in the supreme importance, overwhelming
interest and great complexities of my subject. The
dangers that beset the future of India are the
sources of its possibilities. They can only be avoided
by acknowledging and fostering the germs of pro-
gress, and they can only be really aided to a healthy
growth by a war upon the internal evils in which

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON, MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

they are embedded. Let me only point out frankly
some of the dangers that I think I see first here in
this House. Do not, on the one hand, oppose all
agitation for reform because you are led astray to
confuse it with seditious agitation. Do not use your
murderer as an excuse for your conservatism. And
I use that term in no party sense. The hon.
member behind me (Sir J. D. Reess) does not sit on
"the benches opposite — but nonetheless he is a
Conservative, (loud laughter.) You cannot foster
sedition more surely than by driving to it, or confu-
sing with its advocates those who look to you with
confidence for sympathy with their legitimate
aspirations. You see clearly the seditious man and
his seditious writings, and you are led to say :
" This is Indian unrest : this House can have
no sympathy with it. Let us put it from us, let
us uproot it vehemently. But w^en you put it
from you, do not put away with it the man who is
deserving of your respect and sympathy. And aided'
by this, and because of this, the other danger comes
into being. Do not fear that you are lacking in
sympathy with the true reformer because you refuse
sympathy to the anarchist. Of course, nobody in
this house really sympathises with anarchy. But
because yoa are afraid that some reformer may be
called an anarchist, because you fear that you will
be accused of . refusing to assist those who are

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

animated by some democratic ideals similar to your
own, you are led sometimes to appear to throw a
protecting cloak over the malefactor in order to
proclaim aloud your sympathy with the reformer.
To resist the efforts made to cope with the anarchist
because you will not trust the Government of India
to differentiate between the anarchist and the
reformer ; these divergent, contradictory, and
equally dangerous tendencies would, either of them,
if they prevailed, subvert order and dissipate the-
promise to be found in Indian affairs at the moment;
and it is because of their existence that all parties
in the House should help the Government in segre-
gating violence and incitement to violence^ which
mask, hinder, and might render impotent real efforts
for reform. Remember, too, that every reform is
irrevocable in India. Each reform opens out new
activities, new spheres of thought, new views
of life to \hose whom it affects. Each reform
demands eventually, as its corollary, new and further
reforms. These reflections ought to lead to ready
acquiescence, on the one hand, in reforms that are
justly demanded, tempered by the utmost caution,,
on the other hand, in taking steps irrevocable in
themselves and inevitably leading to further steps.
The Administrative Machine.
What of those at the other end of the machine?'
I trust implicitly, from what I have seen of the

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

public-spirited men who administer India on the
spot, that they are determined to meet the changing
spirit of the time generously and sympathetidally.
Paper reforms are useless if given grudgingly and
made the excuse for tightened reins in administra-
tive action — punitive measures become as dangerous
as the evils they are to cure if used indiscriminately
for repression and not for punishment, to drive
honest men to despair instead of sinners to repen-
tance. But I am positive — and this House will, I
hope, find evidence of this in the study of -Indian
affairs on all han^s — that lessons and examples of
the past and the high purpose and loyalty which are
the cherished possessions of the Service I am dis-
cussing, ensure the avoidance of such obvious dangers
as these. The ranks of the Civil Service are, however
recruited yearly from our universities, and to those
who are going to India to the responsible tasks they
have chosen I am bold enough to say, mainly
because I am fresh from the university and know
vividly at what I am hinting, banish as quickly as
you can the intolerance of boys and the prejudice
of undergraduates, imbibe the traditions of the great
Service you are joining, adapt them to modern de-
mands, and go to administer a country in virtue and
by the power of the sympathy you can implant in
its people. Remember that the best intentions of the
Government may be frustrated by the most junior

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

members of the Service, called upon, as they are,
immediately to assume great responsibilities. I can
conceive no more important career than the Indian
Civil Service, and I would urge that it should be the
object of all those who enter it to permit not even
the most unfriendly examination to direct any
■deterioration in the Service. This is a suitable
moment for taking so comprehensive a survey as I
have wearied the House with this afternoon.

The Viceroy.

Lord Minto, after a difficult reign, is returning
to England, and I believe will receive, when he
returns to this country, the gratitude which he has
so richly earned from those upon whom the ultimate
responsibility for Indian government rests. The
relations of a Viceroy to the Secretary of State in
•Council are intimate and responsible. The Act of
Parliament says : " That the Secretary of State in
•Council shall superintend, direct and control all
acts, operations and concerns which in any way
relate to or concern the Government or revenues
of India, and all grants of salaries, gratuities and
allowances, and all other payments and charges
whatever out of or on the revenues of India." It
will be seen how wide, how far-reaching, and how
complete these powers are. The Secretary of State

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

is separated from this task by the sea, hampered
by the delays of communication, checkmated by
the lapse of time. The cable and the steamer alone
render them possible, and for a successful adminis-
tration of India the most liberal-minded, hard-
working Secretary of State is helpless without a
loyal, conscientious and statesmanlike Viceroy.

A Five Years' Record.

Lord Morley and his Council, working through
the agency of Lord Minto, have accomplished much.
Taxation has been lightened to the extent of
millions of pounds ; famine has been fought and
frontiers have been protected with unparalleled
success and speed. Factory conditions, general
health, education, the efficiency of the police, have
all been improved ; the pay of the Native Army has
been increased. Our relations with Native States
have been improved and were never better. The
rigidity of the State machine has been softened,
while liberal measures of reform have opened to the
educated classes of the Indian community a wider
field for participation in the government of the
country. This is a great record for five years, and
contains many abiding results of a conspicuously
successful administration of Indian alfairs. I believe
that men of all parties will be grateful that Lord

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

Morley remains to carry out the policy he has
initiated, and the new Viceroy, Sir Charles Hardinge,
goes to India amid the almost universal welcome of
those who recognise his high attainments and great
qualifications. I cannot do better than close by
addressing to him with all respect the words that
were addressed to his grandfather on a similar
occasion by Sir Robert Peel, because I believe they
embody now as short as it is possible to put them
the essential needs of the continued success of
English Government in India. The Prime Minister
wrote in 1844 : —

If you can keep peace, reduce expenses, extend
commerce, and strengthen our hold on India by
confidence in our justice and kindness and wisdom,
you will be received here on your return with
acclaims a thousand times louder, and a welcome
infinitely more cordial, than if you had a dozen
victories to boast of.

THE INDIAN BUOaBT— 1911.

On the motion to go into Committee of Ways
and Means on the East India Revenue Accounts,

Mr. Montagu said : There is a regrettable cus-
tom which, if not unbroken and unbreakable, is at
any rate nearly always respected — that the repre-
sentative of the India Office should thrust himself
and his Department only once a year upon the
attention of this House. And yet I am conscious
that this year the House has been asked to listen to
me twice in one week, and this at a time when the
noise and excitement of party strife is at its height,
and when ominous clouds are hanging low over
Europe. But I make no apology, for India is,
and India will remain, one of 'the first of
Bncfland's responsibilites, as she is one of the first of
England's glories. Her history and her future call
for as much attention as we can give — and, indeed,
far more than we can give — to the consideration of
her problems. I have nothing personal to say save
that I fear I have increased my own difficulties by

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1910.

^he eagerness with which — like an explorer in a new
•country — I travelled so wide a field last year, I do
not want, for obvious reasons, to repeat what I said
then, and I hope that, in turning my attention to
other subjects, I shall not be accused of avoiding
anything of difficulty. Before I turn to business, may
I pay the customary tribute — customary and sincere
— to those who have taken part in this debate in
former years, and who, since last year, have passed
away '? I allude to two of my predecessors. Mr. John
Ellis was a respected Parliamentary veteran, who
showed his interest in Indian aifairs by devoting in
my office the last years of his Parliamentary activity,
almost the last years of his life. Mr. Buchanan, whose
share in the passage of the Indian Councils Bill
through this House, will, I hope, never be forgotten
by India, won by his breadth of view, courtesy, and
gentleness the respect and attention of all parties in
the House at a time when Indian affairs were more
controversial than at present.

The Census.

Last year, it will be remembered, I gave the
House some figures — always poor things at the best
by which to try to picture a country — to show the
numbers of the peoples with which we had to deal.
I can give them more accurately this year, because
in India, as in this country, a census was taken last

SPEECHES OF THE KT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

spring. It extended to all the Provinces and
feudatory States forming the Indian Empire — from
the Shan States on the borders of Yunnan in th&
east to the deserts of Baluchistan in the west ; from
the snows of the Himalaya in the extreme north to
Cape Comorin in the tropics. It embraced an area
of IJ millions of square miles. Within nine days of
the enumeration the Government of India were able
to announce the provisional figures of the Provinces
and Feudatory States and principal towns. The-
corresponding provisional figures in this country
were not announced for seven weeks. This is a
remarkable instance of most careful preliminary
organization and attention to the minutest details*
It would not have been possible without the willing
co-operation of many voluntary workers belonging
to all classes of society. Census-taking in India is
not without its own peculiar difficulties. I am told,
for instance, that on one occasion a certain tribe in
Central India became firmly persuaded that the
enumeration was preliminary to their being sold as
slaves, and serious rioting or failure was threatened.
The official in charge of the census operations, being
a man of resource, realised that some plausible
hypothesis was required to account for the enumera-
tion ; so he sought out one of the headmen and
informed him that the tribe were quite under a
misapprehension ; that the real object of the-

THE INDIAN BUDGET— 1911.

■enumeration was to decide a bet that had been made
•after supper between Queen Victoria and the 'Tsar
of Russia as to whom had the greater number of
subjects. Not only the Queen's reputation, but also
lier fortune, was at stake. All trace of trouble
•disappeared, and that tribe was enumerated to a
man ! (Laughter.) The total population of India is
■returned at 315 millions, against "iOl millions in
1901. But part of the increase (1,731,000) is due
•to the inclusion of new areas. Allowing for this,
■the net increase in the ten years comes to 6.4 per
•cent. The rate of increase shown by the recent
census in the United Kingdom was 9.06 per cent.
•Of the total population of 315 millions, 24-1 millions
are included in British India and 71 millions in
Native States.

The Financial Position.

With these figures let me now turn to the real
•or ostensible purpose of my speech — the description
of the Budget — the finances of India. It is here, as
usual, that I propose to compress my subject as
much as I can. Full information has already been
•given in the two Blue-books circulated to hon.
members. It may be that some, at any rate, among
us have looked at them, and it is certain that,
-anybody who wants to can do so ; so I propose to

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. 3. MONTAGU..

confine myself to a recaptulation of a few of the-
important facts and a brief explanation of certain
features.

In March, 1910, the Government of India
budgeted for a surplus of iJ, 376, 000. At the end of
the year they found an improvement of £5,448,400,
but of this improvement .£402,000 went auto-
matically to Provincial Governments. Thus the
amount by which the position of the Government
of India was better than had been anticipated in
March, 1910, was £5,046,400. Half this excess
may, for the moment, be disregarded, because it
arose from an exceptional and transient cause — the
sensationally high price of opium. Apart from this
there was a saving of £811,600 on expenditure, and
an increase of £1,912,900 in the yield of heads
of revenue other than opium. On the side of
economy the most important feature was a saving
of £358,000 in military expenditure, partly due
to decline in prices. The improvement of
£1,912,900 in the yield of heads of revenue other
than opium was mainly the result of increased net
receipts from Customs, and from commercial under-
takings such ,as railways and canals ; £494,300
occurs under Customs. I will only mention two
items — silver, which showed an increase of £450,000,.
und tobacco, which showed a decrease of £ 225,467.
When the former duty was being increased last yeai-"

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

a cautious estimate was naturally framed of its.
probable yield, since it was necessary to allow for
the possibility of some dislocation of trade consequent
on the increase. But, as a matter of fact, the
importation of silver in 1910-11 showed only a very
small falling off from the very high level of the
preceding year, and the revenue gained accordingly.
It may be added that the fear expressed during the
discussions in. 1910 that the increased duty might-
depress the price of silver outside India and thus
cause some disturbance of international trade ha&

not been realised. The London price of silver just

7
before the increase of the Indian duty was 23£^c?per

ounce ; the present price is 24^d.

I Profit and Loss.

The effect of the increased duties imposed on
tobacco last year has not been so satisfactory. The
duties were fixed at the rates that were thought
likely to be most productive, and the Government
of India hoped that they would bring in £420,000.
They affected the trade to a much greater extent
than was anticipated ; in fact, imports during
the year showed a reduction of 75 per cent,
in quantity and nearly 50 per cent, in value. Rail-
ways accounted for £1,272,000 of the surplus, irriga-
tion X*91,000, and telegraphs 1:104,000. The

SPEECHES GP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

improvement in the profit of railways is the result
of the increase in the gross traffic receipts — .£674,500
— and the decrease of working expenses, interests
charges, and miscellaneous charges by £597,700-
The share-holders, who are junior partners with the
Government in some of the most important lines of
railways, have benefited considerably by the improved
traffic and cheaper working. The guaranteed com-
panies receive as surplus profits, or net earnings, over
£100,000 more than in the preceding year. In the
period from June 1, 1910, to June 1, 1911, although
Consols fell from 82J to 8I5 the general trend of the
prices of the stock of the chief Indian railway com-
panies was upward, sometimes as much as 6 J points,
as in the Bengal and North- Western and the
Southern Punjab Railways. It will thus be seen
that the better financial position of the Govern-
ment is not the outcome of increased burdens on
the people, but is the indirect result of favourable
conditions by which the general population benefits
much more directly, and in much fuller measure
than the Government. The Government of India
is not merely a Government. It is a vast
commercial undertaking, sharing directly in the
prosperity of its subjects, and directing many of
their most profitable enterprises. How it came about
that England — so distrustful of national or even
municipal commercial enterprises — at a time when

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

I suppose, it was even more distrustful than it is
now, gave to those who administered for it in India
such wide commercial opportunities is a matter for
speculation ; but not only in railways and in canals*
but even in agriculture — the chief industry of India
— the Government is a large and active partner.

The Harvest and the Trade BiiTURNS.

It is this situation which makes budgeting in
India so diiiicult — the impossibility of predicting
the conditions which may lead to large surpluses or
great deficits. Empires may rise or fall, but the
weather — here little more than a topic of banal
■conversation — is of paramount importance to the
peoples and the Government of India. Of course
the world's harvest is at the root of world trade, bat
in India failure of the harvest brings misery to
millions, danger and difficulty to an overwhelming
proportion of the population in her provinces, and
<ieficits to her Government. Success of the harvest
brings overflowing coffers to the Government and
prosperity to the people. Last year I was able to
tell the House that, after two years of severe
drought, the abundant rains of 1909 had re-
established the agricultural prosperity of India.
The crops of 1909-10 where heavy, the prices satis-
factory, and the export trade generally brisk. I am
thankful to be able to say to-day that there has been
no check to this prosperity. The monsoon rains of

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E, S. MONTAGU.

1910 were sufficient, and the harvests reaped at the
end of the year and in the recent spring have been
normal or above normal. The prediction that I made
last year of expanding trade has also been fulfilled.
The exports of Indian merchandise in 1908-9
were £100,000,000; in 1909-10, £123,000,000 and
in 1910-11, £137,000,000. (Cheers.) A rise of
37 per cent, in three years is a notable event, and
imports of merchandise have increased, too, though to
a much less extent. Thus, then, it is to this general
prosperity of harvest and of trade that India owes
its surplus. I turn now to the extraordinary
improvement in the actual receipts from opium as
compared with the Budget estimates. It is hardly
necessary for me to assure the House that this is
not the result of any deviation from the arrange-
ments made with China in 1907. It is on the
contrary, the result of strict adherence to that
Agreement ; for the restriction of supply, consequent
upon the steady progress of the reduction of exports,
has raised prices to an unexampled level. In 1908-9
the average price of a chest of opium sold in Calcutta
for export was £92 ; in 1909-10, it was £107 ; and in
1910-11 it was £195. The consequence of this
extraordinary rise was to give the Government of
India last year £2,723,000 revenue from opium
beyond what they expected, and this, added to the
surplus with which I dealt just now, gave the total
surplus of about £5,500,000.

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

•

The Disposal of the Surplus.
The uses to which this surplus were put are-
fully explained in the Blue-books. It will be seen that
a million pounds has been granted to local govern-
ments for expenditure on projects of permanent
value for the development of education and sanitation
— two crying needs of India, about which I
shall have more to say later. Of this amount
i.'601,200 will be distributed between technical and
industrial institutions, primary and secondary
schools, colleges, hostels, girls' schools and European
schools, and about £400, 000 will be used for drainage
and waterworks in towns. About f 1,000, 000 is
granted for expenditure in the promotion of various
administrative or municipal schemes ; for instance,
the City of Bombay Improvement Trust gets
£338,300, and Eastern Bengal and Assam £183,600
for the reorganisation of the subordinate police;
£1,000,000 has been retained by the Government
of India as an addition to its working balance, and
£2,000,000 has been set aside to be used towards
the discharge of floating debt. Hon. members who
read the report of the discussion on the Budget in
the Viceroy's Legislative Council will find that the
disposal of the surplus was received with general
satisfaction. There was not, indeed, a tame unani-
mity of approval, because there is some feeling
among the representatives of Indian opinion against

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

the practice of devoting much money to the discharge
of debt. In this House the opposite view is likely
to be held and the Government may perhaps be
thought to have infringed the strictest canons
of finance in not using the whole realised sur-
plus for the discharge of debt. But, inasmuch,
as the non-productive debt amounted on March
-31, 1911, to only ^£46,000,000 as against £71,000,000
ten years previously, so that, if the same rate

• of reduction were to continue, the non-productive
debt would be extinguished in about 18 years,
the Government of India may claim to have
displayed on the whole a ' combination of produce
and liberality in dealing with the surplus that
good fortune placed at its disposal. It has
intrenched its own financial position, discharged

• onerous liabilities, and has spent considerable sums
on very deserving objects.

The Estimates for 1911-12.

I must now turn for a moment to the Budget

• estimate for 1911-12. Oar estimates have been based
on the expectation that harvests and trade will be
great, and a surplus of £819,200 is anticipated. I
•trust that this expectation will be fulfilled, but, as
the prospects of the harvests give rise to some

. anxiety in places I thought it desirable to obtain
ffrom the Government of India the latest informa-

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

tion on the subject. The following telegram waa-
received from them yesterday (July 25) : — "Pros-
pects are generally good in greater part of Eastern:
Bengal and Assam, Bengal, Madras, and Burma.
In the rest of India, including the dry zone of
Burma, sowings appear, generally speaking, to have-
been normal, but crops have begun to wither, and
if no rain falls during the next ten days or so, the-
autumn crops will be imperilled. The situation
(more especially in North- Western Deccan, Nortlr
Gujerat, Berar, and West of Central Provinces and
in North-West India generally) causes some anxiety,
but stocks are in most places considerable, and the
condition of the population is reported good and
prices show no abnormal movements." The only
alteration of taxation that is provided for is in
tobacco. The experience of last year seemed to-
indicate that a larger, or at any rate a more staple,
revenue would be derived from a lower duty, and
the rates have, accordingly, been ^educed by one-
third.

The EXPEKDITUEE ON THE DURBAR.

But although taxation has not been reduced,
provision has been made for the cost of the Durbar
and military review to be held at Delhi in Decem-
ber next, and for other incidents of the King's visit,
without any extra-taxation. The latest estimate of

.77

SPEECHES OP THE RT, HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

gross expenditure is X'942,200 Imperial and
£183,000 Provincial expenditure. Against this
there will be a considerable set-off in the shape of
receipts from the Darbar light railway, visitors'
camps, and sales of plant and material. It may be
of interest to add that the Government of India
have made the most careful arrangement to secure
that the accounts of the cost of the Royal visit,
which will be prepared in due course, shall show
the whole of the expenditure of every description.
There are few questions of greater difficulty than
that of the scale on which expenditure of this kind
should be incurred when the taxpayers are poOr,
but when at the same time there is among them a
very general desire that the celebration shall be on
a worthy and adequate scale. In this instance the
scale of expenditure was fixed after very careful
consideration by the Government of India and the
Secretary of State, and when the financial provision
was brought to the notice of the Legislative Councils ,
both Provincial and Imperial, it was received by
the Indian representatives with what the Viceroy,
in his speech on March 27, described as "a tidal
wave of enthusiasm." An Indian member of one
of the Provincial Councils expressed an opinion on
the expenditure by saying." I wish it were
more." I think we may assume that the decision
of the Government represents fairly well the

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

inean between the possible mistakes of extravagance
■on the one hand and on the other hand failure to
give suitable expression to the feelings of a popula-
tion deeply moved by a great and indeed unique
•occurrence.

A Historical Eetrospect.

I say unique occurrence, but although his
Majesty is not going to bs crowned again at Delhi, it
would not be unprecedented that a King of England
■should undergo two Coronation ceremonies. There
are several instances, as the House no doubt knows,
Kichard I., who was crowned at Westminster in
1189, was crowned again at Winchester in 1194,
much against his will, on his return from captivity
in Germany after his ill-starred crusade. Henry
III. had to be content with an initial Coronation at
Gloucester, as the French were in occupation of
London — without a crown, too, as the regalia had
been lost with the rest of King John's baggage in
the Wash — and it was not until four years later that
a second ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey.
But two centuries afterwards the tables were
turned, when Henry VI. was crowned both in
Westminster Abbey and in Notre Dame. The two
Charleses were both crowned in England and in Scot-
land. Comparison between Scotland and England
and India and England is a mark of the signal

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

growth of the vBritish Empire. Nor is it unpre-
cedented that Delhi should witness the Accession
ceremony of an Emperor. That historic city has
been the scene of many Accession festivals, though
the ancient ceremonies present points of dissimilarity
from those which will be witnessed next winter.
We do not, for instance, think it necessary to
conclude the festivities, as did Aurangazeb, by the
public decapitation of 500 thieves, " thereby," as a
local historian quaintly says, " terrorising the
perverse." (Laughter.) The unique nature of the
present occasion lies in the fact that India has never
before had the opportunity of receiving in person
and doing honour to her English Emperor and
Empress.

AN Hon. Member : British. (Laughter.)

Mb. Montagu : Her British Emperor and Empress.

The Durbar Arrangements.

It may interest the House to hear a brief
description of the ceremonies of which the Durbar
will consist. Our aim is to make them as popular
as possible, and to give every opportunity to the
people of India of sharing in them. I am glad to
be able to say that the outbreak of plague at Delhi,

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

which caused some anxiety, has now subsided,
and we may hope that there is no danger of any
such untoward incident as marred the Coronation of
James I., when the plague was raging in London,
and the people were forbidden to come to West-
minster to see the pageant. On December 7 their
Majesties will arrive at the bastion of Delhi Fort,
where 150 Ruling Chiefs will be presented.
Subsequently they will go in procession with
British and Indian escorts round the Great Mosque
and through all the principal streets of the town.
On the Ridge they will be received by representa-
tives of British India, between 3,000 and 4,000 in
number. On the two following days the King will
receive visits from the Chiefs, and will lay the
foundation-stone of the all-India Memorial to King
Edward in Delhi. On December 11 colours will be
presented to British and Indian troops. The Durbar
ceremony itself will take place on December 12.
In order to make it as popular as possible accom-
modation will be provided for 50,000 spectators in
addition to the 12,000 officially invited guests and
the 20,000 troops in the great arena. Thus there
will be space for about 100,000 persons to see the
ceremony, and to see it well. On the following
day in the morning, the King will receive the
ofhcers of the Native Army, and in the afternoon
their Majesties will attend a garden party at the

81
6

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

Fort, where a huge popular fete will be held on the
ground below the Fort, to which it is expected
that about a million people will come to spend the
^ay in the games and amusements that will be pro-
vided for them. It is anticipated that, following
the custom of the Mogul Emperors, their Majesties
will show themselves to the people from the bastion
of the Fort. On the 14th there will be a review of
unprecedented size, in which British and Indian
troops, numbering over 90,000, will be present, and
I may add that this will have been preceded by
four days manoeuvres on a scale never before found
possible. Thus the advantage of practical training
will be combined with the delights of brilliant
^splay. On the next day, the 16th, their Majesties
will depart in procession through the streets of
Delhi, and this historic pageant will be over.
(Cheers.) We, who have crowned and welcomed
with great joy our King this year, will wish him
" God-speed " as he sets sail on his Imperial
mission, believing that he will receive a real and
heartfelt welcome from all his peoples in India,
not only because news of his popularity and single-
purposed devotion to his Imperial duties will have
reached their shores, but because they will see in his
visit thus freshly crowned an earnest that the
passage of time and growing knowledge has increased
the desire, which has always animated the British

82,

THE INDIAN BUDGET-^1911.

.people, to help and serve their Indian fellow-subjects.
•(Cheers.) ' ■

The Opium Revenue.

I must, however, get back to the subject of
Jfinance, because I want the House to look with me
for a moment at the future beyond the year with
whose finance we are at present concerned. We
must now definitely face the total loss, sooner or
later, of revenue derived from opium sold for
•export to China. As the House knows, a new
•agreement on this subject was concluded in May
last between the United Kingdom and China.
The Provisional Agreement of 1908, which arranged
•that the import of Indian opium and the production
of Chinese opium should be progressively diminished
year by year until, in 1917, import and production
will entirely cease, was confirmed. His Majesty's
'Government have, moreover, agreed that the export
of opium from India to China, either over the whole
country or province by province, shall cease when-
ever clear proof is given of the complete absence of
production of native opium in China. They have also
•agreed that Indian opium shall not be conveyed
into any province which can establish by clear
•evidence that it has effectively stopped the cultiva-

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

tion and the import of native opium. Some
prophets say, with considerable reason, that in two»
years or less we shall have to face a loss of the-
d63, 000,000 approximately of net opium revenue-
which figures, in the Estimates for 1911-12. It is-
sufficient to state, as I have, the main terms of the-
agreement to make it clear that in furtherance of
the policy of sympathetic support of reform in China
and in recognition of the progress made there in-
reducing the production of native opium, the Indian
Government have gone a long way towards the-
final extinction of their opium trade. (Hear, hear.)
The Government of India will loyally and scrupu-
lously carry out their share of the agreement, and
I claim the sympathy and admiration of the House
of Commons for all who are doing their share, as I
believe because they have decided that opium grow-
ing and opium trading is an immoral and intolerable-
industry. First of all, there are the Chinese
people, who are showing an almost inconceivable
zeal in freeing themselves from the vice which
has laid them so long helpless in chains. There are-
the Indian people, the taxpayers, who are willingly
and cheerfully sacrificing in this humane interest a
valuable source of revenue. (Cheers.) There are
the opium growers in the Native States, and there
are the Government of India and his Majesty's
Crovernment, who in 190G found the opium trade-

.84

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

"flourishing and unlimited and who have now
-succeeded in setting an end to this industry.

Economies in Administration.

Towards meeting the possible loss of the three
millions from this source there is the estimated
surplus for this year of £800,000 ; but there is also
-the non-recurring item of ill, 000, 000 for the King's
-visit. There is therefore a margin of nearly
;£2,000,000 of surplus revenue in the present year.
It is not over-sanguine, I think, to hope that each
.future year may be expected to give a modest
-addition to the revenue of the Government, because
although it is difticult and undesirable to obtain
sudden increases of revenue in India, there is
nevertheless a steady upward movement due to the
■spread of cultivation, the growth of railway and
•irrigation systems and the general development of
-the country. I am not forgetting that it is possible
■that a portion of the natural growth of revenue may
be required to meet increased expenditure, especially
on objects such as improved education and sanitation,
which are commended by public opinion in India
and in England, but there is also the possi-
bility of economy in other branches of expenditure.
I quote the promise which was made last January
<in the debate on this subject in Calcutta, when the
Pinance Member said that all the members of the

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S, MONTAGU..

Government of India will, during the current year,
subject the expenditure for which they are individu-
ally responsible to close scrutiny with a view to
effecting all possible economy.

The KeducIion of Military Expenditure.

I have every reason to believe that this promise
is being fulfilled. (Hear, hear.) It has, indeed,
given rise to rumours, founded on what information,
obtained from where, I do not know. It is said that
we propose to cut down the military forces in India.
Well, what if we did ? Is it suggested that when we
are reviewing the expenditure in other departments
we should except the military department ? If there
were no Army in India no one would suggest that
the Army should be made anything but large enough
and only large enough, for the needs of the situation,
but simply because the Army was devised and
organised at other times it is seriously suggested
that no modification should be made, and that, even
though you are searching for economy in every
department, you should not be allowed to question
your military expenditure. I can assure hon.
members that the Government does not share this
illogical view, but that nothing is, or will be,
contemplated that will impair the efficiency of our
Army for defending and guarding the peace of our
Empire. (Hear, hear.) However this may be, the

8(i

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

question whether the loss of opium revenue will
involve fresh taxation cannot be definitely answered.
The present financial strength of the Government of
India, the growth of its resources and the growth
or restriction of its expenditure are all factors
that have to be considered and re-considered as the
financial plans for each successive year are
made.

Frontier Politics.

I now reach that portion of my statement which
by tradition is devoted to a more general discussion
of the political conditions of India. I hope I shall
not be thought to fail in ray duty if I say very little
about political affairs this year. I dealt with them
very fully last year, and in politics the year has
been uneventful. That is all to the good. The
North-West Frontier has been singularly free from
disturbance. There have, of course, been raids and
there will continue to be raids so long as an increas-
ing population with predatory instincts presses-
more and more heavily upon the soil. The appoint-
ment of a special officer to take charge of our
relations with the Waziris has undoubtedly been
successful so far, and it is hoped that the recent
Joint Commission of British and Afghan officials
which disposed of an accumulation of cases of
border crime will check frontier raids, especially

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

if the Afghan authorities are firm in carrying out
their agreement not to permit outlaws to reside
within 50 miles of the frontier. The North-East
Frontier, on the other hand, was the scene of a
deliberate open attack by Abors on a small British
party, in which Mr. Noel Williamson, Assistant
Political Officer at Sadiya, lost his life. The
outrage is one for which his Majesty's Govern-
ment are taking steps to inflict punishment at
the earliest possible moment. Mr. Williamson
was a young and energetic officer who had done
good service on the frontier, and to whom the
Government of India are indebted for much valuable
information about peoples whose confidence it is
notoriously difficult to win. The House, I am sure,
will wish to join the Government in an expression
of regret at the loss of so valuable a life. (Cheers.)
In the internal sphere of the political department
an interesting event was the constitution of the
State of Benares under the suzerainty of his Majesty
the King-Emperor. This involves no change in the
Constitutional theories of the Government of India,
nor does it betoken any new policy in regard to such
cessions in future.

Political Crime.

Political crime has, I am sorry to say, shown

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

its head once or twice. As long as there are men
who lurk safely in the background to suggest these
crimes — (cheers) ; — as long as there are tools, often
half-witted and generally immature, to commit
them under the, impression that they are performing
deeds of heroism, so long, I am afraid, occasional
outrages of this sort may occur. (Hear, hear.)
Do not think I am minimising their horror. I can
imagine nothing more tragic than that a devoted
servant of the Government should have a career of
utility to India cut short in this way. I should
like to take this opportunity of expressing the deep
regret that his Majesty's Government and the
Government of India feel at the deplorable
murder of Mr. Ashe and to tender the profound
sympathy of all concerned with the relatives of this
promising officer. But, horrible and deplorable as
these crimes are in their individual aspect, it is a
very common mistake, and a very great mistake,
to attach too much importance to isolated occur-
rences of this sort as indices of the political situa-
tion, or to make them the text for long jeremiads
in the most exalted journalese. (Laughter and
cheers.) With all respect to the admonition of an
army of friendly critics, I adhere to everything that
I said last year as to the progressive improvement
of the general situation, though I shall probably
again be told that my optimism is unjustifiable.'

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. 3. MONTAGU.
A WOED TO THE PESSIMIST.

I want to protest here against the ill-informed
and unthinking pessimism of which we hear a good
deal, accompanied by vague and unsubstantiated
criticism of the present Government for being in
some mysterious way responsible for the state of
affairs which the critics regard with alarm. I wish
that the people who talk like this would take pains to
substantiate their views with something more than
bare and vague assertions of general alarm. What
do they mean, these prophets of woe, who shake
their heads and say : " We do not like the news
from India ; India is in a dangerous state," adding
something, as a rule, about a Eadical Government ?
(Laughter.) They write it to their friends, they
print it in the newspapers, they whisper it over the
fireside. What do they mean? Why, all that
they mean, so I venture to assert, is that the Indian
problem is a difficult one, and a complicated one,
becoming, as the country develops and its people
are educated, mcreasingly difficult and increasingly
complicated. There is no need to tell that to us.
who are concerned with the administration of
India. It is all the more reason why we should face
the future bravely and thinkingly ; all the more
reason why we should avoid a mournful pessimism
which begets the atmosphere of distrust in which it

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

thrives. Whatever hysterics may be indulged in
by armchair critics in the Press, the House may
rest assured that the Indian Courts will not be-
deflected one jot from that adherence to strict
justice which has won them the respect of all
sections of the community, nor the Executive
Government from exercising clemency where
clemency will serve the best interests of the country.
(Cheers.) The policy of Lord Crewe and Lord
Hardinge is the policy of Lord Morley and Lord
Minto — immoveable determination to punish fitly
anarchy and crime, with strict sympathy for orderly
progressive demand with the peoples that they
govern. (Hear, hear.) Indeed, this is no new
principle of Indian government, for the policy of
the Great Mogul was two centuries ago thus
described by Manucci : " Liberality and generosity
are necessary to a prince ; but, if not accompanied
by justice and sufficient vigour, they are useless ;
rather do they serve to the perverse as occasion for
greater insolence."

A Changing India.

I do not want to be dogmatic, but India is
changing fast — as fast as, if not taster than, the
West, and our views must keep pace with the
chauge. India has been given peace, unity, and an
Occidental education, and they have combined to-

SPEECHES OF TEE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

vproduce a new spirit. It is our duty to watch that
movement, and to lead it, so far as it may be led
-from without, into right channels. When a change
is produced in the political organi,sation of a great
Empire it must not be regarded as the result of an
! inspiration of a philosophic Secretary of State
creating a new condition of things out of a placid
sea, anxious to modify the realm over which he
presides in accordance with his whim, his fancy, or
•even his settled conviction. Political change in any
■ country, I take it, results from causes very different
from this. It must originate from within, not
'from without. Social conditions, slowly develop-
ing, stir public opinion and public demand, which
move unformed and uncertain at first, gathering
strength and shape later, and it is the duty of those
in charge of the machine of government to lead
them into the channels of altered policy by means
of statutes. Orders in Council, and so forth. These
paper documents are the manifestation o"^f the
development of the country. They do not, of them-
selves, thrust the country either backwards or for-
wards. They only mark, as I understand it, and
so help its movement forward or backward with a
success which depends upon the equipment and
wisdom of those in whom the control is vested. That
is where true statesmanship lies — to watch the marni-
i-fold and complex currents, to diagnose aright the

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

signs of the times, to await the moment, and, when-
the moment comes, to step in and mould into-
proper shape aspirations and demands which are
feeling and groping for expression.

Lord Morley's Work.

It is for this that the name of the great states-
man who has recently left the India Office will be-
remembered in Indian history. Lord Morley, with a
keen and liberal understanding of Indian men and
affairs, has set such a seal upon Indian progress as-
can fall to the lot of few Secretaries of State. , The
appointment of John Morley to the Indian Office
stirred great hopes in India. He had the good
fortune to find in Lord Minto one whose share in
the events of the last five years has obtained for
him the affection and gratitude of India. (IJear,.
hear.) The hopes were amply fulfilled. Liberal
and generous reform, coupled with unflinching
repression of crime, successfully met a situation that
might well have broken the reputation of a lesser
man. He has put off his armour amid the universal
regret of the whole of India, and, if I may take this
opportunity of saying so on their behalf, to the
regret of all who worked under his leadership.
(Hear, hear.) By Lord Morley's reform scheme I
claim that we have successfully marked the political
development of India as it is at the moment and

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

have provided a channel along which India's politi-
cal history may run, I hope, contentedly and steadily
for many years to come. May I say again what I
•said last year, that it is the opinion of all concerned
.in the government of India that this scheme has been
a complete success, and that the standard of work in
the new Legislative Councils is worthy of the highest
praise. (Hear, hear.)

The Political Future.

And it is because of this that, when I ask
myself the question, "What of the future?" I

.am compelled to say frankly that a country cannot
develop by political agitation alone. I say, as

•one who profoundly sympathises with progressive
opinion in India, that political agitation must not be
allowed to outstrip development in other directions.
Genuine political agitation must be spontaneous ;
it must be the inevitable result of causes working
within a nation, not fictitious importation from
outside. It is not enough to admire and envy
Western political institutions. They cannot be
imported ready made ; they must be acquired as the
fitting expression of indigenous social conditions.
If India desires — I use this conditional because I
know there are some in India who would retrace
their steps and abandon Western influence, and
^o back to autocracy and Oriental despotism —

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

lout if she desires, as I believe the majority of
•educated Indians desire, to attain to Western
political institutions, it must be by Western social
development. The Indian educated faction with
■democratic leanings is a tiny faction. It must
remove, if needs be by years of work, this inevit-
able rejoinder to its demands, not by clamoiSr or
by political agitation, but by work, however patient,
.along the lines I am about to indicate. It cannot
be removed in any other way. The measures
taken two years ago afford ample provision for
the expression of public opinion, and for the
more effective control by Indians over the govern-
ment of their country. The time is not ripe for
any further modification of the system of govern-
ment and so I say to India, with all respect : —
"" Work out your political destiny so far as you
may under your existing Constitution find out its
best possibilites, and improve, if you will, its
machinery ; but, for the moment, turn your atten-
tion more directly to other problems which make a
far mcire urgent call upon your energies. The
Government is ready to play her part, but, without
you, the Government can do nothing. Indians
must turn their attention to organising an industrial
population which can reap the agricultural and
industrial wealth of the country, and attain a higher
level of education and a higher standard of living.

speeches of the et. hon. mk. e. 3. montagu.

India's Industeial Peogeess.

I must apologise most humbly for detaining^
the House so long, but I have a message to deliver
on the part of the Government. India has develop-
ed from a series of isolated, self -supported village
communities, where the main occupation was
agriculture, carried on to feed the community,
where payments were made wholly in produce,
and where such industry as there was, was mainly
hereditary, and the products were distributed
among the inhabitants of the village. Justice,
law and order were enforced by the village
itself, often by hereditary officials. An idyllic
picture, perhaps, marred only by the important
consideration that such an India was wholly at the
mercy of climatic conditions. Drought or tempest
meant starvation and sometimes disappearance. In
the famines of olden times, far, far older than the
British occupation, millions died of hunger, just as-
thousands died in France in the seventeenth
century. What has altered all this? The same
cause which altered similar conditions in England,
in France in Germany, in almost every European
country — with this distinction, that what European
countries acquired by centuries of evolution has been
imported into India by zealous workers, profiting
by the history of their own country. The huge
development of railways in India is the work of

THE INDIAN BUDGET 1911.

little more than a score of years. The first metalled
roads were laid about fifty years ago. By these
means of communication, with the post and the
telegraph, the isolation of village communities has
been broken down, money has been introduced as a
means of exchange, competition has come in and
national and even international trade has been
developed. India's manufacturers compete with
the manufacturers of the rest of the world, and
require, as they do, the latest developments of
science and technical knowledge. Her agriculturists
till the soil no longer merely to provide
themselves with food, but to sell perhaps at
the other end of the world, the products of their
labour. Enterprise has been facilitated ; prices have
been raised and equalised. Famine no longer means
starvation. Thanks to modern means of com-
munication and to the greater security given by the
irrigation system that the British Government has
so largely developed, in times of scarcity in these
days the number of deaths directly attributable to
lack of food is insignificant. But there are signs of
a further development which also has its analogy in
the industrial history of the West. The Inter-depen-
dence of all branches of industry, the concentration
of labour in factories under expert management, the
stricter division of labour, the use of mechanical
power and the employment of large amounts of

97
T

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

capital are symptoms of this revolution. It is just
what happened in this country when our great
woollen and cotton industries were developed from
the isolated hand- weavers. This period in a country's
history brings with it many possibilities of evil
"unknown to a more archaic society, but it brings also
possibilities of wealth and greatness. I hope the
House will not pause to deplore the risks of evil,
for, if the industrial revolution has begun, nothing
■can stop it. You might just as well try to stop the
incoming tide with your outstretched hands. Our
task is rather to guard against the evils that our
Western experience enables us to foresee.

A Series of Significant Figures.

I do not want to be accused of seeing in
India an industrial revolution that does not
■exist, and so I may be permitted to read a very
few figures. Twenty years ago there were 126
cotton mills, employing 112,000 hands; there are
now 232 mills, employing 236,000. In the same
time the number of jute mills has exactly doubled,
and the persons employed in them increased from
61,000 to 192,000. Altogether there are now about
^,500 factories of all kinds worked by mechanical
power, employing nearly a million persons. The
tea industry gives employment to 600,000 persons,
and exports annually 250 million pounds of tea,

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

•valued at nearly i^8,000,000, an increase in ten
years of nearly i'2,000,000. As regards mineral
production, the chief mineral worked is coal. The
annual output, which has more than doubled in the
last eight years, is 12,000,000 tons, and the industry
• employs about 1-30,000 persons. Petroleum also
has developed very rapidly. The output is now
176,000,000 gallons, which is quadruple that of ten
years ago. Manganese ore is also a new and
considerable mining industry. As yet there is no
steel-making plant in India, but much is expected
from Messrs. Tata Brothers' undertaking, which is
nearing completion. If we may add the employes
on the railways, who number some half a million,
to the numbers employed in factories, tea estates,
and mining, the total comes to about 2J million
persons. As regards the growth of capitalisation,
there are 2,1 oG companies registered in India with
a nominal capital of i'70,000,000, and a paid-up
capital of £40,000,000. These figures have been
doubled in ten years. There are also many
companies registered abroad which carry on
business exclusively in India, mainly in tea
growing, jute mills cotton mills, and rice mills.
These companies (omitting railway companies) have
a share capital of 30,000,000 besides debentures.
Again, the banking capital of India has increased
in ten years from i' 20,000,000 to i' 43,000,000.

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU-

Deposits have risen from £20,000,000 ta-
i643,000,000. This, of course, means so much
increase in the capital available for financings
commercial and industrial operations. If further-
proof were needed of this industrial revolution, it-
can be found in the fact that, although four-fifths-
of the exports of India consist of raw materials and
foodstuffs, and four-fifths of the imports consist of
manufactured goods, these proportions are being
modified as time goes on. Kaw material imports
have increased at a more rapid rate than manufac-
tured imports, whilst the rise in the exports of"
manufactured goods is more than t^ice as great as-
the rise in the exports of raw material. These are
my evidences of the industrial revolution, and, in
order to avoid the evils with which it is attended,
India has need of the assistance of the best and wisest
of her sons. I am very hopeful that this evolution
will not be confined to agricultural India. Wbat is
required in the industrial part of the scheme in
India is the application of modern methods and
modern science to Indian industry. We want to
see a stream of educated young men entering indus-
trial careers, and leaving alone the overstocked pro-
fessions of the Bar and the public service. (Hear,,
hear.) May I quote an Indian economist, Mr.
Sarkar, who says : — The supreme need of do-day
is managers of firms, pioneers and entrepreneurs.

100

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

The highest intellect of the nation should be educat-
ed for industries,for, remember, the highest intellects
are serving the industries in Europe, and capital and
business experience are closely associated with brain
power there." And again : — " Our recent industrial
awakening has created a sudden demand for business
managers. Experienced men of this class are not
available in sufficient .numbers, and so our new
ventures are run by amateur managers, such as
lawyers, retired public servants, and so forth who,
with the best intentions, are unfit to take the place
^of the trained businessmen. For this reason many
of our new joint stock companies have failed." That
is the want in India, technical education and people
willing to profit by it. (Hear, hear.)

The New Agricultural World.

•

I hope that the industrial development of India
will not be confined strictly to industries; I hope this
development will also extend to the new agricultural
world which has been formed by the comparatively
recent destruction of the isolation of the village.
Division of labour has been introduced, the export
of produce is growing, and the shares of the land-
Jord, the Government and the labourer are
now being paid more and more by the cultivator
in money. Government has modified, in the
interests of the cultivator, the system of revenue

101

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

assessment which it inherited from its predecessors,
and which represents its partnership in the agricultu-
ral industry. Government has also been sedulous
to protect tenants from the exactions of landlords.
Its methods of controlling landlords who exercised
their ingenuity in adding to fixed rents cesses for
fictitious services would, I fear, shock many Con-
servatives in this country, and whet the appetite of
the most advanced agricultural reformers. (Laugh-
ter.) In Bengal the Tenancy Law provides that
every cultivator who has held any land in a village
for 12 years acquires a right of occupancy, and is
protected from arbitrary eviction and from arbitrary
enhancement of rent. (Hear, hear.) He has got
fixity of tenure and fair rent. (Hear, hear.) In Madras
the cultivator is virtually a peasant proprietor, pay-
ing a judicial rent for the enjoyment of his land.
(Hear, hear'. But the cultivator has two things
always against him ; he is dependent on the seasons,
and he is naturally improvident. He will spend, for
instance, the equivalent of several years ' income on
a single marriage festivity. He must, therefore, turn
to the money-lender, and, once in his clutches, he is
never free. This is not unique in India. The tale
is just the same as the tale in Ireland, in Germany,
and in France, and 140 per cent, and 280 per cent,
are not uncommon rates of interest. The whole of
the surplus produce goes to the moaey- lender as

102

THE INDIAN BDDGET — 1911.

payment of interest. As for the payment of prin-
cipal, that is nearly always impossible. Indian
agriculture is going to be saved, as I believe by the
Eaiffeisen system — a boon from the West, which is-
taking hold in India.

The Co-operative Movement.

I want to say something of the co-operative
movement, because I believe that even England may
have much to learn from India here. You cannot,
apply capital to agriculture in the same way that
you can apply it to industry, for you cannot take your
raw material, the land, and lump it t; gether into a
factory. The size of an economic holding can never
be greater or smaller than the local conditions of
market of soil, of climate make possible. Though
aggregation is the essence of the manufacturing in-
dustry, and isolation is the essence of the agricultu-
ral industry, the principle of capitalisation governs
both, but in agriculture resource must be had to co-
operation. The law under which the societies are
incorporated was passed in 1904, and some time
elapsed after its enactment before the principles of
co-operation could be made intelligible to the people
by the Government officials to whom the work of
organisation was entrusted. The principles were
borrowed from Europe were unfamiliar to the people^

103

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

and required a certain amount of intelligence as
well as willingness to make trial of a new idea. The
initiative had to come from without ; and the
Government gave it by means of officers and funds.
The officers' zeal and interest have repeatedly been
acknowledged, but funds have been supplied spar-
ingly, in order to make the movement from the out-
set a genuine one. (Hear, hear.) Imperfectly though
the figures reflect the progress, they are remarkable.
In three years the number of societies has increased
from 1,357 to 3,498. The number of members has
increased from 150,000 to '231,000; the working
capital has risen from £300,000 to £800,000-
It is a fair assumption that each member represents
a family, and that the co-operative movement has
beneficially affected no less than a million people.
Of course the banks vary in detail in the different
provinces, but perhaps in Bengal, where there is no
share capital and no dividend, and all societies are
organised on the strictest principles of unlimited
liability, and members of the society pledge their
joint credit, we get the most perfect application of
the Eaiffeisen principle.

An Encouraging Picture.

It is from the accounts of the movement given
by the provincial officers (and of the 28 officials at

104

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

the last Conference of Registrars 20 were Indians)
4ihat one realises the capacity of the Indian rural
population to respond to a beneficent idea and their
latent powers to work for the common good. The
initiative in the first instance had to come from the
G(')vernment and its officers, but a registrar and one
assistant and two or three inspectors in a province
■of -20,000,000 or 40,000,000 people could do nothing
unless they could count on the assistance of
honorary helpers. This has been forthcoming.
Men of education and public spirit, animated solely
by enthusiasm for the movement have set themselves
to learn the principle of co-operative credit societies,
-and in their several neighbourhoods have become
organisers and honorary managers of banks. Even
greater enthusiasm is to be found in the villages
among poor and homely men of little education. It
has been found, not by any means in every village,
or equally in all parts of India, but to an extent
which was not anticipated. In a poor village a
-credit bank was started with a capital of 20 rupees.
It has now a working capital— chiefly deposits — of
more than £3,000. The bank has also a scholarship
fund to send the sons of poorer members to a con-
tinuation school, and an arbitration committee for
settling local disputes. I have another example of
.a committee managing a credit bank, which, by
denying membership to a man of bad character until

105

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

he had shown proof of his reform, made a goo3
citizen out of a bad one. We read also of buried
bags of rupees, crusted with mould, being produced
and deposited in the bank. It seems as if we were
in this way beginning to tap the hoarded wealth
of India. Several societies have bought agricul-
tural machines, and some are occupying their spare
time and capital in opening shops and doing trade
in cattle and wood. Others, again, aim at land
improvement, repayment of old debts, and the
improvement of the backward tenant, and even at
the establishment of night and vernacular schools.
In several districts the village societies have resorted
to arbitration in village disputes, and in one or two
cases they have taken up the question of village-
sanitation. One can almost see the beginning of the
revival of old village communities. (Hear, hear.)
But there is also another note struck in most of these
reports. While villagers have shown a wonderful
capacity for combination and concerted action, and
while enthusiastic workers of position and intelli-
gence have here and there been enlisted in the cause
there is complaint of the apathy of the natural
leaders of the Indian community and their apparent
failure to realise the immense importance of the
movement. There is no doubt that the field wants-
many more workers, and, I hope, it will not ask m
vain.

106

the indian budgkt — 1911.

The Problem of Education.
There is, then, growing in India this great
two-sided organisation of industrial and agricultural
life. I do not think it can grow healthily far unless
serious attention is given to one or two important
matters to which I now want to draw attention.
The first is education — general and industrial. I
regret that I am not in a position to say much in
detail on this subject, all the more because I see
that my hon. friend Sir Albert Spicer has a motion
on the subject on the paper. The department
constituted last year to take charge of education
has been hard at work elaborating a policy, and I
hope that the result of their labours will shortly
be made public. We have to deal with 16 million
boys of school-going age, the bulk of them widely
scattered over an agricultural population. There is
no general demand at present for education among
the people, who have borne their illiteracy very
cheerfully. This is no reason, of course, that there
should be any relaxation in our efforts to spread
education among them. But while it is the obvious
duty of the Government to provide better buildings,
better equipment, a better curriculum, and better
teaching staffs, there is a duty, on the other hand,
for Indian educational reformers to create a willing-
ness to allow children to be educated, a willingness
to help, to teach, and, be it said, a willingness to help,

107

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

pay the taxes or the fees (I do not know say which)
by which alone large educational schemes can be
financed. By this means only can we bring into
the pale the 80 per cent, of children who, I am
sorry to say, are now growing up without any
education at all. As for technical instruction, much
is being done by the provision both of institutions
and of technical scholarships, a full description of
which can be found in the last quinquennial report
on education in India — Command Paper 4,365 of
1909. What is required there is, as I have said, to
invite young men who have achieved a good primary
-education to choose these advantages rather than to
■crowd still further the entrance to the Bar or the
public service through the universities. (Hear, hear.)

"The Need for a Higher Standard of Living.

With education will come, I hope, a higher
•standard of living for the people and some reduction
in the terrible wastage of human life. The present
standard of living is deplorably low. Ignorance of
sanitary or medical principles is practically univer-
sal. The birth-rate is extremely high, judged by
■the birth-rate of Western Europe. The death-rate
and notably the death-rate of children, is also,
judged by European experience, appallingly high.
The death-rate in the United Provinces and the
J'unjab in 1908, when malaria was very prevalent,

108

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

exceeded 50 per 1,000. The English death-rate-
is only 16 per 1,000. The sickness, disease, and
mortality which horrify students of Indian society
are, from one point of view, the consequences of a
very low standard of living, though from another
point of view they are the rude restrictions placed
by Nature on a population which continually multi-
plies up to the limit of bare subsistence. Now at
present only 10 per cent, of the Indian people live in
towns. The effect of the reorganisation of industry
upon capitalistic lines will be to modify this. The
concentration of people from the countryside into
large towns is bound to occur. The figures of the
recent census have not yet been published in sufficient
detail to enable a definite judgment to be formed as
to how far this process has already taken place, but
the tendency is undoubted. The population of
Calcutta, for instance, has increased by 10 per cent.
in the last ten years, that of Bombay by 25 per cent.,
that of Karachi by 36 per cent, and that of Kangoon
by 18 per cent. This will not be without its good,
effects. The consequent increase of wealth will
provide means wherewith to ameliorate the poverty
which at present impedes the progress of India in so
many directions. Again, the multiplication of
industries will relieve the pressure on the land which
now drives down the profits of agriculture, and will
thus mitigate the severity of those recurring

109

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

• calamities which follow upon the failure of the
harvest, for it has long been recognised that the
encouragement of diversity of occupation is the
only radical cure for famine. Moreover, in the
concentrated population of the towns all those
civilising and educational movements which are
summarised in the word " progress " find their
centre. Technical instruction in special trades and
-occupations is^ impossible in sparsely populated
districts.

The Evils op Town Life.

But, on the other hand, there is danger that all
the evils of town life—the overcrowding, the destitu-
tion, and all the squalid misery of mean streets
with which we are too familiar — should be re-
produced in India, and be even harder to bear than
hear on account of the suffocating heat. Already
we hear of overcrowding and insanitary tenements
in the operatives' quarters in Bombay. Mr. Dunn,
late Chairman of the Bombay City Improvement
Trust, in a paper of February 17, 1910, says : —
'The rooms or 'chals' less than 10 ft. square are
separated from one another by partitions of wood "or
split bamboos plastered with mud. There,, is no
ceiling, only the sloping low roof, which is of rough
round rafters and a single thickness of country tiles.
The walls and roof are black with smoke and dirt of

110

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

many years, the rooms are filled with choking smoke
from the wood fires and naked lamps, and there is
no exit for this except through the rough doors.
The only openings are the doors leading from the
rooms on to narrow verandahs, no ventilation,
darkness, and a choking atmosphere, and a family
of five or six persons, with perhaps a lodger or two.
Refuse of all kinds is "disposed of by the simple
expedient of throwing it outside beyond the
verandah, and the condition of the surroundings
of the 'chal' may be left to the imagination. Of
course, a situation such as that demands activity
from the Government. In Bombay a City Improve-
ment Trust has been working for the last ten years
with inadequate means. The Government of India
have now given, as I have said, £*338,0G0 to it, and
proposals are being considered for providing the
trust with a larger income from local sources. A
similar trust is now about to be created in Calcutta.
In Rangoon, again, land reclamation on a large scale
is being undertaken. Elsewhere much attention is
being paid to the subject ; but the most urgent need
is the education of the masses in the principles of
hygiene. There is a limitless field indeed for private
enterprises here. Tolerable though archaic habits
and practices may be in the open country, when
transferred to the crowded towns they become
insupportable. At the Bombay Medical Congress in

111

SPEECHES OF THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

1909 a Parsi doctor read a painfully interesting
paper on " Unhygienic Bombay." He said: "A
large portion of the insanitary conditions prevailing
in and outside the dwellings of the poorer classes is
directly due to some peculiar and perverse habits of
the people themselves, through ingrained prejudice
and stupidity, through want of personal cleanliness-
and through ignorance of personal hygiene. They
form a painful picture of a stolid and unconscious,
ignorance, associated with great poverty such as
can rarely be seen in the poorest civilised town of
the West." The picture is repeated wi th variations,
in all the great towns of India.

The Eavages of Plague.

If there were less ignorance and perversity,.
plague would never find in the country the lodg-
ment that it has. It is an established fact that
persons living under proper sanitary conditions are
virtually exempt from the disease. Plague does
not attack the gaol population or the Native Army ;.
it attacks the ordinary civil population, because
they live in houses which are not rat-proof, because
they treat the rat almost as a domestic animal,,
because large numbers of them refuse to trap or
kill it, and because they will not adopt the sanitary
precautions which are pressed upon them. In
plague we have examples from our own history.

112

THE INDIAN BUDGET— 1911.

England has suffered many times, the most severe
epidemic being that in the middle of the 14th
century known as the " black death " which came
from the Levant through Europe. A contemporary
writer, quoted in Dr. Simpson's book on plague,
says : — " At first it carried off almost all the inhabi-
tants of the seaports in Dorset, and then those
living inland, and from there it raged so dreadfully
through Devon and Somerset, as far as Bristol,
that the men of Gloucester refused those of Bristol
entrance to their country, everyone thinking that-
the breath of those who lived among people who
died of plague was infectious. But at last it
attacked Gloucester — yea, and Oxford and London,.
and finally the whole of England, so violently that
scarcely one in ten of either sex was left alive."
Outbreaks of plague continued to occur occasion-
ally throughout the next three centuries — not-
ably in London in 1665, when nearly 70,000'
persons perished. Towards the end of the 17th
century it rapidly disappeared from the whole of
Western Europe. Plague has now been present in
India for 15 years, and the appalling total of nearly
7,500,000 deaths from it has been recorded. Of
this the Punjab accounts for nearly two and a half
million deaths — almost a third of the total. The
tale of deaths in the last ten years represents 11
per cent, of the population of that province. When

113
8

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

I think of the sensation that was caused in this
country a short time ago by what was by comparison
a minor outbreak in Manchuria, resulting in only
50,000 deaths, I fear that people in this country do
not realise the awful ravages that this scourge is
daily making among the Indian people.

The Remedies.

Scientific research has established that it is
<;onveyed by rat fleas to human beings. The two
effective remedies are inoculation and house evacua-
tion. Professor Haffkin has discovered a vaccine
by which comparative, though not absolute, im-
munity can be temporarily secured. But by an
unhappy accident at Mulkowal several villagers
died of tetanus after inoculation. Inoculation in
India has never recovered from this disaster. It is
hated by the people and avoided by them except
when the disease is in their midst. House evacua-
tion is easier in villages than in towns. Adminis-
trative arrangements by which plague is now
fought include the provision of special plague
medical officers and subordinates and they and
the district staff are on the look-out for the
occurrence of plague, and when it occurs, they
visit the locality, offer inoculation, give assist-
ance to persons to vacate their houses, advice rat
destruction, and so on. To the prevention of plague

114

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

there would seem to be no royal road. The case is
one in which lavish expenditure of money is not
•called for and would be useless. But the Provincial
Governments have spent, and are spehding, a good
deal. The United Provinces have expended some
.£(300,000 up to date. The Punjab Government is
spending about £-10,000 a year. The improvement
of the general sanitary conditions under which the
population lives is more and more clearly seen to
be essential, and to improve them the local Govern-
ments are devoting all the money they can spare.
They have been helped to do so by the grants for
sanitation made by the Government of India. The
scientific difficulties are enhanced by the difficulty
of overcoming prejudice and ignorance, habit and
apathy. In some districts there is actually religious
objection to rat-killing and inoculation. No better
work can be done for India than to offer example
and instruction in principles of life that appear to
us elementary, and to strive to exercise the foes of
progress — superstition and resistance to prophy-
lactics.

Local Self-Government and Sanitation.

There are, I am glad to say, signs that the
sanitary conscience is beginning to awake among
the people. But it is not enough to point out evils,
to the Government, to urge the Government to d^

115

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

something, and to say that more money is required,.
Of course more money is required. More money is
requiredfor every item in India's programme of deve-
lopment, and we allocate to each item vi'ith as lavish-
a hand as we can consistently with the other require-
ments. It is no use to urge proposals requiring the
immediate expenditure of money without any regard
to ways and means, when there is so much to be-
done by private exhortation, by example, and by
devotion to the problems of local self-government.
Municipal work in India, as elsewhere, is proving an^
admirable training ground in public affairs, and the
better municipal corporations, such as that of
Bombay, have carried through large drainage and
water projects with help and stimulus from the
Government. What is now wanted is to obtain,
support from the Press and the Community for
municipal effort and a public opinion which can be
relied upon to control and appreciate the responsi-
bilities of municipal institutions.

The Danger op Capitalisation.

I must mention one more danger that the
industrial revolution involves. The development of
capitalisation is sure to bring forward in India, as
everywhere, certain men who, in the hurry to grow
rich, will take advantage of the necessities of the
poor and the want of organisation among the Indian-

116

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

Uabourers. These are the men, be it said, who
would reap the advantage of a protectionist tariff.
They would work their hands long hours for insuffi-
cient wages, exploit women's and children's labour,
and reproduce, as far as the law will permit them, the
horrors of the English factory system at the begin-
ning of the last century. A Factory Act was passed
last year, after a long and exhaustive inquiry by a
Committee and a Commission, giving increased
protection to a worker and greater inspecting and
controlling powers to the Government. But the
Government cannot advance beyond that Indian
public opinion which, at the best, is only in its
infancy. The leaders of Indian opinion must set
1;heir faces against the degradation of labour, and
they need to be specially vigilant, because India's
working classes, besides being themselves unorga-
nised, are not directly represented on the Legislative
Councils, whose Indian members come almost
exclusively from the landlord and capitalist classes.
This is not due to any defect in the law, but to the
condition of Indian Society. Labour, long accus-
tomed to silent drudgery, has not yet found a voice,
and it will probably be long before it makes itself
heard in the Legislative Councils. All the greater
reason that public-spirited Indians should take care
that these unrepresented interests are carefully
considered and the conditions of labour improved.

117

SPEECHES OF THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

India may derive one advantage from the fact that-
her industrial revolution has been so long delayed.
She may profit by the abundant mistakes that we
made in this country if she takes advantage of our
experience, and with a wise forethought, closes the-
door to industrial abuses before they have grown
strong ; and, in that case, she may look back upon
her industrial revolution without the shame and
regret with which we are forced to contemplate
some of the features of our own. (Hear, hear.)

Caste Principles and Progress.

I have spoken of industrial and agricultural'
organisation and their subsidiary problems of edu-
cation, sanitation, and a higher standard of living.
There remains another subject on which I wish to
touch in pointing out to Indians the objects towards-
which, as it seems to me, their activities should at-
present be directed. It is a subject of great delicacy ;
but I feel obliged to draw attention to it on account
of its great importance and the intimate connexion
of one aspect of it, at any rate, with certain of the
topics that I have been discussing. Nothing could
be further from my intention than to say anything
that might possibly be construed as offensive to th&
beliefs and usages of any religion. Every religion
has forms and ceremonies which it is difficult for

118

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

those outside its pale to appreciate and to under-
stand. Even less would I have it thought that I
desire to weaken the wonderful religious inspiration
of the Indian peoples. If the House will forgive a
personal allusion, I was brought up in a denomina-
tion which attaches great importance to quasi-
religious ceremonial institutions and derives spiritual
inspiration from them, and I should be the last to
question the religious usages and semi-religious
usages which are dear to our Indian fellow-
subjects. But I wish to suggest to the leaders
of Hindu thought that they might, if they
thought fit, look carefully into certain of their ins-
titutions and consider whether they r.ie compatible
with modern social conditions and modern industrial
progress. Of the 220,000,000 of the Hindu popu-
lation 53,000,000 form what are known as the
depressed classes, who are regarded by the higher
castes as untouchable. There are 9,000,000 girl
wives between the ages of one and 15, of whom
2,500,000 are under 11, and there are 440,000 girl
widows forbidden to re-marry. It is the first point
that I wish to emphasise, because it is here in parti-
cular that I cannot help feeling that Hindu social
conditions hamper to some extent modern develop-
ment, both industrial and political. The way in
which caste principles afi'ect industrial development
is this. English industrial history in all its.

119

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

branches shows how supremely important is the
possibility of infusing fresh blood from the labour-
ing classes into the ranks of the captains of industry.
In India this is impossible under present conditions.
Social distinctions are rigid and permanent ; many
occupations are still almost purely hereditary, and
there is no fluidity. Even supposing — as I hope
will be the case that young men of education and
capacity take to industrial careers, and supposing
that the shyness of Indian caiptal is at length
overcome, still the conditions that I have mentioned
must inevitably hamper and retard India's industrial
progress. In the region of politics the matter
came into prominence two years ago in rather a
curious way. During consideration of the question
of securing for Mahomedans adequate representa-
tion on the new councils, the point came up of the
numerical proportion borne by Hindus and Maho-
medans in the community. The Mahomedans
asserted that the Hindus had no right to count, as
Hindus, persons whom no self-respecting Hindu
would touch or come near, It is undoubtedly a
difficult point, and there are now signs of a move-
ment among leaders of Hinduism towards taking
an interest in the condition of these classes, and
devising measures to bridge the gulf between them
and the twice-born. It is this that has emboldened
me to say what I have said on the subject. I wou Id

120

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

not have presumed to do so, had it not been for the
fact that there is evidently a growing feeling
amongst prominent members of the community that
all is not well with their social organisation. Let
me quote to the House the words of the well-known
leader, Mr. Gokhale. He said:" If, after fifty years of
University education conducted on Western ideas,
the essence of which is the equality and dignity of
man, the condition of the depressed classes is
practically the same as it was half a century ago, it
is a very great reproach to them. There is no
greater blot upon us to-day than the condition in
which we have allowed 53,000,000 of our fellow-
beings to continue." One word more before I leave
the subject. If the Hindu community think it
possible and desirable — and it is for them alone to
Bay — to effect changes in these matters, the move-
ment must be a spontaneous one and must be
effected by the community itself. Government
may not — cannot help. I mention this because
in a recent debate on the subject in the
Bombay Council there were signs of an inclina-
tion to turn to the Government for assistance.
If the House will forgive me another quotation
I should like just to read the wise words with
which Sir George Clarke concluded the debate :
^' The fact is that the Government cannot force the
pace in regard to social matters. We must leave

121

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MOTANGU.

them to the growing feeHng among the Indian
peoples themselves ; and if politics remain in abey-
ance for a time, it is possible, and I think probable,
that social reforms will force themselves to the
front. That we must leave tu the people of India.
I do feel that if a real sentiment of Nationalism
spreads throughout India, as I think it will, the time
will come when the Mahar^, in common with all
other classes, will be treated as brothers."

Hindus, Mahomedans and the National
Sentiment.

But brotherhood within the Hindu community
is not enough. India needs more than that. Eeal
national feeling cannot be produced while in the
same province, village, town, or street you have
Indians learnin"' the national ideal and Indians
denying their part or share in the history of the
land in which they live. Provincial distinctions
do not permanently matter. Racial distinctions do
not offer a lasting obstacle to confederation and
mutual share in the commonweal. But religious
segregations whioh produce fierce, exclusive patrio-
tism seem more obdurate and more hostile to
amicable and united action. In India Hinduism
teaches a fierce love of India itself, the motherland
which is so wonderful as to be an example of
love of country to the whole world, the love

122

# THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

of country produced by worship of God.' But
Mahomedanism produces and teaches a patrio-
tism equally remarkable a sort of extra-territorial
patriotism — if I may strain the words to describe
it — a love of religion which seems almost to
laugh at distance and material neighbourhood,,
and breathes loyalty and sympathy and fellow-feel-
ing from one Mahomedan to another. The one is
spiritual, the other is spiritual — and more. How
can one preach tolerance in this atmosphere ? How
can one say to the Mohomedan? '"You need
abandon no jot of your fervour if you add to it
principles of less exalted and more Western desire
to help and to share the destiny of the country in
which vou live" ? And how can one say to the
Hindu : " Your religious susceptibilities really
should not be outraged by rites perfoimedby people-
who do not share your religion, even if you would
regard them as wrong if they were performed by
Hindus"? This trite advice is ineffectual. These
are not mere denonimations ; they are nations — the
one bound together terrestrially and spiritually, the-
other spiritually only. Now of course it would be
criminal to foster this dijfficult antagonism, but not-
to recog nise its existence is to be blind to facts in a
way which must enhance the evil. I cannot see
how this state of affairs can do other than retard
and indeed prevent the growth of national feeling

123

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON. MR. E, S. MONTAGU.

•and the development of India in the way I have
tentatively suggested, and I would appeal to all
Indians — and I include in those people of every
inspiration, race, creed and colour — to unite and
join hands for their country's good, I need assure
no intelligent critic that the Government would be
the first to welcome and to help the co-operation
which we all desire. (Hear, hear.)

The Case Re-stated.

I have now, I hope, so far as the Indians
are concerned, made good my case. It is
as good as I can make it if I forbear to
produce, from considerations of time, all the evi-
dence on which it rests. Let me now re-state it.
The opinion most familiarly, but not originally,
stated by Mr. Kipling that the " East is East and
•the West is West, and never the two shall meet," is
contradicted by the fact that India is now, with our
aid, rapidly passing, in a compressed form, through
our own social and industrial development, with all
its advantages and some of its evils. She has, how-
ever, still a very long way to go and many hard
problems to tackle if she desires to acquire as an
outcome of her conditions the same political institu-
tions, and there is no other way in which she can,
or ought, to acquire them.

124

the indian budget — 1911.
Parliament and India.

Will the House forgive me if I now, in con-
clusion, address myself directly to members of this
House and say a word about the theory of Indian
government ? I hope I shall not be thought over
presumptuous if I try to explain what I conceive to
be the functions of the British Parliament with
regard to our Indian dependency. The importance
of the subject cannot be over-estimated. It affectg.
us all, collectively and individually, India is woven
as it were into the very fabric of our being. In
a never-failing stream many of the best of our
men and women give themselves and the best
of their lives ungrudgingly to the service of India.
Their names are honoured and remembered,
whether by small groups of our fellow-subjects or
by our whole Indian Empire and beyond. (Hear,,
hear.) These men are inspired by an Imperial
patriotism which, I am thankful to say, shows no
sign of failing, and which will, I hope, be diffused
among the people whom they govern. This is bq
strange thing, this unceasing flow of workers drawn
by the magnet of the East. However burdensome
and unattractive Indian problems may seem from
the outside, I can testify that even the shortest
experience of them makes them lastingly absorbing,
interesting and important. I can well understand

125

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

how it is that men who have fought on behalf of
India until they are worn out put on their armour
again and enter public controversy ; how they even
go back to the country in which their life's work
has been spent, because of the intimate and lasting
effect that India has upon their minds and thoughts.
Thus it comes about that almost every street, mean
or rich, has some one living in it who has worked
itself, or whose relations have worked, or are work-
ing, in India. No better index of a nation's
activity is to be found than the front sheet of a
newspaper. Every birth, marriage and obituary
•column has its item of Indian interest. India is
part and parcel of the normal existence of our
nation. Is it not proper, then, that the House of
<;!ommons should ask itself what are its duties
towards this question which affects so nearly the
life of the nation and the lives of its people ?
<Hear, hear.)

Increasing Importance and Inadequate
Knowledge.

I realise well that I shall probably read to-
morrow that I have been guilty of the enormity of
lecturing the House of Commons. But I cannot
refrain from speaking out what I feel, for I am
convinced that Indian problems will become more

326

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

important, more insistent, more vital as the years go
on, and I see so clearly the danger that we shall in-
cur if they present them-selves to a House of Com-
mons inadequately equipped to grapple with them.
It is only a matter of time for questions of supreme
importance in connexion with our Indian Empire to
come through the outer Lobby into the inner Lobby
and kliock irresistibly at the door of this Chamber.
Are we prepared to meet them '? Have we the know-
ledge, the sympathy, the breadth of view, that they
demand for a satisfactory and statesmanlike solution *?
How many members of this House are able to say
that they are in a position to discusswith knowledge
and decide with wisdom the great problems of
India — the problem of education both in India and
in England, of commercial and industrial develop-
ment, of military defence, of political concession, of
the eradication of political crime ? On how many
of these questions can hon. members honestly say
that they are fitted to form any views at all ? Indeed
when I think how this House is harassed and over-
burdened by its innumerable domestic responsibili-
ties, which I hope it will not always be persistently
unwilling to delegate, I am bound to admit that there
is lacking that first requisite for the efficient dis-
charge of our Imperial duties — time for study and
mature consideration. But apart from this, when
I ask myself the question, What is the present

127

SPEECHES OF THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

attitude of this House towards Indian questions ? 1
am bound to answer frankly that the salient charac-
teristic of that attitude appears to me to be — speak-
king of the House as a whole — something approach-
ing apathy. And as regards those hon. members-
who take most active interest in Indian affairs, may
I say that I should be very sorry to see this interest
represented by two parties concerning themselves
chiefly with points of administrative detail, the one
thinking it necessary to espouse the cause of the
governed by attacking the Government, the other
constituting itself the champion of the official. The
tendency to assume an antagonism between the-
interests of the Indian and the interests of the
official is one which I cannot too strongly deprecate
— it is the negation of all we have done, are doing,
and hope to do for India. We are there to co-
operate with the peoples of the country in working
out her destinies side by side, with the same object,
the same mission, the same. goal. (Hear, hear.)

The Theory of Government by Prestige.

Time was, no doubt, when it was a most im-
portant function of this house to see that the theory
of government by prestige was not carried to exces-
sive lengths in India. In the extreme form of
government by prestige those who administer the
country are, I take it, answerable only to their

128

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

official superiors, and np claim for redress by one
of the ruled against one of the rulers can be
admitted as a right. If, for instance, a member
of the ruling race inflicts an injury upon a member
of the governed race, no question will arise of punish-
ing the former to redress the wrong of the latter.
The only consideration will be whether prestige will
be more impaired by punishing the offender, and
so admitting imperfection in the governing caste, or
by not punishing him, and so condoning a failure of
that protection of the governed which is essential to
efficient government. This illustrates, as I under-
stand the matter, the prestige theory pressed to its-
logical conclusion. I do not say that it was ever so
pressed in India. It has always been tempered by
British character, British opinion and the British
Parliament. Whatever reliance upon prestige there
was in our government of India is now giving place
to reliance upon even-handed justice and strong,,
orderly an<J equitable administration. But a great
deal of nonsense is talked still — so it seems to me
— about prestige. Call it, if you will, a useful asset
in our relations with the wild tribes of the frontier,
but let us hear no more about it as a factor in the
relations between the British Government and the
educated Indian public. Do not misunderstand me —
and this I say especially to those who may do me
the honour of criticising outside these walls what I

129

SPEECHES OF THE BT. HON. MB. E. S. MONTAGU.

am now saying. I mean by " prestige " the theory
of government that 1 have just described — the
theory that produces irresponsibility and arrogance.
I do not, of course, mean that reputation for firm
and dignified administration which no government
can afford to disregard. This reputation can only
be acquired by deeds and temper, not by appeal to "
the blessed word " prestige." I think it necessary
to make this explanation, for I have learned by
experience how a single word carelessly used may
be construed by sedulous critics as the enunciation
of a new theory of government.

Delegation and Responsibility.

It is, of course, a truism that in Parliament,
acting through its servant, the Secretary of
State, is vested the supreme control over the
Oovernmeat of India. It is no less a truism that
it is the duty of Parliament to control that Govern-
ment in the interests of the governed just as it is
the duty of Parliament to control the Government
of the day at home in the interests of the people of
these islands. This House m its relations to India
has primarily to perform for that country the
functions proper to an elected Assembly in a self-
governing country. That, I say, is its primary
function. But that is not all. It is characteristic

130

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

of British statesmanship that it has not been con-
tent with so narrow a view of Imperial responsibi-
lities. The coarse of the relations between the
House of Commons and the people of India has
taken, and must take, the form of a gradual delega-
tion, little by little, from itself to the people of
India, of the power to criticise and control their
Government. You have given India that rule
of law which is so peculiarly British and cherish-
ed by Britons ; you have given elected councils
for deliberative and legislative purposes ; you have
admitted Indians to high administrative and judi-
-cial office. And, in so far as you do these things,
you derogate from your own direct powers. You
bestow upon the people of India a portion of your
functions ; you must, therefore, cease to try to
exercise those functions, and devote yourself solely
to the exercise of the duties that you have definitely
retained for your own. Permit me to say that I see
signs that this most important point is not always
sufficiently realised. The more you give to India
the less you should exercise your own power ; the
less that India has the more you are called upon by
virtue of your heritage to exercise your own control.
The sum is constant ; addition on the one side
means subtraction from the other. There are then,
these two problems always before this House. The
one is how much of your powers of control to delegate

131

SPEECHES OF THE KT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU..

to the people of India, the other is how most wisely
to exercise the powers of control that you retain. It.
is not only that the powers that you have delegated
are of no use to those on whom you have bestowed*
them unless they are entrusted with them unham-
pered ; it is not only that the more you have delegat-
ed powers of control the more important are such-
powers as you retain, demanding more and more
study and thought. You must also remember the
position of the British official in India. You cannot
allow him to be crushed beneath a responsibility
to Indian opinion, now becoming articulate and-
organized, to which he has now to justify
himself in open debate, added to an undiminished
responsibility to British public opinion, unwilling,.
in fact, to surrender the functions that it has pro-
fessed, through its Parliament, to delegate. Let
the Indian official work out his position in the new
order of things, where justification by works and in.
council must take the place of justification by repu-
tation. I have every confidence in the result.

Anticipating the Critics.

In conclusion, I accept the blame which I am^
fully conscious of deserving for the fact that I have
wearied the house. The subject cannot weary any-
cne. But I am painfully conscious that anybody

132

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

-who deals with it and makes it unattractive only
^oes harm to the cause he espouses. My aim and
■object is this : I want people to think of India.
'There is enough to think of. I have spoken with a
full sense of responsibility, knowing the fulness of
"the critics' wrath. I think I have anticipated all'
the criticisms that I shall be called upon to meet
■outside these walls. There are those who hate the
•extinction of poetry, of lethargy, of the pictures of
the bizarre, which they assert is inseparable
from progress, from competition, from industrial
development. There are the cynics who forget-
ful of the history of their own country, would
•stop with their pens the revolution of the globe,
.and deny opportunity to a world force which
is beginning to penetrate and stir in the country
of which I speak. There are the pessimists who
spend a useless life, mourning a past which can
never return, and dreading a future which is bound
to come. Then there are those who, filled with
antediluvian imperialism, cannot see beyond domi-
nation and subjection, beyond governor and
•governed, who hate the word " progress " and will
accuse me of encouraging unrest. I bow sub-
missively in anticipation. I believe there is nothing
•dangerous in what I have said. I have pointed a
'long path, a path perhaps of centuries, for English -

vmen and Indians to travel together. I ask the

133

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

minority in India to bring along it — for there is
room for all — by education in the widest sense, by
organisation, and by precept, all those who would
be good citizens of their country. And, when at
intervals this well-ordered throng show to us that
they have made social and political advance to
another stage, and demand from us, in the name-
of the responsibility we have accepted, that they
should be allowed still further to share that res-
ponsibility with us. I hope we shall be ready to
answer with knowledge and with prudence. In
this labour all parties and all interested, wherever
they may be, may rest assured of the sympathy and-
assistance of the Government. (Cheers.)

Eeply to the Debate.

Mr. Montagu, by the leave of the House, dealt
with some of the points raised during the discussion,,
and after thanking the members for the kindness
with which they had received his statement, turned-
to the speech of Lord Ronaldshay, who had (he said)
made an interesting and well-argued appeal in
favour of Tariff Reform for India. After the invi-
tation he had given to the House to discuss the
industrial development of India, it did not need-*
much power of prophecy to realise that the first
hon. member to address the House from the benches.

134

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

opposite would prescribe for India their favourite
hDmoeopathic medicine for everything. Without
detaining the House with argument in favour of
Free Trade, he would only say that the Government
had no intention of departing from the Free Trade
system in India, and as opportunity offered they
would bring the fiscal system in India more into
accord with what they believed to be the only sound
economic doctrine. (Hear, hear.) Indian indus-
tries were developing, but to hope to develop them
by a protective tariff would be to hopelessly expose
India to some of the worst evils of Western capitali-
sation, the concentration of wealth in a few hands,
the tyranny of capital over labour, and the oppres-
sion of the working classes and consumers. If the
noble lord thought that with a preferential tariff for
India they would rope India into the scheme which
would always be associated with the name of Mr.
Joseph Chamberlain, he would ask the House to
remember that that was a scheme for binding to-
gether the Empire, by which its advocates usually
meant our great self-governing Dominions. If
anybody still believed in that policy as applied
to our Indian Empire they would find that the
case for it was absolutely demolished by Lord
Curzon, when Viceroy, in a despatch which he
earnestly hoped his lordship had not forgotten.
That despatch, together with the arguments laid

185

SPEECHES OF THE KT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

l^efore the Conference by Sir Jamas Mackay, would
be found in a command paper. Those arguments
had never been answered.

Lord Minto and " India's Eight to
Protection."

It was sometimes said that educated opinion in
India was in favour of Tariff Reform and should be
given what it wanted. It was true that a large
number of Indian publicists believed in Protection,
but not all of them. Mr. Gokhale was by no means
an unqualified advocate of it ; and Mr. Bhupen-
dranath Basu, another well-known Indian publicist,
had declared that the people, who did not belong to
the capitalist class did not want it, and that protective
•duties would benefit a small class while the millions
of India would suffer. (Hear, hear.) It was im-
possible to abrogate part of our own responsibility in
India. As long as it remained our responsibility to
govern India politically it would continue to be our
duty to govern her fiscally. To give over our
responsibility for dictating her fiscal policy while
keeping responsibility for her political government
would be to embark upon a most disastrous experi-
ment. He wished to call the noble lord's attention
to a speech which Lord Minto took the first
opportunity to make jvhen he became an ex-
Viceroy. He hoped some early opportunity would

136

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

he taken of making what was meant clear. It was
bad enough to keep English voters waiting, whilst
•drawing pictures of agricultural or manufacturing
prosperity without exactly defining the tariff by
which this was to be brought about. But there
were other people here who could draw the
other picture. In talking to Indians it was
almost criminal not to put before them exactly
what we meant. The policy of the Govern-
ment was Free Trade. Was the policy of the
Unionists simply to rope India into a preferential
.system in order to twist her trade within the
British Empire, or did they mean that one of the
planks of their policy was to remove the cotton
•duties as at present applied to Lancashire '? The
noble lord had given his views. He hoped he
would not be thought impertinent if Jie said that
his interesting speech could well have been delayed
for a few minutes until the House had had the
views of some Leader of the Conservative Party
speaking with all the weight which attached to a
seat on the Front Bench. The question he had
^sked had awakened great intere.st in India, and
many people were awaiting an answer to it.

A Batch of Criticisms.

He had been accused by Mr. Keir Hardie of
Swadeshism. Swadeshi struck him as being the

137

SPEECHES OF THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

only rational form of Tariff Beform, each man
deciding for himself whether he would buy import-
ed goods or not. He did not, therefore, complain
of the label. But there was not, he believed, a
jot of foundation for the hon. member's assertion
that anybody who delivered in India the speech
which he had delivered that afternoon would find
himself in prison. If there were any doubt, he
wished Mr. Keir Hardie would give him parti-
culars and he would do his very best to secure
their immediate release. It was perfectly true that
agriculture in India would remain for very many
years its principal industry. There were 191,000,000
people engaged directly or indirectly on agriculture.
However much industry developed the agricultural
side would always remain profitable. His hope for
India was that the two sides would develop together
neither the bne nor the other being particularly
prominent. With regard to plague the hon. mem-
ber had airily waived aside the theory and scientific
diagnosis of the cause, and so had Mr. O'Grady, It
was the belief of both that poverty, a low standard
of living and low resisting power, were the causes.
So they were. They were the causes> which made
anybody prone to any disease, but the most recent
and careful scientific research had shown that the
bacillus found a home in the rat, and on the death
of the rat was conveyed to human beings, who^""

138

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1911.

however, if they were in a good resisting state,
might remain unaffected. It was the duty of the
Government and Indians to work together to
improve sanitation and to urge the advantages of
inoculation. Comment had been made that he had
left out of his speech many things to which he
ought to have referred. He had warned them of
that almost as soon as hh began. The things he
had left out were things to which he referred last
year. The Press Act was one. It was in existence
last 5'«ar, and he then gave such a defence of it as
he believed at the time and now believed to be
necessary. The Seditious Meetings Act, about
which there had been complaints, had been amended,
and did not at present apply to any district.

Mr. Wedgwood : Does the hon. gentleman mean that at
present meetings can be held without anj'one asking any authority
to do so ?

Mr MONTAGU : Before the Act can be applied the district has
to be proclaimed.

Mr. WEDGWOOD: Can meetings be held in districts which
are not proclaimed ?

Mr. Montagu : There are other regulations for maintaining
law and order, of course, this is under the common law and not
statute lav/. The hon member, in the amendment he moved last
year, complained of the resort to the Press Law, and among the
measures to which he referred was the Seditious Meetings Act.

Mr. KEIR Hardir : Is the hon. gentleman aware that two
meetings were proclaimed which were called for the purpose ol

139

SPEECHES OF THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

-considering means for providing education for the lower classes ?
Can he explain why '?

Mr. Montagu replied that on the facts which
the hon. gentlemam gave him, he could not. If
the hon. member would supply him with more
information, he would investigate the matter. He
repeated that the Seditious Meetings Act was not
now in force in India. The appeal had been made
that the King's visit to India should be celebrated
by an amnesty of political prisoners, and several
hon. members had made various suggestions for a
boon or gift from his Majesty on that occasion. It
would not be right for him to make any pronounce-
ment. He could only assure hon. members that
:all the suggestions would be brought to the notice
•of the Secretary of State on the conclusion of this
debate. Mention had been made of political depor-
tees. There were no political offenders in prison
under the regulation of 1818. People were in prison
now, but they were not political prisoners, and
nearly all not British subjects, who had been deport-
ed from their own countries as the result of war.
He did not understand whether the demand was
made that they should be released, or whether it
was supposed that under the regulation of 1818 there
were still prisoners. A few years ago there were
still political offenders in prison. They had all been
released.

140

the indian budget — 1911.

The Article in the " Pioneer,"
Attention had been drawn to an article in the
Pioneer. Mr. O'Grady had asked why, if the
Press Law applied to Indian newspapers, it did
not apply to Anglo-Indian newspapers. Mr. Wedg-
wood had added that no Act such as the Press Law
could be administered fairly when the power was
given as it was in India. He differed from both. He
believed that the Press Act was being administered
fairly and squarely and to the very best of their ability
by men whose chief attribute was their scrupulous
fairness. With regard to the particular article refer-
red to he need hardly say that it was his own
personal opinion, as it was the opinion of everybody
who had read it, that it was a disgusting piece of
writing calculated to do an infinite amount of harm.
Whether it did or did not come within the meaning
of the Press Act was a matter for the legal officers of
the Government of India to decide. He could only
say that the attention of the Government of India
had been called to the matter. But he would remind
the hon. members that they were the first to protest-
when the Government of India embarked on a
political prosecution and failed to get a conviction.
And that applied equally to the Press and to other
things. Colonel Yate had asked why the Indian
Marine should not police the Persian Gulf and so set
free the Royal Navy for its proper duties. The

141

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

Indian Marine was not a fighting force at all, and
any idea of having a separate naval force for India
was abandoned in 1862. In conclusion, he said the
discussion had been more hopeful in tone than any
Indian debate he could remember, and he congratu-
lated the House and their Indian fellow-country-
men upon the result of their deliberations.

142

THE INDIAN BUDGET— 1912.

On the motion to go into Committee on the
East India Revenue accounts.

Mr. Montagu said : — I am more than ordinarily
impressed by the difficulty of diverting the attention
of this House from important domestic concerns to
the affairs of India, but I hope to be able to an-
nounce to the House a policy of such importance
that I trust the hon. members will pardon the large
draft I shall have to make upon their patience. I
do not intend to deal more than a minute upon
foreign affairs because the House has kept itself
informed of events on the North-West Frontier and
in Tibet. The expeditions to the Abor, Mishmi,
■and Mari countries have returned to India having
successfully accomplished what they set out to do.
If the geographic and scientific results of these
expeditions have been somewhat disappointing, the
incalculably adverse climatic conditions must be
borne in mind. All that it is necessary for me to
say about them is that the thanks of the House and
all interested are due to General Bower and the
other gallant officers and men who conducted the

143

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU

expeditions, and our sympathies will go out to those
who lose their lives in the service of their country.
(Hear, hear.)

The King's Visit.

Of course, the outstanding feature of the past-
year in India was the visit of his Majesty and the
Queen Empress. I do not propose to attempt what
others have done adequately before me, to paint to
this House the glowing success of their visit, and to-
try and describe the warmth of the welcome which
awaited them from their Indian subjects. I ventur-
ed last year to prophesy the welcome which his-
Majesty would receive in these words. I said :
" His visit would receive a real and heartfelt
welcome from all his peoples, not only because
news of his popularity and devotion to his Imperial
duties will have reached their shores but .because
they will see in his visit an earnest that the passage
of time and growing knowledge had increased the
desire which has always animated the British people
to help and serve their Indian fellow-subjects." I
quote these words because they describe the welcome
which his Majesty received, a welcome enhanced by
his own personality and the personality of her
Majesty, a welcome which was echoed from end to
end of the Indian Empire.

144

the indian budget — 1912.

The Spirit of Nationality.
At the risk of incurring the anger of my critics,
I would express once again my belief that there is
a growing spirit of nationality in India, the direct
product and construction of British rule. The
Brahmin from Bombay speaks Mahratta, the
Brahmin from Bengal speaks Bengali, and despite
their community of religious belief they are
separated by an incapacity to understand one
another's language, but they come to discuss
the affairs of the nation which is growing under
British rule in the language of the British
people. (Hear, hear.) There is growing up in
India a caste of educated Indians which includes
among its numbers members of all castes from
all parts of India, discussing the affairs of the
nation in English. It is small wonder that the
educated people of India should welcome the British
Kings as the representatives of the unity which is
Britain's gift to them. Above and beyond these
there were the nine-tenths of the people of India
who are still illiterate and uneducated, who wel-
comed our King because of the peace and tranquil-
lity and the growing prosperity produced by those
who govern India in his name. There is an old
doctrine that we govern India by the sword. With-
out questioning the fundamental truth of this I
want to assert that it is because we also govern

145

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

India by the consent of those who know, and by
the cheerful acquiescence of those who do not
realise all that it means, that his Majesty's welcome
was so wide and real as it was. (Cheers.)

The Removal of the Capital.

I do not want to tread upon the more debat-
able ground of the results of his Majesty's visit.
The House of Lords has had its say, and the House
■of (Commons has also had its say. I have stated my
€ase, the case for the removal of the Government
of India from a provincial centre, and the case for
what we conceive to be a more statesmanlike parti-
tion of Bengal " and although I fully recognise the
importance of the grave misgivings felt by those
interested in commerce in Calcutta, I am bound to
adhere to the opinion that I have expressed in
this House, that the changes are popular everywhere
else, that they have produced satisfaction and
tranquillity, and that there is reason to hope and
believe that the adverse and isolated, though
important, misgivings of the commercial community
at Calcutta will prove to be ill-founded.

The Financial Position of India.

I pass to that part of my speech which no
representative of the India Office, however careless
of precedent, could afford to omit, what is, indeed,

146

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

•-the real basis for this motion — a very short review,
^nd I will make it as short as I can, of the financial
position of the Empire. We have to consider two
years — 1911-12 — in review, and, so far as we can,
1912-13 in prospect. The estimates for 1911-12
were framed on the hypothesis of normal harvests,
good steady progress in trade, and a satisfactory
■export season. The net revenue, imperial and pro-
vincial, was estimated at £52,141,700, and the net
expenditure chargeable to the revenues of the year,
after allowing for the amount estimated to be met
from the balances of provincial Governments, was
-estimated at £ 51,322,500, which would have left a
balance of ^^819,200. I think the House will agree
that it is highly satisfactory to be able to report
that the general economic conditions were far more
favourable than was anticipated. Budget framers, tax-
payers, politicians, and journalists all cast their eyes
.towards the monsoon, which is the vital element in
Indian prosperity. I should like to give the history
of this particular monsoon, because it may be
.taken to show the extreme difficulty of Budget-
making in India, and the caution with which
deductions should be made from earlier rains. The
monsoon began in June normally, but during July
and August rain practically ceased over the whole
of India. The young crops sown during the first
(fallacious burst were destroyed by dry, westerly

147

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

winds^ fodder failed for the cattle, and the price-
of all grains rose rapidly to famine level. On
August 25 the Punjab Government reported to the
Government of India that the failure of the rains
had up to date been greater than had ever been
experienced in the history of that province ; every-
thing portended as grave and as extensive a drought
as any recorded in the history of India. We were^
I am informed, w^ithout 24 hours of one of the-
greatest calamities we had ever known. Then in
the last week of August the monsoon currents-
freshened and copious rains fell in most parts of
India and continued in unusual strength through-
out September, but the north of the Bombay
Presidency, and parts of the native States of Baroda,.
Katbiawar, and Central India were not reached by
the later rains, and in those districts, except where
irrigation — which I think is the most beneficent
triumph of British rule in India — (cheers) — saved the
situation, the autumn and winter crops failed and
positively disappeared. Belief works were started
in the famine districts, and in the latter part of
May of this year 100,000 people were employed on
the relief works.

The Volume op Trade.

These favourable conditions showed themselves-
in an expansion of the volume of trade. Imports -

148

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

rand exports reached a record. I have some remark-
able figures to read to the Hous^e. The imports of
.merchandise were of the value of £02,000,000, an
increase of 7 per cent. ; exports of merchandise
were £151,000,000, an increase of 8 per cent. ; and
the net imports of treasure were £28,000,000, an
increase of 32 per cent. To give a better idea of
the general expansion of Indian trade the House
will, if it compares the figures for 1911-12 with
those of 1901-2, find an increase of imports of 70
per cent., an increase in exports of 83 per cent.,
.and an increase in imports of treasure of 285 per
cent. The favourable trade conditions were respon-
sible for the fact that the financial results of the
year were considerably more favourable than had
been expected in the Budget estimate. Railways
showed an increase in the gross receipts of
£33,150,000, or an excess of £1,720,000 over the
estimate. This was partly due to the great expan-
sion of trade and partly due to the Durbar traffic in
December. The net profit on the year's working
was, therefore, the record sum of .£3,204,000, an
•excess over the Budget estimate of £1,250,000.
The local Governments who are mainly lesponsible
ior Excise administration have lately raised their
fees and duties in order to discourage the use of
rstimulants and of drugs, and therefore on this
.account the revenue of 1911-12 was expected to

149

SPEECHES OP THE RT, HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU,

show only a very moderate increase, but good,
harvests and good trade led to an expansion, and
the n^et revenue was d(i416,300 over the estimates
The Customs revenue benefited in a similar way.
There was an increase of i;80B,000 in the Custom,
revenue as a whole, the only item showing a decrease
being sugar and tobacco. Under the heading of
irrigation there was an increase of £320,000.

The Opium Trade.

The most important item which contributed
to the surplus of the year was opium. The reduc-
tion of the exports has been proceeding at a very
considerable pace since the agreement with China
which came into force in 1908. In that year the-
total exports amounted to 61,900 chests, of which
48,000 went to China. In 1912 the exports to China
are limited to 21,680 chests, and to the rest of the
world 13,200 chests. Of course, this restriction of
the exports affects the price and makes it very
difficult to forecast from year to year the exact
price which it will fetch in the market. Last year
the situation was complicated by a new factor,
because the Government of India had adopted a
system of certificated chests for export to China in
response to the wishes of the Chinese Government.
It was impossible, therefore, to foretell the price of
certificated or uncertificated opium. It is not

150

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

surprising, therefore, to find that, owing to thfe-
poor yield of the season's crops, the expenditure
was £444,000 less than the estimate and the
receipts £1,624,000 more than the estimate, so
that the net receipts were better than the
estimate by rather more than £2,000,000. The
most important decrease in the year was land reve-
nue. Owing to the scarcity in the North of Bombay
and the lateness of the monsoon in the United Pro-
vinces and the Punjab, remissions and suspensions-
of the land revenue were granted, and there was a
net decrease of £696,000 in the land revenue as a.
whole. Thus the net revenue auiounted to
£56,209,000, a surplus over the estimate of a little
more than four millions sterling.

Expenditure and Surplus.

When I turn to the net expenditure I find there
was a decrease in the estimated expenditure of
£780,000. There was, further more, a decrease
in interest charges of £316,500. This was mainly
accidental, and was owing to the fact that the large
amounts received on loans granted from the
Secretary of State's balances helped to decrease the
amount payable for interest. I will draw the
attention of the House to a decrease in the expendi-
ture on education of a little over t'250,000. It is
not a real decrease, because £100,000 of the grant

151

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

which was to have been spent on education was spent
on educational buildings, and therefore appears under
the head of " Civil Works" instead of that of
" Education." There is also a certain decrease
owing to the fact that the large grant which
would have enabled the total outlay to exceed that
of the previous year by 4^430,000 were not fully
spent by the Department. If I add the excise
revenue of £4,067,700 to the savings of £780,000 in
Imperial and provincial expenditure, it will be
found that the Budget for the year showed a
surplus of £4,848,000. Out of tnis sum the
Provincial Governments receive automatically a
certain proportion of the revenue raised in their
province. £540,000 of the surplus went thus to
the local Governments ; £782,000 went to provide
suitable opening balances for the new Pro-
vinces of Bengal, Behar and Orissa and Assam ;
£322,000 went to pay the two weeks' gratuity to
the lower-paid provincial employees, which was
promised as a Durbar grant. This reduced the
surplus to £3,9(30,000. In dealing with this sum
we have, of course, to remember the causes which
contributed to the great excess over the Budget
estimate. The opium revenue, so far as it is derived
from exports to China, v/ill probably in greater part
disappear during the next five years. The railway
revenue has yielded a very exceptional return, but

152

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

anust always be regarded as a fluctuating source of
income. I think, therefore, that it is right to treat
the surplus as the outcome of financial conditions
which cannot be relied upon to recur, and to apply
it to non-recurring purposes. .i'8C7,000 was given
to the Provincial Government for sanitation, re-
search in hygiene, improvements in communications
and improvements in agriculture. The remainder
of the surplus of a little over .^3,000,000 went to
the reduction of debt. At the close of the year
there was in existence £11,166,800 of temporary
debt — India bills, India bonds and debenture bonds
— for which the general liability was assumed by the
Secretary of State when he purchased the railways
or terminated the contracts of companies. Provision
has been made to pay off during 1912-13 out of the
large balances in hand, including the surplus I have
just mentioned, the £4,500,000 worth of Indian bills
outstanding and the £1,977,600 of bonds which
mature during the year. So there will thus be left
out of this large temporary debt only a little over
£4,500,000. I do not think 1 need stop to labour
"the general theoretical advantages of reducing so
large an amount of debt, but, of course, the more
India can free herself in prosperous times from
floating debt in London the better she is in a posi-
tion to call on the London market in times of difli-
•culty.

163

speeches of the rt. hon. mb. e. s. montagu.

The Future.
Now I turn to the future. The Indian revenue
for 1912-13 is estimated at .i'53,442,400. The net
expenditure is estimated at £51,964,000, and the
surphis is estimated therefore at £1,478,300. The
latest telegram we have received from India
concerning the monsoon gives a summary that the
present conditions and prospects are almost univer-
sally good, but the House will not be surprised, after
what I have said, to hear the warning that a con-
tinuance of such prospects depends very largely on
favourable late rains. The receipts in the new
Estimate under most of the chief heads of revenue,
such as forests, salt, stamps. Excise and Customs,,
railways and irrigation, are taken at a somewhat
higher figure than in the Budget of last year to
allow for normal expansion. The estimate of the
price of opium, having regard to the difficulty of
forecasting the course of this exceptionally speculative
commodity, is the same as in the Budget for last
year, with allowances made for a reduction in the
quantity sold. Under the head of general ad-
ministration there is a reduction compared with
last year of £673,200, which was expended last year
in the Civil expenditure on the Royal visit to India,'
and there is a similar reduction in the military
services of £307,000. The largest increase in next
year's Budget is that of £760,000 for education.

154

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

(Hear, hear.) For 1911-12 the amount provided
was i;2,094,000. In 1912-13 the amount is
J^2,855,000. There is also an increase of jL'IOO.OOO
on medical services, .4'333,000 is allocated to water-
works and drainage schemes, and .i'80,000 for
medical research, including the equipment of
research laboratories and the establishment of a
tropical school of medicine. Of course, the House
will see that the surplus for which we have budgetted
is abnormally large. In a normal year the natural
course would be to use at least a part of the surplus-
for the reduction of taxation or, perhaps, for increas-
ing administrative expenses. But in this year neither
of those courses was possible. The revenue derived
from the sale of opium to China will shortly disap-
pear, both because it is a source of revenue which I
think neither India nor Great Britain desires to
continue to have — (hear, hear) — and partly because
©f our international agreements. The surplus, there-
fore, is going to be retained in order to reduce the
amount to be borrowed on capital expenditure on
railways, irrigation works, and the building of the
new Delhi.

The New Delhi.

I want now to make a short diversion and say
something about the new city of Delhi. The site
which has been recommended by the Expert Com-

155

SPEECHES OP THE RGJTHON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

,.^^^'

mittee, which has returned to this country, lies to the
south-west of the modern city of Delhi between the
Kutab Road and the Aravelli Ridge. The area stands
high, commands a wide prospect which includes the,
existing city of Delhi, and the ground is virgin soil
because the man-worn sites of the early occupation
lie, I understand, nearer the river and due south of
Delhi. The drainage problem is simplified by the
ample fall of the ground towards the river, and al-
though no plan for the laying out of the city has as
yet been finally decided upon, I think it is safe to say
that the present intention is that a belt of park not
less than a thousand yards in width should intervene
between the walls of old Delhi and the new capital,
and that this park will probably be extended to en-
velop the entire site at the eastern boundary, where
will lie probably the bazar and the quarters of the
English and Indian Government servants. The
distance from the new Government House to the
JamaMusjid will be about three miles to the south-
west, and between the two will lie the Government
offices for the administration of the old and the new
city of Delhi. The military cantonments will be to
the west of the Aravelli Ridge, where I understand
there is much available and suitable land. I have
•only to add that at the earliest possible moment the
report of the Committee and the plans will be ex-
hibited in the tea-room. On the site I have describ-

156

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

ed it is hoped there will grow up in the heart of
India on the site of what I think may be described
as its most ancient capital, at its most convenient
railway centre, the enduring British seat of govern-
ment, firmly planted, I believe, in the affections-
of those for whom it labours.

The Question of Cost.

The estimated cost of the new capital is put at
£'4,000,000. The Government scheduled under the

Land Acquisition Act a very large area round Delhi,,
so that they are able to acquire the land they want
at the price it was worth before' the Durbar an-
nouncement. The buildings which will be a public
charge are the Viceroy's residence, the Government
offices, a place of meeting for the Imperial Legis-
lative Council, and offices for the municipal admi-
nistration and the cantonments. If residences for
other individuals are constructed in the first instance
at the cost of public revenue, a rent will be charged
to the occupants. The architects for the various
Government enterprises have not yet been chosen,,
but efforts will be made by competition to obtain a
wide field of selection. I am afraid I cannot give
at present any revised estimate. Lord Hardinge,.
in his speech to the Council on March 25, expressed
considerable confidence that the estimate would be
found to be sufficient. I can only say this provisional

157

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

■estimate has been framed after considering the cost
■of lighting, road-making, drainage, and comparing it
with the similar cost for places like Bombay, Calcutta
and Madras, and making allowance for the fact
that there will be little or no clearing. We do
not intend to build streets of private dwellings and
shops, but we intend to allow other people to build
private dwellings and shops in harmony with the
general plan ; and, although, of course, nothing defi-
nite can be said, I really do not anticipate that this
new Delhi will, in the long run, prove to be a very
serious burden upon the finances of the country.

Finding the Money.

How are we going to find this money ? When
Oovernment offices and buildings are required in
India the usual practice is to find them out of
current revenue ; but, in view of the magnitude of
the Delhi scheme, it is proposed to adopt a different
method of providing the money, and in this case to
treat the outlay as capital expenditure and to meet
it partly from loans and partly from revenue
surpluses as they may arise. I think it is the same
principle which is now adopted in this country,
as a rule, whenever public buildings are to be built.
If new taxation were going to be imposed for the
purpose of producing a surplus for use in Delhi, or
if a remission was-going to be refused because we

158

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

wanted to provide a surplus, or if money was going
to be withheld from administrative needs because of
this plan, there would be very much weight in the
objection which has been raised in India. But there
is no idea of creating a surplus in any of these ways.
!New taxation is not introduced in India except to
meet a deficit or a prospective deficit in current
revenue, and the fact that the expenditure on Delhi
is to be treated as capital expenditure will prevent it
from contributing towards a deficit in current
•revenue, and there is no intention or prospect that the
building of Delhi will prevent a remission of taxation,
because the probability is that it will be built in a
time when revenue from Chinese opium is disappear-
ing and when no prudent man in India and no
•Government of India would ever recommend the
remission of taxation which it would be certain to
have to re-impose at the end of the time. Undoub-
tedly the expenditure on Delhi, so far as it is met
from surpluses, will lessen the amount available for
objects which are paid for from revenue generally.
But it is equally true, in view of the limited amount
which can be borrowed in any given year, that, if
we met it from loans entirely, it would lessen the
amount which could be spent on equally important
work in connexion with such subjects as railways
and irrigation. To meet the whole expenditure
from loans would involve the possibility of so res-

159

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

tricting the expenditure on these latter objects as to
diminish India's prosperity in time of plenty and
her security against suffering in bad seasons.
Therefore, I contend the task before the Govern-
ment, when once it had come to the conclusion that-
the change of capital was a measure of such
importance as to justify the expenditure involved,,
was to survey the field of administration as a whole
and adopt a financial scheme which seemed likely
to be the least onerous to the interests concerned.
We believe that the plan we have adopted of using
a variety of resource, instead of relying upon one,
is the plan best calculated to achieve this object.
The vindication of the decision will have to be
looked for in the way in which it is carried into
effect year by year while the expenditure on the
new buildings is in progress. The Government of
India will have to submit each year to the criticism
of the Legislative Council and of Parliament as to
the way in which it co-ordinates the claims of
Delhi with the other claims on its resources. I do
not think that, having regard to its commitments
and its pledges, it is likely to allow the claims of
Delhi to obscure its other responsibilities or to
impede their fulfilment.

A New Chapteb in Indian History.
I want now to ask the House to listen to a few
more general statements. Two years ago I discus-

160

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

sed generally the political position of India and
■what I conceived to be the lines on which it could
best be governed; and last year I dealt at some
length with the social conditions and development
of the country, and tried to explain how political
development must be contingent upon social deve-
lopment. The three contentions which I tried to
establish last year and the year before were, first,
that it is possible to distinguish and segregate legi-
timate aspirations for advancement from sedition ;
secondly, that political institutions cannot be im-
ported advantageously from one country to another
unless they are the resultant of similar social or-
ganisations, and that it is towards improved social
conditions rather than change of political institu-
tions that our attention and the attention of Indians
should be turned ; and, thirdly, that there are strik-
ing analogies in the history of India under British
rule and the history of a European country,
although this chapter of the history of India has
been shorter, because it is governed and created
by men who have inherited the results of European
and British development. I want to resist the
temptation of going over that ground again. I

cannot help thinking that with the passage of the
Reform Act of 1909 a chapter of Indian history was

closed and a new chapter was opened. I do not

believe that India has yet discovered what possibili-

161
n

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MB. E. 9. MONTAGU.

ties there are without alteration of statute, without
any new political demand, in the great reforms
which will be for ever associated in the history of
India with the name of Lord Morley. (Cheers.)

The Indian Student in London.
I want this year to devote my attention to the
one problem which I believe underlies all other
problems in India, which I think is the keystone of
progress and the keystone of the development of
social conditions, and of, eventually, the improve-
ment of political conditions — namely, education.
It has two branches — education in this country
and education in India. Those interested in India
must never lose sight of the increasing army of
those who come over to England and benefit by
our educational facilities, and who present a very
serious problem. The facilities which we offer
here are often purchased at an exorbitant pricS,
and I think it is difficult for Indians to estimate
them at their real value. It may well be that
the solution of some of the dif^culties presented by
them may be found by providing better facilities for
education in India itself. If this were done — if the
Indian doctor, the Indian barrister, the Indian
aspirant to an unprejudiced share in the government
of his own country were to obtain an adequate train-
mg in his own country, I venture to say that many a

]62

' THE 1NDIA51 BUDGET — 1912.

•parent would be saved anxiety and worry, many an
Indian would be saved bitterness and disappoint-
ment, and perhaps the financial disaster attendant
upon a journey to England. But whilst they are
over here, in search of what the heart of the
Empire can give them, it is our dnty and part of
our responsibility for the good government of India
to welcome and to help our Indian fellow-subjects
to the best of our ability.

The Englishman's Duty.
Let me say first of all how difficult it is to
interest men and women in this country in
Indian problems. Is it too much to hope that
when the problems come to their very door they
will respond to the invitation which in all humility
I make to them to show some hospitality to our
Indian fellow-subjects ? All men and women v/ho
show this hospitality to our Indian visitors are
doing an Imperial work of the utmost value to the
Empire. Nothing could be more valuable than for
Englishmen and women in particular, to afford
•opportimities to Indians of learning something of
English homes. 1 do not want to go into details,
but I want to assure the House that I have had
ample and lasting proof of the serious consequences
of allowing Indian students to believe that the
dnajority of the women with whom they come

163

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

most easily in contact in the lonely lives they
lead in lodging-houses are typical of English,
womanhood. May I say a word to under-
graduates in our great Universities ? A responsi-
bility of an exceptional kind falls upon them.
Amongst those who go to our Universities, both.
Indian and British, are the future administrators of
India, and if we allow our Indian visitors to be
segregated, isolated, or rudely treated, we are sow-
ing seed which will sprout and fruit long after we
have repented of the carelessness which helped its
germination.

The Organisation at the India Office.

I want to say something more now of the efforts
the India Office are making to ensure that those
who come to this country are looked after. It is
not the first time the House has been asked to-
consider this question. The Master of Elibank,.
who preceded me at the India Office, explained to
the House in 1909 the measures which had been
taken. The scheme has now been in existence for
three and a half years. So great a measure of
success has been achieved that the Secretary of
State feels himself justified in making a consider-
able extension and development. I should like to
give the House an idea of the work which Mr.
Arnold, the head of the organisation, and his staff

164

THE INDIAN BUDGET— 1912.

Iiave been called upon to perform. In the first
•place, a bureau of information has been created
which provides information upon educational
matters to Indian parents and students, keeps for
students a record of suitable lodging-houses and of
families that are ready to receive them, furnishes
ithem with references and certificates required by
institutions which thev wish to enier, serves as an
intermediary between the Universities and other
academic bodies in cases where their regulations
impose unintentional hardship on students from
India or do not harmonise with the system en-
iforced in Indian Universities and colleges, issues
a handbook of iuforniati(3n relating to academic
.and technical education, the condition of life,
the cost of living in diiferent centres of the
United Kingdom to which Indian parents may wish
■to send their sons, and finally assists Indian students
in this country with advice on matters social,
financial and educational, and undertakes at the
•express wish of Indian parents the guardianship of
their sons, sending to them from time to time
periodical reports as to their progress and conduct.
It is now calculated that this bureau is in contact
with 1,06'2 Indian students, or about (32 per cent,
of the total number in this country. As regards
those of whom Mr. Arnold has undertaken the
guardianship, let me give the figures : — In June

1G5

■ SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

lyiO, there were 27; in Marck, 1911, 91; and in:
February last, 137. Between April, 1909, and June,
1910, the amount of remittance received on behalf
of these students was about £'5,000; between July 1,
1910 and June 1, 19 11, the amount was over i' 18,000.
The educational adviser works in conjunction with
the Board of Education in finding suitable courses
of instruction for technical students, and in regard"
to engineering he is assisted by an expert adviser in
Mr. Champion.

Mr. Mallet's ArpoiNTMENT.

I wish to say that the scheme inaugurated
in 1909 has fully justified its institution, and,
secondly, that it has grown far beyond the
control of its original organisation. Mr. Arnold,
to whose zeal, energy, and devotion I gladly tak&
this opportunity of paying public tribute, has
yi'ith his assistants worked nobly to grapple with
an ever-increasing rush of work. That a reorgani-
sation is necessary is, I think, a justification of their
work, for it is only by tactful management and the
taking of infinite pains that the natural repugnance
of students to placing themselves under control could
be overcome and that the number to be dealt with
has therefore increased. The first step which we have
taken is to increase substantially the yery insufficient
salary upon which Mr. Arnold and his assistants

166

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

are doing their work. Then a Secretary for Indian
students has been appointed at the India Office at a
salary of i'1,000 a year. (Opposition cries of 'Oh !")
As the House knows, we have been fortunate enough
to secure the services of Mr. Mallet.

Mr. Peel : Is there a pension ?

Mr. Montagu : There is a pension after ten
years' service if he is invalided ; and if he is not
invalided when he retires at the age of GO he gets a
pension of one-eighteenth of his salary for each year
of service, together with a bonus of one-thirtieth of
his salary for each year of service.

Mr. PEKL : Is there any examination ?

Mr. Montagu : No ; there is no examination of
any sort or kind. The position is not an easy one to
fill. What is required is largely a knowledge of the
conduct of a public office. I have not the slightest
hesitation in saying after the very short experience
and opportunity we have had of judging Mr.
Mallet's work that it shows us to the full how glad
we should be to welcome him as a colleague in this
new and difficult work he has undertaken.

Mr. PREIi : Is a knowledge of any Indian language required ?

Mr. MONTAGU .• No. Mr. Mallet i.s to be a link between the
Secrctarj of State and the various organisations in India on tho
one hand, and in this country on the other hand, which have been
formed and are being formed for this important work.

Mr. Kkir HABDIE : Was there no Indian available ?

167

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

Mr. MONTAGU : No, for the very important reason that we
•desired to appoint one with knowledge of the working of an office.
It was considered that the best appointment that could be made
was from Great Britain and not from India.

Captain FABER : Has he any knowledge of India ?

Mr. Montagu : So far as I am aware, not.
Mr. Arnold will in fature confine his attention to
■students in London. There are something like 800
•of these at present, and the number will probably
be increased. If he is to carry on the work with the
•same personal attention as he has done in the past,
we want to limit his activities to the guardianship
and care of Indian students in London. Mr. Mallet
-will organise and keep in touch with similar
organisations to that in Cromwell Eoad and which
are being founded with the same object and
on the same lines as those which have been so
•successful in London. In no University town at
present is there any real satisfactory organisation
for looking after Indian students. We want at
Oxford, Cambridge, the Scottish Universities and
the provincial centres, where Indians congregate
for study similar machinery to combat the sense of
homelessness. Our hope is that each University
which enrols Indian students may be willing to
appoint an officer who will make it his duty to know
and to help all the Indian students there, to give
them information and assistance, and even to act as

168

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

•guardians. We believe that will be of great value to
the University and of great value to the Empire. The
Secretary of State is,* of course, willing under the
new scheme to assist financially such efforts. Mr.
Mallet will be in close relation to those local
•advisers and will help them in every way to organise
their work and to induce others to co-operate with
them and to assist them in communication with
India. Communications are being carried on with
the General Medical Council for more satisfactory
regulations for Indian students who wish to study
for the medical profession. Mr. Mallet will play
an important part in this scheme. I wish to take
this opportunity of expressing publicly the thanks
of the Secretary of State for the courtesy and con-
sideration with WDich these bodies have met his
suggestions. 1 may add that there is no intention of
abolishing the position of Indian assistant at Crom-
well Koad which was formerly held by Dr. Kay, and
the selection of a successor to Dr. Ray is now under
consideration. I come to another branch of this
subject. Indian students in recent years have come
over to this country for industrial and technical
study. A few of them — about ten every year —
come at the cost of the Indian Government. Others
are sent by patriotic societies, and others come at
their own expense. Some doubt was expressed as
to the value of the training they get, and the Secre-

169

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

tary of State has appointed a committee to enquire
into the matter, under the chairmanship of Sir
Theodore Morison. The committee has not yet
reported, but I understand all the members
agree as to the importance of practical training.
The university or technological school can teach
science and its application to industry, but it can-
not make a man an engineer, a tanner, or a manu-
facturer. He can only learn the industry by
practical experience in a business concern which is
run for profit, and I am afraid that Indian students
find some difficulty in getting the practical expe-
rience which they need in a concern run for profit
as a complement to their theoretical knowledge.
Our Colleges and Universities are open to them on
the same terms as to Englishmen, but in some-
industries at least they meet with great reluctance
to admit them. This is a state of things which fills
me with concern. India is going to develop great
industries and her young men are going to learn
how to direct them. It is not a development which
we should want to prevent or could prevent if we
wanted. If Indian students cannot learn from
manufacturers here they will go to foreign countries
for the purpose, and on their return to India they
will send orders for machinery and equipment to
those countries. That seems to me a matter of such
great importance that I invite the attention to it of

170

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.
I

members of the House who are interested in great
industrial concerns.

Mr. IMACCALIiUJ-r SCOTT : Has the Government considered
the adoption of the practice of the Japanese Government when
giving out contracts of stipulating for a certain number of
apprentices being employed ?

Mr. Montagu : I do not think that T can say
anything about that, beyond that I am sure that it
is one of the things which the Committee will
consider. They have not yet made their Report.
Then the question intrudes itself : Why do so
many Indian students come td this country? And
the explanation is largely to be found in the fact
that we have not provided comparable facilities in
their own country, and therefore compel them to
come over, at whatever cost, to obtain the fullest-
opportunities for useful careers.

The Educational Problem.
And so I come to another important aspect of
the question — the question of improved education
in India. It is not an easy subject. In this country
the bulk of the population is in large towns, wher,e
it is possible to equip schools which can always be
supplied with a full contingent of pupils who can be
trained with efficiency and economv of effort. But
in India over 90 per cent, of the population
live in villages, and most of them are very

171

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

-small villages indeed. It is almost impossible to
select a figure in connexion with this subject in
India which is not almost startling. There are over
600,000 villages with less than 1 ,000 inhabitants,
and these villages include more than half the total
population. This distribution makes it enormously
costly to bring educational facilities within the
reach of every child of school-going age. In addi-
tion to this there is the distrust of parents, some of
whom wish merely to train their children as retail
petty traders, and consider that the primary school
-curriculum is superfluous. Some parents among
the present population are unable to see that
schooling does any good, while it certainly with-
draws the children from helping to look after the
-cattle. The school committees who manage the
public schools have been described in one province
as "varying between enthusiasm, toleration and
hostility." Sometimes we have the Western idea
that schooling will raise the village boy above his
station or make him unwilling to accept the old
rate of wages. Much of the education given up to
the present has been of an unpractical nature. The
boy was for a few hours a day taken mentally out
•of the world in which he passed his life and taught
•by rote what were to him utterly useless facts, such
as the names of British possessions in Africa. If you
•do not know whether Africa is a hundred or a

172

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

hundred thousand miles away from your village it
is not of much interest to you to learn the exact
political status of Sierra Leone. But, of course, it-
is much less troublesome to all parties concerned to-
teach a boy to learn by heart what a *' cape" or a
" bay" is than to go with him to the nearest stream
or lake and show him in miniature exactly what the
objects are. Then caste presents some difficulty,
I do not want to overrate it, because I believe that
among the castes and classes who can read freely
Ciste prejudices bulk less largely than in the West.
The description of a school in a Hindu village often
reminds me of the description of a Scottish village
school in the eighteenth century where the sons of
the laird and the ploughman sat side by side and
thought no harm of it. But when we reach the gulf
which separates the higher castes from the depressed
castes, whose touch is regarded as pollution, we find
ourselves in very deep waters indeed, and the ques-
tion of the depressed classes constitutes one of the-
very serious difliculties in the way of universal
primary education.

The Scarcity of Teachers.

There are very great difficulties also in
connection with the supply of properly trained
teachers. The market value of a primary school-

173

SPEECHES OP THE JlT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

master, if he is technicd^Uy qualified, but untrained
— that is if he has certificates but has not passed
through a normal school — may be as low as eight
rupees per month. The average wage of a primary
schoolmaster in 1907 was £6 13s. 4d. a year. The
supply of qualified teachers for vernacular schools,
even with increase of pay, is scanty at present.
Any man who knows English is reluctant to
become a purely vernacular teacher and prefers
the Provincial Civil Service, which he finds
far more lucrative than the Education Depart-
ment. And when one reflects upon the enormous
•share taken by woinen teachers in this country and
America in education in primary schools one realises
the difficulty of getting sufficient teachers in a
country where women teachers cannot be employed
■except for female education. Then, again, there is
the question of inadequate buildings. We do not
want elaborate buildings and furniture in schools in
India, but in the case of schools under private
management, which are three-fourths of the total
number, it is the custom for classes to be held in
verandahs lent for the purpose, or in the master's
own dwelling house, or in any other place that can
be obtained. I mention these difficulties only that
the House may realise the magnitude of the task
before us, but I do not think that the difficulties
afford any excuse for apathy or indifference. On the

174

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

•contrary, they should only serve as an incentive to
greater activity.

The Policy of the Government.

The only question we have to decide now is
the direction this activity should take. The House
will have heard of the proposals associated with the
name of that eminent Indian educationist, Mr.
Ookhaie, who has introduced a Bill for what I may
describe shortly as free compulsory primary education
on a permissive basis. What I mean by that is that
the education is to be free and compulsory where
under certain conditions the local authority choose
to apply it. He estimates that the cost of his proposal
will ultimately be about 3^ million pounds. We are
inclined to believe that that is a sanguine estimate,
I hope Mr. Gokhale and those who sympathise with
him will never misunderstand me when I urge a
quality always irksome to self-sacrificing reformers
like himself — ihe quality of patience. He thinks that
primary education as it exists at present in India
is sufficiently valuable to force it on the whole
school-going population of India as early as possible.
We do not. Universal and free education must
come in India, as it has come in all other countries,
but the time is not yet. I am confident that tlie
Government of India has a policy dictated for the

175

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

present by the same hopes and aims as the hopes-
and aims of Mr. Gokhale's Bill which will produce
for the moment a better result. We have no
hostility towards the principles which inspire hi&
Bill. We and he together are working for the
same end, the breaking down of illiteracy in India.
No one who knows anything about the matter can
deny that his energy and his speeches have helped
us to create the public opinion, without which our
activity would be useless, but we believe that the
greatest expansion of education can be secured not
by making it free or compulsory at the present
moment but by the improvement and the multi-
plication of the schools. In the Bombay Presi-
dency it is roughly calculated that there are 100,000'
children whose parents would willingly send them
to school to-day if there were schools to send them
to. And the same story is told about other pro-
vinces, where it has been demonstrated that the
surest way of increasing the school attendance
is to increase the number of schools. And with
regard to compulsion, the case is even stronger.
Compulsion really can only be worked where
education is popular, and where, therefore, the
need of putting compulsion into force would not
show itself to the very large bulk of the population.
There is not much use in applying it to resentful
districts.

^ 176

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

There is not much to be hoped from compulsion
unless it is largely effective, and how much unrest
and disturbance a really effective measure for
making primary education compulsory would create
it is not difficult to imagine. In the Native State
of Baroda, where education has been made compul-
sory, the fines for non-attendance amount to 60,000
rupees per year. This figure gives an incidence per
head of the population which is double the incidence
of the fees charged in elementary schools in India.
Yet what is the result ? The percentage of literacy
among the males in Baroda after five years of free
and compulsory education is 17"5. In the adjacent
British district of Broach, where education is neither
free nor compulsory, the percentage of literacy is
27'4. I should like to read to the House the
language of a leading Indian chief, the Eaja of
Kajpipla, a State in the Bombay Presidency.
He is a progressive Chief, who takes a keen
interest in his State, and has done much to
advance education in it. He used only recently
the following words : — " Make primary educa-
tion as free as you choose : add as many further
inducements as you can but do not make it compul-
sory. In the case of the most advanced classes it
is absolutely unnecessary, and would serve only to
create irritation. In the case of the poor ' backward
classes,' it would inflict harm where good was meant,

177
13

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

would subject them to great harassment, would be
positively cruel and unjust, and would be deeply
though silently resented as such."

What is our alternative plan ? We have already,
1 would point out, made a considerable step in the
direction of free primary education. Primary
schools for girls generally charge no fees. Primary
education for boys is free in certain provinces. No
fees are charged in the monastery schools of Burma.
The sons of agriculturists in the Punjab and in
certain districts of the United Provinces pay no
fees. Primary education has been made free in the
frontier provinces of Assam, Baluchistan and th^
North- West Frontier. There are arrangements in
other provinces giving primary education without
charge to backward sections of the community, with
the result that from one-fifth to a third of the boys
alreadv receive free education. Let me tell the
House something of the progress made in the last
ten years. In 1901 Lord Curzon dealt with the
subject with characteristic candour. He declared
that " he could not be satisfied with a state of
things in which four villages out of five are without
a school, and three boys out of four grow up without
education, and one girl in forty only attended
school." During the last ten years there has been an
increase of 22 per cent, in the number of schools and
44 per cent, in the number of scholars, and to-day

178

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

there are 4,500,000 boys and 866,000 girls receiving
primary education in 120,000 schools. During the
last four years there has been an increase of about
:240,000 boys per annum attending school, bat, while
15 per cent, of the population is of school-going age,
•of that population only 4 per cent, of the boys and
'7 per cent, of the girls are at schopl. The educational
grant of .^^330,000 a year announced at the Delhi
Durbar is to be spent mainly on primary education
and is but a prelude to a miich more extensive
.programme. The programme which we hope to
work up to in time is as follows : — We desire to
'increase the total number of primary schools by
"90,000 or 75 per cent., and to double the school-
going population. The cost of the new schools will
be i'25 each per year, and they will be placed in
villages and other centres of population which are
at present without schools. We are going to improve
the existing schools, which now only cost about UIO
a year ; the cost of these will probably have to be
•doubled.

Lord R0N.\LDSHAY ; In what pcciod ?

Mr. Montagu : I cannot give the period. As I
am going on to say, it must take some considerable
itime. But this is the programme which we propose
at once to set ourselves to work on. We want to
improve the teaching given in the schools, and.

179

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU..

make it practical, popular and instructive, and for
that purpose we have got to improve the teaching.

Sir J.D. REES ; Up to what sort of grant would ivou work ?

Mr. MONTAGU : The additional expenditure this year is-
£750,000. I cannot give figures for a longer period.

Mr. WnSfDHAM : Is the balance of £1,000,000 of increased,
expenditure for educati&n going to higher education ?

Mr. Montagu : It includes both higher and primary-
education.

Mr. "W'YNDHAM: And is that comprised in the million?

Mr. Montagu : No ; three-quarters of a million
is the amount this year, both for higher education-
and primary education. As I said, vv-e must make-
the education attractive, and therefore we want a.
larger supply of better-equipped teachers. We
hope to lay down the rule that they shall have-
passed at least the upper primary school standard^
that there shall be at least one teacher to every 50
scholars, that the pay shall begin at at least 12
rupees a month, and that there shall be better
prospects for teachers by grading and instituting a,
provident fund or pension system. These two items-
of improvement and extension will involve a very
large expenditure, and the recurring expense of
these schools will be by no means the only charge
on the Indian Treasury. There must be heavy
initial expenditure for buildings and equipment.
More serious and -more costly will be the training.
of the teachers which the schools .will absorb. I.

180

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

*want to ask the House to remember that a consider-
able space of time must elapse before these hopes
•can be realised. The financial problems which
these educational ideas involve are obvious to
■ every one. What is not so clearly obvious is that,
•even if the money were nov/ in hand, it could not
immediately be spent. The Government of India
is satisfied that, at the present moment, an in-
creased salary would not bring forth any consider-
able increase of competent teachers. Trained men
do not exist in sufficient numbers for the existing
schools, and therefore the only way in which the
problem can be dealt with is to call them into
•existence.

Higher Education.

Let us turn our attention for a moment to
higher education. I want, if 1 may, to draw the
.attention of the House to the importance of this
•subject. May T venture on an analogy between
the conditions of India to-day and of Europe in the
Middle Ages ? I do not want to press the parallel
beyond this point, that we have a series of large
•countries, each with its own vernjicular speech (or,
perhaps, more than one vernacular), brought into
an intellectual cotnmonwealth by the use for pur-
.poses of higher education of a language which is not
.a native vernacular. Any Englishman, Frenchman

181

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

or German who proceeded in higher studies in the
Middle Ages learnt to write, and to speak, Latin, the
language of law, of science, and of politics. In India,
to-day, the man who would serve the State in the
higher departments, of law, or science, or politics
must learn English. Of course the parallel breaks
down at this point, because English is not to India, as
Latin was to Europe, the language of religion. It
is, as Latin was not, the language of business and
international commerce. Further, English is a
living tongue, whereas Latin was not then a live
one. Possibly my comparison may seem fanciful*-
but I make it for this reason. Very few of us, I
think, stop to consider what it really means when we
find Indian gentlemen taking high honours at their
English university, passing competitive examinations
in this country, or making admirable speeches in
the Legislative Councils. I would like to ask how
many Oxford or Cambridge graduates capable of
turning English literature into the most excellent
Latin prose, how many cultured Englishmen who
can read German with ease, would be prepared to
learn higher mathematics and write mathematical
or scientific theses in German, or to sit down in an
examination room and answer questions on Indian
history in Latin ? How many of us would be pre-
pared to conduct our debates in this Chamber in any
foreign language which we were supposed to have-

182

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

learned -when we left school ? That is precisely the
achievement of many Indian gentlemen to-day*
When we admit and deplore the manifest short-
comings of Indian secondary education, we forget
that each of the pupils whom we so often hear of as
being prepared by a process of cramming, has not
only had to acquire the English language, which
differs fundamentally from his own in structure, in
spirit and in syntax, but has got to acquire all the
other advanced knowledge through the medium of
English. I think it is too often forgotten that this
sort of thing is very typical in India, the sort of
thing described by one member in a recent speech
in the Viceroy's Council, a speech which, in point
of form, might well serve as a model to many of us
here, and in which he said : "That he received the
elements of education sitting on the floor of the
primary school, confronting a wooden board, covered
with red powder, and with a piece of stick with

which to write vernacular letters."

We propose in secondary education to extend
our model schools where required, and not to
replace private or aided schools, but to co-operate
with them and set an example of standard. Only
graduates will be employed as teachers. It is hoped
to establish a graded service with salaries of from
40 to 400 rupees a month. We want to establish
a school course complete in itself, with a curriculum

183

SPBECHES OF THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

comparable to a school cowrse on the modern side
of an English public school, giving manual training
and science teaching. There is to be an increased
grant to privately-managed schools, and we want
to provide proper hostel accommodation.

I come now to the Universities. Mr. Balfour
posed the difficulty of the Indian University system
with, if I may say so, admirable lucidity to the
Congress of Universities. The words he used were
these : — "How are you going to diminish the
shock which the sudden invasion of a wholly
alien learning must have on the cultured society
of the East V A catastrophic change in the envi-
ronment of an organism is sure to inflict great
injury upon the organism, perhaps destroy it alto-
gether. In the East we are compelled to be catas-
trophic. It is impossible to graft by a gradual
process in the East what we have got by a gradual
process in the West." And so we have . the com-
plaint that our Indian University teaching has
undermined religions, has weakend the restraint
of ancient customs, and has destroyed that
reverence for authority which was one of the attri-
butes of Indian character. How can we combat^
these things ? We believe that the dangers of
catastrophic change can be mitigated by adopting
in India that part of the English system of educa-
tion which has, so far as the Universities are con-

184

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

•cerned, proved most successful in moulding charac-
ter. Character is not trained by lectures or taught
by text books. It forms but a small part of the
work in the class-rooms. But it has arisen, as it
were, accidentally, as a by-product of our residen-
tial schools and old Universities. Young men in
their association together evolve certain rules of
-conduct which they impress on each other, and
which we speak of as the tone or tradition of the
-school or college. There is evidence to show that
in residential colleges in India, traditions com-
parable to those in our own public schools spring
into existence and stamp their indelible impression
upon the young men who go there. The formative
influence of the residential college can be stimulated
by the presence of English masters and professors
who have been trained in the same system in their
own country, and who know how much can be
■done by example and how little by homily. It is
this side of University education which we propose
to develop in India. We have allotted large grants
for building hostels and boarding houses attach-
ed to colleges. We are finding money for
libraries in connexion with the colleges, we
desire to develop existing Universities by the
■creation of chairs in different branches of post-
graduate research, and we propose to increase the
aid to private colleges. The Universities of India

185

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

have hitherto been of a federal or affiliating type.
At their first inception they were little more than
boards constituted for the purpose of holding ex-
aminations, and for these examinations students were
prepared at a great number of institutions scattered
over a wide area. As the Universities were only
examining boards they could only recognise merit
shown in the examinations. The training of charac-
ter and other valuable by-products of coilegi'ate life
could not be recognised or encouraged. Universities
of this type came into existence in England in the
last century, but after a short experience the type
has been generally condemned, and the recent
tendency has been for the federal University to be
dissolved and for the constituent colleges to become
independent Universities. It is upon such lines that
the Government of India is directing the construc-
tion of the Indian Universities. The first step was
taken in 1904, when the area within which each
University could exercise the power of affiliation
was demarcated. The next step will be to reduce the
area over which each University exercises jurisdic-
tion ; but where a college is adequately staffed and
equipped, and where it has shown a capacity to attract
to itself students from a distance, that college will be
elevated to the dignity of a University and will be
given the power of conferring degrees upon the
students who have been trained within its walls.

18(5

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

Such Universities will be local and residential in the-
fullest sense of the term. They will, it is hoped,
develop traditions of their own and become centres
of learning". The Government of India have express-
ed a wish to create a University of this type in
Dacca, and correspondence is passing between the-
Government of India and the Secretary of State
upon giving a similar status to the college at Aligarh.
It is probable that Universities of a similar type
will shortly follow at Benares and Rangoon..
(Hear, hear.)

The Development of Technical Education.
Then, of course, there must be side by side with
this extension of liberal University education an
increase of technical education. Technical education
is to be developed. A technological institute at
Cawnpore has been sanctioned in accordance with
the recommendations of Sir John Hewett, who has
done so much in the cause of technical education in
India. I may say, generally, that technical educa-
tion is to be advanced all over India. (Hear, hear.)
This must serve as a summary of the educational
efforts which the Government of India is making in
all directions. I have attempted to show that we
are extending our educational facilities in that-
country. We are making a courageous and sustain-
ed effort to break down illiteracy in primary.

187

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

•education. We are leading the way towards the
recognition of a higher standard of efficiency in
secondary education by the establishment of model
•Government schools. We are spending large sums
upon the provision of well-equipped hostels attach-
•ed both to schools and to colleges and promot-
ing the growth of a healthy residential syste)u.
We are trying to mitigate the evils of wholesale
examination by the contraction of ' the area
■over which each University enjoys jurisdiction,
and to establish a new type of University which
may develop into a genuine home of learnmg.
(Hear, hear.) At the same time, we are developing
industrial and technological education. I say
confidently that that is a record of which any
Government may be proud and a programme to
which the House can confidently look forward.
(Hear, hear.) If the educational ideal which we
have in mind is realised we will have laid the founda-
tion of a national system of education by a network
of really valuable schools, colleges and Universities,
«o that facilities will be opened to Indians to qualify
themselves in their own country for the highest
positions in every walk in life.

Opportunity for Indians.

The problem before us when we have educated
Indians is to give them the fullest opportunity in

188

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

the government of their own country to exercise-
advantages which they have acquired. by training
and by education. How are we going to remove-
avoidable disabilities under which Indians labour
while promoting the efficiency of the public services,
generally? Those who desire reform in the Indian
service will welcome the appointment by his Majesty
of a l\oyal Commission of which the House has heard.
There are many questions a solution of which is confi-
dently asserted by some to be as confidently refuted
by others, and which will never be properly solved
until we have an authoritative pronouncement on
them. I want to justify the appointment of this RoyaL
Commission, but I want most carefully, in what

follows, to avoid the expression of any opinion lest
it might be considered to be opinion of the Govern-
ment, upon whose behalf I speak this after-
noo^^. Sir Charles Aitchison's Public Service Com-
mission reported at the end of 1687, and final ordera.
were published on its recommendation in 1891..
Accepting, as I do, the supposition that those orders.
were the best possible orders that could have been
passed at that time, he would be a bold man who
would say, having regard to the development of India
during the past twenty years, that there is now no
necessity for any development of the system which
owes its results to Sir Charles Aitchison's Commis-
sion. Many points remain, and some directly result

189

■SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MB. E. S. MONTAGU.

from the orders which were based upon that
Commissioner's report which have given rise (it is
not an exaggeration to say) to grave discontent
inside and outside the services concerned.

First of all there is the Indian Civil Service.
A competitive examination at the moment lays the
way open for a choice between*the home and the
Indian Civil Service, and those who choose the
Indian Civil Service have a year's probation at
home before they go out to do the varied adminis-
trative, executive and judicial work, the success
of which is, I think, the marvel of the whole world
and a source of continued pride to the people of
Great Britain. (Hear, hear.)

The Keynote op British Kule.

The innate power of well-ordered administra-
tion and prompt, decisive action which seem to me
to be the characteristic of the British race, and
perhaps of no other, will never fail. But more
than that is wanted — humanity, capacity to deal
with men, statesmanship, and above all, that quality
which is increasingly wanted as the keynote of
British rule in India ; sympathy. (Hear, hear.)
The Indians with whom the young Indian civil
servant comes into contact will be better educated,
with a wider knowledge of other countries and of
the world, as the years go by. As we improve our

190

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

system of education, and as we increase the capacity
for the expression of popular opinion, and as
Indians come over to this country, not only
Oovernment students, not only Indian princes,
but zemindars and merchants, and travel in
Europe, learning of England at its best and at
its worst, it becomre's all the more important
that we should not risk any deterioration of
our service, but that we should give to India,
as we have undoubtedly done in the past, the very
best material we can. It is obvious that to open
both the home and Indian Civil Services to one
€xamination gives us a wider choice, because it gives
to the candidate a choice of profession when
he passes the examination, but it will be for the
Commission to consider how far nowadays it results
in our getting only the leavings of the home Civil
Service and how far, further, an examination which
•can admittedly be passed mainly by cramming is
the best possible way of securing our Indian Civil
servants. I do not know, and it would be improper
for me to express an opinion, but this is for the
Commission to consider, and there are many other
questions which suggest themselves. Is the year's
probation long enough '? Is it spent to the best
possible advantage under our present system ? Do
we get our young men at an age when they are
top old to adapt themselves to the life they have

191

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

to lead, or, on the contrary, are they too young for
the responsibilities which they have to bear ? Ought
not the training they receive to be supplemented by
more intimate knowledge of our legal procedure in
this country ? Might not certain difl^culties of our
Indian judicial system be overcome by some such
means as these ?

Sir J. D. REES : Will this Commission deal with the manner
in which Barrister Judges are appointed to the public service ?

Mr. Montagu ignored the interruption and continued : —

The Position of Indians in the Services.

Then again there is the position of Indians in
the Civil Service. The door of the Indian Civii
Service is at present only to be found in this coun-
try, and this is one of the reasons why Indians
come over here. It has been suggested that the
examination for the Indian Civil Service should
be held here and simultaneously in India, or
that, if another process is adopted for selecting,
civil servants, that the same process should be gone
through in India as is gone through here. It
has been answered that it would be impossible
under such a system to ensure the same status and
the same standard in India as we require here.
And when the Service has been recruited is the
door to promotion open as widely as possible to
men of all races in the best possible way '? Are

192

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

the rules of pay and of pensions suitable or
incapable of improvement ? Is it right that
Indi ans should not subscribe to the family
fund ? Then there is the Indian Medical Ser-
vice, which is only recruited in this country. Is
the training which is possible for Indians in their
own country of such value as to warrant us opening
the door to the Indian Medical Service in Indian*
Does the existence of an Indian Medical Service
prevent the growth of an independent medical pro-
fession V* Would it be right to open the doors of the
Indian Civil Service and of the Indian Medical
Service to subjects of feudatory States ? All these
problems present themselves again find again to

those who have to do with administration in India.

We come then to the other Services. Koughly

and generally, the Imperial SA'vice is recruited in

En gland and the Provincial Service is recruited in

India. The Imperial Service has preserved for it
the higher superior appointments, and the Provin-
cial Service fills the higher subordinate appoint-
ments, while the lower Imperial appointments are
filled partly from the Provincial Service and partly
from the Imperial Service. The pay, leave and
pension rules in each service have been fixed by a
consideration of what is necessary to secure Euro-
peans to serve away from their own country, and
by what is necessary to secure Indians to serve in

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

their own country. The result is that the branch
which is essentially European has better pay, better
prospects, and more responsibility than the branch
which is essentially Indian.

The Necessity for the European Element.

It does not necessarily by any means follow
that these principles are wrong — that is for the
Commission to decide. It is necessary to have a
European element in almost all of the services.
European officers must be given pay and
prospects sufficient to induce them to join
these services, and when good men have been
"trained and have been induced to join they
must be placed in positions of responsibility
;aidequate to their merits. It has been said, and
again I express no opinion, that this has been
achieved in a way which causes just discentent
among Indians, that it is not achieved in the most
appropriate way, and that our present system
excludes desirable men and involves avoidable race
distinction. In these Services where the Imperial
branch is recruited by nommation, although Indians
are not declared to be ineligible, although in one,
the Public Works Department, provision has been
made for giving a certain proportion of the appoint-
ments every year to India, the result of the system
is that in almost all the Services Indians are shut out

194

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

tfrom the more important and highly- paid posts.
In the Education Service by recruiting the Impe-
rial Service only in this country, only two Indians
have been appointed in the last 15 years. In the
Public Works Department, Lord Morley decided
that 10 per cent, of the appointments should, if
possible, be given to Indians each year. The result
was that certain Indians were appointed to the
Imperial Service who had failed to get mto the
Provincial Service. So the system results in
either keeping Indians out of the higher branches
of the service or appointing them with qualifications
inferior to those required for the lower branch.
And if the principle of maintaining appointments
in this country only for Europeans is abandoned,
it imposes a course of education in England on
Indians who wish to attain high office in their own
•country. In all these services there is the question
•of pay, pension, leave, the present conditions of
which will be familiar to students of the subject,

but which I dare not ask the House to list^^n to in
detail now. Every service has its grievance.

There is the Police, Forests, the Telegraphs, the
Survey and the Education Service, the examina-
tion of which is all the more necessary having
regard to the development of education which is
going on. I do not want to give an enumeration
which might be held to be exhaustive and I do.

195

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

Dot want to suggest to the House that the ser-
vices can be dealt with piecemeal. It is the question'
of principle we have to decide first, and the principle-
must be adjusted before the details can be settled.

Thk New Koyal Commission.

The terms of reference to the Commission are-
as follows : — To examine and report, on the following
matters in connection with the Indian Civil Service
and other Civil Services, Imperial and Provincial: —
1. The methods of recruitment and the system of
training and probation. 2. The conditions of service,,
salary, leave and pension. 3. Such limitations as still
exist in the employment of non-Europeans, and the
working of the existing system of division of services-
into Imperial and Provincial ; and generally to con-
sider the requirements of the public service, and to
recommend such changes as may seem expedient.
The members of the Commission are : — Chairman,.
Lord Islington, the present Governor of New
Zealand ; the Earl of Ronaldshay, M.P. ; Sir Murray
Hammick, of the Indian Civil Service, now acting as
Governor of Madras ; Sir Theodore Morison, member
of the Council of India ; Sir Valentine Chirol ;.
Mr, F. G. Sly, member of the Indian Civil Service
and Commissioner of Berar ; Mr. Mahadeo Bhaskar
Chaubal, member of the Governor of Bombay's-
JLxecutive Council ; Mr. Gopal Krishna Gokhale^

190

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council ; Mr.
W. C. Madge, member of the Viceroy's Legislative
Council; Mr. Abdur Kahim, Judge of the Madras
High Court ; Mr. Eamsay MacDonald M.P. ; and
Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, Fellow and Tutor of New
College, Oxford. (Cheers.) It only remains for me
to ask the House to wish these gentlemen, who are
so patriotically devoting themselves to a very diffi-
cult, arduous and lengthened investigation, all good
fortune in their work. I am confident that the
result of their deliberations must be of enormous
importance to India and will lead to the improve-
■ment of the country. (Cheers.)

" East and West."

Perhaps the House will permit me, in conclu-
sion, to explain in a few general words what I think
is to be drawn from what is happening in India. I
have often said before, and I say now, that I can see
nothing dangerous in the condition of India at all.
Its revenue and its trade are expanding ; it is being
better equipped year by year to withstand the
calamities of weather and of disease ; its people are
being better trained to play the part of citizens.
We have given public opinion expression adequate
to the present development of the nation. But, as
I said last year, and I appeal now, India must be
regarded more than ever as a progressive country,

197

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU

ai-nd two warnings are necessary. The first is that.
you cannot now, even if you would, embark on a
policy of reaction. The nirghty mass in India is
moving in response to our own stimulus, and to
try and force it back into a condition of sleep,
which would now be an unwilling sleep, and could
only be achieved, if it could be achieved, by repres-
sion, would be calamitous blunder. The second
warning which, in all humility, I would give is-
that, seeing that India is never the same to-day as
it was yesterday, and w^ill never be the same
to-morrow as it is to-day, the man who relies
on out-of-date knowledge, the man who expresses
a confident opinion about India, based on know-
ledge however intimate, or on work however admi-
rable, but a few years out of date, who prefaces his
every remark with the words "indicus olim" is a
man whose advice must not be accepted without
question. (Laughter and Hear, hear.) If we are
to do our duty by the enormous responsibility which
we have undertaken we must move forward,,
however cautiously, accepting the results of our
own acts and inspirations, keeping ourselves
informed as intimately as we possibly can of the
modern and changing aspects of the problem with
which we have to deal. Nobody can possibly
foretell what will be the eventual characteristic of
the population we shall form in India; the India-

198

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

which must be a heritage, not only of its Asiatic
population alone, but also of that small handful
of Europeans who have unified it giving it its trendy
brought to it its traditions and its ideals, and which
must be reckoned in its destinies. There is a trite
quotation so often made that I hardly like to quote
it now, that " East is East and West is West."
Nobody wants to deny it : no living man would
have it otherwise. But, as a great Bengali writer
has laid it down, the East and West must meet " at
the altar of humanity." And then they are meeting,
not with clash or discord, but in harmony and
amity. There need be no enmity to corij petition ;
the forces are not mutually destructive ; they are
mutually complementary. The quietism of the
East is meeting the restless spirit of the West.
Each has learnt much and has to learn much
from the religion, the art and the philosophy of the
other. The asceticism of the Oriental, the simpli-
city of his daily life and the modesty of his bodily
needs are meeting with the love of material advance-
ment, the striving after progress, the craving for
the concrete and the love of realism which comes.
from the West. If I may use rather ornate language,
the golden thread of Oriental idealism is being
woven into the rather drab web of our scheme of
life, and our science of government, which we have
laboriously inherited and are handing down, is being.

199

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON, MR. E, S. MONTAGU.

offered to the Oriental to teach him the road to
progress. In other words, in India> East and West
together, uniting and co-operating, are building, let
us hope successfully, a lasting temple on their joint
ideals. (Cheers.)

Reply to the Debate.

Mr. Montagu, replying by the indulgence of
the House, assured hon. members that the various
points they had raised would receive attention.
The decrease of i6502,500 in the Army Estimates of
India this year, to which Mr. Wyndham had
alluded, was not due to any policy of retrenchment
which was likely to jeopardise the defences of that
Empire. An important feature of the decrease
was the absence of the Durbar expenditure, which
amounted to =6373,000. It must also be borne in
mind that a great portion of the expenses of the
Abor and Mishmi Expeditions did not appear this
year, but last year, on the estimates. The econo-
mies achieved were due to the very rigorous atten-
tion paid to the very minor details of expenditure.
He had, however, forgotten, when speaking of thf
new Royal Commission, to mention that althougu
it had got to enquire into very important services,
those services were not represented on the body.
It would be impossible to appoint a businesslike
Commission if all the services to be enquired into

200

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

were represented on it, and the system which it
was hoped the Commission would adopt was to
•co-opt, to sit with the body, one or two representa-
tives of the Imperial and provincial branches of
each service. They would represent their case,
marshal the evidence, and present the case, but of
course would have no word in the drawing up and
signing of the final report. With regard to railway
extension, there had been since the report of Sir
James Mackay's Committee, such a depreciation in
-all gilt-edged securities that it was not always easy
to raise large loans for expenditure even on such
desirable objects as railways, and they had had,
therefore, to modify their demands upon the
London market in this respect. It was always
difficult to decide as to expenditure upon the im-
provement of the existing railways, or upon new
lines. Some advocated in-creasing the rolling
stock and improving the lines and the stations of
the existing lines. Others maintained that every
available penny ought to be spent upon extension.
The policy adopted by the Government was a
compromise between the two. Mr. Ramsay Mac-
Donald had raised the question of an indepen-
dent audit. Theoretically that was an excellent
thing, and it had so happened that by the last
mail proposals had been made by the Govern-
ment of India for alterations and additions to

201

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

the Audit Office in India, and the whole subject
was now about to be re-considered. As to Tibet^
our activities there were given by the Anglo-
Russian Convention, and came within the sphere
of the Foreign Secretary. On the subject of the
projected Persian Railway, it was perfectly true,
certain parts of the route ran through India, and
therefore it would not be surprising if the Govern-
ment of India were to see objection to that part of
the line being constructed by an international group,.

and to consider that, if built at all, it should be
built bv India. The question of the gold standard
reserve had been raised by Colonel Yate. New
orders had been issued, the result of which would
be that, whereas now^ the whole 17 millions was in
securities, excepting one million which was in cash
on short notice, the Government were going to
allow the sum to increase until it reached the amount
of 25 millions sterling. There would ultimately be
a reserve of 25 millions, of which five millions
would be in gold. In regard to the very large
balances of the Government of India, he recognised
it was a matter for comment that there was at the
end of the year a balance in hand of i'18,320,000.
The balance of the Secretary of State in England
was only part of the whole amount standing to the
credit of the Indian Government. Last year the
balance was exceptionally large owing to overesti-

202

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1912.

mating and under-spending in certain departments,
and also to the great volume of trade done between
England and India. The only object which the
Secretary of State had in view was the facilitating
of trade, which would be brought practically to a
standstill if these bills were not issued. That was
the explanation of a well-known economic and
financial practice, and he hoped hon. members
oppc-site would disabuse themselves of the idea that
these balances w6re kept in England simply to
oblige the money market. It was an indispensable
factor of British Indian trade, and it would be
difficult to imagine how that trade could be carried
on without it.

203

THE INDIAN BUDGET— 1913.

On the motion to go into Committee on the
East India Revenue Accounts

Mr. Montagu said : —

This is the fourth time that it has fallen to my
lot to move that you do leave the chair in order that
the East Indian Revenue Accounts for the year may
be reported to the House. I can assure the House
that as the years go by I approach this task with
more and more diffidence. I am afraid that
"the temper of the House with regard to Indian
matters has not altered very materially since Mr.
Gladstone, in 1834, wrote a letter to his father on a
speech which he had made on the University Bill.
He said : —

" The House heard me with the utmost kindness, but they had
been listening previously to an Indian discussion in which very
few people took any interest, and the change of subject was no
■ doubt felt as relief." -

Visit to India.

Since I last stood at this box for this purpose,
I have had the advantage of a prolonged journey in
India. I make no apology for that tour, though I

204

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

do most sincerely apologise to the House for-
any inconvenience that my absence may have
caused. After all, no one questions the wisdom
of the first Lord of the Admiralty in journeying
to see the ships under his charge, or of the Sec-
retary of State for War in meeting and talking to
soldiers, or of the President of the Local Government
Board in inspecting work-houses, or of the Home
Secretary in going to look at the prisons. I am
convinced that I did right, when I had been longer
in my office than any of my predecessors, with the
exception of three or four, in going to see something
of the country and of the people with whose welfare
I was concerned. I promised the House that I
shall not weary them this afternoon with an account
of the opinions which I formed in India. I am
here only to express the views of the Government
which I represent.

I have the opportunity from day ip day in my
office of bringing to bear upoa my daily work the
information given to me in India, and it was not for
the purpose of making speeches, but for the purpose
of helping me in my share of the administration
that I went out. I can only say that it would be
almost impossible for me to forget the cordial assist-
ance given by British and Indian officials and non-
officials alike in my eager desire to find out what
we could do to help them, and I shall endeavour to

205

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

prove my gratitude by helping to bring about, as
time goes on, some the many schemes of reform
which were advocated to me abroad. I am certain
that the majority of those whom I had the honour
aud pleasure of meeting were glad, at all events, to
get an opportunity of meeting face to face and talk-
ing to an inmate of that very vague and indefinite
authority vvnich so often is the instrument of
alterations in the conditions under which they live
— the India Office.

When I mention the India Office, I want to
say a word to the House about the changes which
we contemplate in the organisation of the Office. I
need only say a very few words, because a week ago
my Noble Friend explained in another place exactly
what was in his mind. To lay certain possible
anxieties to rest, I want to say at once that there is
not now, nor, so far as I am aware, has there ever
been, any indention to abolish the Council of India.
It is not even proposed to curtail any of their
powers. And in order to lay to rest another rumour
that has been circulated, I want to say emphatically
that whatever be the exact final shape of the
scheme, one unalterable factor in it is the presence
of two Indian members on the Council. The whole
scheme is one of domestic reform such as might be
accomplished by any other Minister by a stroke of
the pen without consulting anybody. But in the

206

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

-case of the India Office the minutest detail of which
is statutorily prescribed, it will be necessar}' to come

to Parliament for a Statute. We have a dual aim :
to speed up and to simplify the slow and compli-
cated procedure of the office, and to make the expert
advice which the Secretary of State derives from his
■Council more up to date. Any body who is sufficient-
ly interested will have read my Noble Friend's speech
in another place, and it will not be necessary for me
to go into details, but I do not think that there is
anybody familiar with the procedure of the India
Office who will deny — I cannot do better than use the
words my Noble Friend quoted — that it is "intoler-
ably cumbrous and dilatory." With regard to the
other part of the scheme, it is possible, under existing
Statute, that a member of the Council may by the
•end of this time have been twelve years out of
India. We propose to reduce that period, so far as
possible, to about seven years. This may not
appear very important to people here, but it is
very keenly awaited in India. When, at the end
of my tour, I read, in one of the leading Indian
newspapers, an article commenting on my visit to
India, an appeal to me to go home and do ;ill I
could to bear on the alteration of the Council, in
order to bring about these results, so that the
opinions it expressed and the advice it gave might
be more up to date and more in accordance with.

207

SPEECHES OF THE ET. HON, MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

recent developments, it gave me great satisfaction
to think that we had been considering such schemes
for two years, and that they were very nearly ripe
for announcement.

Leaving the India Office and coming to India
itself, I propose this year, with the permission of
this House, to introduce an innovation which I
cannot but think will be welcome to those Hon.
Members who, by their presence this afternoon,
show their interest in India. I do so with some
trepidation, because I am fully aware of the years
of unbroken precedents behind me, and I do so by
way of experiment. As the House is well aware,
the financial statement made by the Financial
Member of the Government of India, together with
the debates on it in the Viceroy's 'Legislative
Council, has already been circulated to the House
in the form of a Blue Book, and this Blue Book
has been supplemented by a White Paper contain-
ing what is known as the Under-Secretary of
State's "Explanatory Memorandum." It has been
usual for the Minister responsible for India in this
House to superimpose upon this explanation a
further explanation, amounting to nothing more
than a copious analysis of the White Paper. This
has occupied the first half of the Budget Speech of
the year. The second part has been devoted to
questions of general administration. When one

208

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

considers that this Debate is, in ordinary circum-
stances, the only opportunity in the year for the
discussion of Indian affairs, and that only one-
night is given to it, 1 really think that no apology
will be needed from me if I rely on the Explana-
tory Memorandum and say very little about finance
this year. I should like to devote that portion of
the valuable time of the House which I desire to
usurp to the discussion of matters of general public
interest in the administration which have not before
been discussed.

These are the salient features of the Budget.
There was last year, due mainly to the very large
railway receipts and the high prices obtained for
opium, a surplus of not less than nearly £8,000,000
over the Budget Estimate. This surplus is to be
spent mainly on Grants to provincial Governments
for education and sanitation and, with the surplus
estimated for in the Budget, on the reduction and
avoidance of debt. For this year, 1913-14, it has
been considered prudent to estimate the railway
receipts at a slightly less sum than last year, but
the remarkable feature of the year is that this is
the first Budget in which no receipts can be expect-
ed from the Indo-Chinese opium traffic. M;iy I
remind the House of what I said two years ago on
this subject — in 1911 ? My words then were : —

209

8PJ8ECHBS OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

" We must now definitely face the total loss, sooner or later,
of revenue derived from opium sold for export to China... (but)
the question whether the loss of opium revenue will involve fresh
taxation is one which I hope no one will decide too hastily. The
present financial strength of the Government of India, the growth
of its resources and the growth of restriction of its expenditure, are
all factors that have to be considered as the plans for each
financial year are made."

My doubts whether the loss of the Chinese
opium revenue would lead to the necessity for new
taxation were, I believe, considered to be the index of
a characterically too optimistic frame of mind, but in
Indian matters, and on Indian finance especially,
optimistic views have a way being justified by the
event. In the present year the chief feature in the
Budget Estimates is that, although the Estimate
anticipated from the opium revenue is only
£306,000 or £4,250,000 less than last year, yet
without any increase of taxation, without any aban-
donment of necessary or desirable expenditure, and
with, indeed, a very large provision for the two objects
which the Government of India recognise as having
a first claim on their resources, namely, the improve-
ment of education and the spread of sanitation, we are
estimating for a surplus of nearly £1,500,000.

•This position is mainly due to one factor — the
improvement in the earnings of the railways. For
the last two generations successive Secretaries of
State and Governments of India have used the

210.

THE INDIAN BUDGET— -1913.

resources and the credit of India to build up a
-railway system which has always been closely
•associated with the State, and has become more
'Closely associated with it during the last generation.
They have met with difficulties and discourage-
ments of various kinds. In the early years there
•was a large annual loss which had to be made good
from revenue. In later years, such has been the
growth in the world of the demand for capital, there
.has been difficulty in obtaining the necessary capital,
but they have persevered in spite of all, and the
Budget of 1913-14, thanks to the growth of the
railway revenue, enables them to inike good a loss
of i>4,000,000 out of a total net revenue of less than
i>CO,000, a rich reward for the work of many years.
I think this story may be taken as a symptom of the
marvellous possibilities of our Indian Empire, and as
a lesson that bold Governjnent enterprise in the
direction of helping and exploiting her resources
by developing her railways, or her irrigation works,
or her wonderful forests, will lead to large national
profit.

Education.

I wish to say a word next about education, a
subject which always interests members of this
House, at the Delhi Durbar, in December, 1911, it
was announced that : —

211

SPEECHES OF THE RT.HONi MR* E. S. MONTAGU.

" The Government of India has rosolved to acknowledge the-
predominant claim of educational advancement on the resources
of the Indian Empire,"

and that it was

"thsir firm intention to add to the Grant (made at the time of
the Durbar) further Grants in future years on a generoiis scale."

In accordance with this declaration, last year and
this year, a non-recurring Grant of .i'2, 500,000 and
a recurring Grant of ^'695, 000 a year have been
made for this purpose. The non-recurring Grant
will be spent on capital Requirements for schools
(elementary and technical), colleges, and universities
including the new universities which it is hoped to
establish at Aligarh, Dacca, Patna and Rangoon.
The recurring Grant will be spent on such matters^
as scholarships and stipends, educational Grants to
local bodies, and the strengthening and improving of
the inspection and teaching staff. It is perhaps
worth while, in order to show the progress of
educational outlay by the Government of India and
provincial Governments, to compare the provision
this year with the outlay of the three preceding
years : —

In 1910-11 the actual net outlay was
i;i, 662,607.

In 1911-12 it was £1,815,579.

In 1912-13 it was £2,370,600.

In 1913-14 the provision is £3,847,200.

An increase in three years of about 130 per cent.

212

. THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

Sanitation.
The service which has the next strongest claim
-after education on the resources of the Government
is Sanitation. This year and last year recurring
Grants of i^261,000 and non-recurring Grants of
nearly £1,500,000 have been made, some of which
may be used for research, but the bulk of which are
intended for schemes of urban sanitation. Anyone
familiar with the horrible slums in such cities as
Bombay, and the marvellous effect on health of
such work as is carried out by the Bombay Improve-
ment Trust, will welcome this additional expendi-
ture. In order that the House may have comparable
figures to those which I have given for education
as regards sanitation, I may say that the Budget
Estimate of expenditure for sanitation under
this head comes this year to nearly £2,000,000,
•showing an increase of 112 per cent, over the
expenditure of three years ago. I am precluded from
dealing with many things in the financial world
which 1 should like to say something about, because
we are now engaged, with the assistance of a
strongly manned Royal Commission, under the
presidency of the right Hon.. Gentlejnan the Member
for East Worcestershire (Mr. Austen Chajnberlain),
in exploring the system of finance with a view to
seeing if a system which has not been revised for
many years, and which has been partly inherited

213

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MB. E. S. MONTAGU.

from our predecessors, the old East India Trading
Company, cannot be improved. Although it is one
of the ruatterb which is being investigated, there is-
one fact I wish to mention. From time to time
proposals have been put forward, and have, I think,
in theory, at any rate, found acceptance both here
and in India for the establishment of a State bank.-
Such a bank would relieve the India Office of a very
large amount of the commercial and financial work
which it now does, and would, perhaps, find a
solution of many of the difiiculties which our critics
have from time to time pointed out. The Secretary
of State is of opinion that the time has now come
for the re-consideration of the proposal for th&-
establishment of a bank which would act as custodian
for a large part of the Government balances, manage
the paper currency, and take part in the sale of
drafts on India for meeting the Secretary of State's
requirements. The subject has been discussed in a
Memorandum prepared by the Assistant Under-
Secretary of the India Office (Mr. Abrahams), and'
the Secretary of State, without committing himself
in any way upon the subject, has directed that Mr.
Abrahams should present his Memorandum for the
consideration of the Eoyal Commission, and he will-
welcome the consideration of it by the Royal'
Commission, as he thinks it clearly comes within its-
terms of reference.

214

the indian budget — 1913.

Nicholson Committee.
To leave finance and to come to the question of
general administration, I should like to say one word
about the Army, which is a subject which will play
a part in the Budgets of the future. As the House
is aware, a Committee has been sitting which has
explored our military defences under the distinguish-
ed presidency of Field-Marshal Lord Nicholson.
This Committee has reported to the Viceroy. I
need hardly say that the report is a confidential
document, comparable to the Reports on similar
subjects drawn up by Sub-Committees of the
Committee of Imperial Defence. It caanot be
published, although I believe that thif; confidential'
document will lead to improvements in our Army
of which the House may from time to time be-
interested to hear. But in order to dispose of hopes on
the one hand and fears on the other, I want to state-
one general conclusion — that the expert Committee
has proved that, although we may possibly get a
better Army for the same money we are now spend-
ing, although we can possibly improve our defences
without any extra expense, there is, I fear, no chance
of any reduction in expenditure on either the
British Army in India or the Indian Army. The most,
interesting new feature in the Army expenditure for
this year is the amount set aside for the formation of
a Central Flying School. At first sight, one would

215

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

be inclined to suppose that in a country where the
conditions of wind and weather can, as a rule, be
anticipated with certainty some time beforehand,
the diflaculties of flying would be much less than .
they are in this country. But I am informed by
experts that the extremes of heat and cold, the
variations of temperature, and the differences of
radiation over cultivated and desert areas give rise
to new difficulties. The type of machine best suited
for India has yet to be ascertained, and, in order to
.avoid any unnecessary risks to our flying officers*
•we must discover to what extent heat and moisture,
and especially the combination of the two, may
affect the materials which have been found most
useful in the manufacture of aeroplanes in this
■country. We, therefore, propose to start the Flying
School on a very modest basis, and to confine the
work in the first instance to experiments and not to
include the tuition of beginners. It is intended to
begin with four officers, all of whom are in posses-
sion of pilot certificates. They will be provided
with six aeroplanes for experimental purposes. The
^school will be situated at : Sitapur in the United
Provinces, where there is a large number of Govern-
ment buildings, which are now unoccupied, which
were formerly British Infantry barracks, but which,
I am told, are very suitable for our purpose. The
total Estimate for this year is about £20,000.

210

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

Turning to foreign affairs, I have very little to
say. Last year was free from any serious disturbance
on the North-West Frontier, though there was no
intermission of minor raids, chiefly due to the presence
of outlaws in the Afghan Border Districts of Khost.
In March, 1912, the Mullah Powindah made a deliber-
ate and almost successful attempt to embroil the
Mashuds against the Government, and for some time
it looked as if drastic military action would be neces-
.sary. Fortunately, a demonstration of force was suffi-
cient to rally the friendly tribes to our .side, fines
were levied and paid, and order restored. Save for
a disturbance this year in the Tochi, which might
have been serious but fortunately remained isolated,
these were the only two incidents on the North-West
Frontier. The rapidity with which they were dealt
with is proof that Sir George Keppel and his ofticers
have not only been successful in keeping the troubl-
ed borderland tranquil, but in making great educa-
tional progress on the North-West Frontier. On
the North-East Frontier complete peace has reigned.
Various survey parties which visited the tribal
country were very well received, and arrangements
are being made for the tribes to visit the plains for
commercial purposes and to do so unhindered. As
regai-ds Tibet, I need not say anything here this
afternoon, because my Noble Friend Lord Morley
.made a statement upon the subject last week in

217

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

another place. At the present moment the Govern-
ment of India have invited the Tibetan and Chinese
Cxovernments to send representatives to Simla to
confer on the subject of Tibet's future relations to
China. At this conference the protagonists will be
the Chinese and Tibetan delegates, for we desire, if
possible, that they should settle their differences
between themselves. His Majesty's Government-
have no interest whatever in the internal affairs of
Tib^t. All that we desire is to preserve peaceful
relations between neighbouring States and to see
that order is maintained on the Indian Frontier
from Kashmir to Burma. These are very import-
ant interests, and His Majesty's Government cannot
permit them to be endangered, directly or indirect-
ly, by the Chinese. They are, therefore, not only
concerned in bringing about a settlement between
China and Tibet, but are bound to see that that
settlement secures that there will be no repetition of
the events of the last five years. I may mention
that the Russian Government have been fully
apprised of the action and intentions of His Majesty's.
Government, and have expressed their goodwill.

The only other foreign matter with which I
need deal is to say that the Central Indian HorsCy.
which went in 1911 to Shiraz, has been withdrawn.
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has ins-
tructed the Consul-General at Bushire to convey to

218

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

Colonel Douglas and the regiment under his.
command his sincere congratulations that their
most arduous duties in Persia have been brought to
a conclusion. The tact and self-restraint which
has been displayed by all ranks under trying condi-
tions for the past one and a half years have been
highly appreciated. I am sure the House would
wish to endorse this tribute to men who have work-
ed for some time in very trying circumstances. The
Foreign Department of the Government of India
not only deals with Foreign Affairs, such as those
to which I have referred, but, what I think is
nowadays an anomaly, with the affairs of Native
States. We are not often concerned in this House
with the affairs of Native States, though the
territories which are described under that name and
their rulers loom large in Indian affairs to-day, and
will loom larger as time goes on. They are not
merely places to be visited by tourists who wish to
see interesting places and old buildings, to study
ancient customs, or to indulge in sport. Those who
visit them can gain many an opportunity of political
speculation and instruction by observing their
widely diverging political, racial and social conditions.
However marked is the influence of Western educa-
tion in India generally, nowhere is it more markedly
to be seen than in the Native States, where the
rulers of the present generation vie with one another

219

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

in improving the condition of their administration
and their reputation for efficient Government.
Consequently, in the last twenty years, there has
been a great development in all the affairs of the
States — in finance and administration, in railways,
irrigation and education — and this advance brings
with it the necessity for modernising our methods
of dealing with the affairs of the Native States,
where we are concerned with them. I need hardly
say that in the majority of cases in their internal
affairs we do not interfere.

Native States.

At the present time the links in the official
chain between the Native States and the Viceroy
are the Resident or political Agent — in Rajputana
and Central India, the Agent to the Governor-
General ; then the Deputy- Secretary in the Foreign
Department, who deals with internal affairs, then
the Foreign Secretary and then the Viceroy. The
Foreign Secretary is already overburdened with
work. He has to deal with an increasingly delicate
sphere of operations all along the Indian borders.
It is quite impossible for any one man at the same
time to cope satisfactorily with the affairs of the
Native States. The Government of India have,
therefore, now proposed, and their proposal is being
considered by the Secretary of State, that a separate

220

THE INDIAN BUDGET— 1913.

Secretary should be appointed for the affairs of
Native States. He will bear the title of political
Secretary , he will have all the rights and privileges
of a Secretary to the Government of India, and he
wall have in his Department a branch of the present
Foreign Oftice to deal with internal affairs. The
change can be brought about at very little cost and
will, I am quite sure, be acceptable to the Chiefs,
as tending to the quicker discharge of business and
to a more thorough and more personal representa-
tion of their problems to the Viceroy. In addition,
too, the Conferences which are to be held from tune
to time at Delhi or Simla, to which ruling princes
will be invited will give them opportunities of
meeting one another and of discussing alterations
of custom, of practice, or of rule. That will be a
very valuable procedure. There was a Conference
held at Delhi this year on education in the Native
States, and the success which attended that Con-
ference augurs well for the future.

Coming to British India, I know that is very
ditticult to make a choice of the subjects which
those Hon. Members who are interested in India
will agree with me are ripening, but I have
tried, without any attempt to avoid anything
of difticulty to choose the three things which
I think ure most pressing. I need only say that
if the House will be good enough to allow me

221

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

to reply at the end of the discussion, I shall be
only too glad to give any information on any other
subjects that I can. The first subject with which I
wish to deal is that concerned with the relations
between the religions and races of India. The second,
is the problem connected with the maintenance of
law and order, and, third, those service questions
with which the Public Services Commission is now
dealing. I said something about the relations
between the Mussulman and Hindu some years ago.
I think it is possible to say something more to-day,
because it is difficult for Indian national ideals to
-take any intelligible or any satisfactory form so long
as the great Mussulman community stands apart
from the rest of the Indian population, I am
confident of the future. I believe that the Indian
peoples of all races know full well to-day that the
desire and the intention of the Government communi-
cated to all its officers and understood by them, is that
there should be complete harmony between all the
races there. The maxim divide et impera — one of the
most dangerous maxims — has no place in our text-
book of statesmanship. I can state emphatically
that if the leaders of the Mussulman and Hindu
communities could meet and settle amongst them-
selves some of the questions which from time to
time arise out of and foster differences of opinion and
of tradition they would find ready co-operation from

222

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913. /

the Government I found in India that one of the
outstanding causes of trouble between the Mussul-
mans and the Hindus was the problem of special re-
presentation for the Mussulmans on legislative and
municipal bodies. Another was the difficulty of
obtaining for the relatively backward Mussulman
youth full share of Government employment. On the
first question, I believe, it is recognised by all parties
that the Government is committed to the principle
of special representation. If the Hindu community
who understand this and the Mahomedans were to
■accede to the request of the Hindus for special
representation too, I believe, by agreement between
the parties, we could arrive at a basis for the
modification of the present rules to suit them both,
but the Government has to await that agreement
before any move can be made. However, the
divergence between these two people is very marked.
Hinduism is self-contained, and so far as events
outside India attract their attention at all, it is due
to an ordinary interest in the politics of the world,
consequent upon the spread of education and the
improvement in means of communication. So while
the mutual relations of Europe and Asia are
interesting to the Hindu generally, the Indian
Mussulmans, members of a religious cominunity
which for generations have exercised a marked effect
upon the politics of the three Continents, are naturally

223

SPEECHES OF THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

interested in the welfare and importance of Islam-
as a whole, and despite the neutrality of this country,
despite our refusal to take part in these affairs, I
think this House will sympathise with the fact that
the Mussulmans of India have been, and must be,
deeply stirred by misfortunes which have come to
their co-rehgionists in Persia, in North Africa and
jn the Balkans.

Amid these misfortunes educated Mussulmans are-
I think, keenly conscious that there was a time when
Islam was not only abreast of the general culture of
the rest of Europe, but, through its scholars and men
of science, took a leading part in the development and
learning in Europe. They contrast the conditions of
Morocco to-day with the history of the Moors in
Spain. They remember that under Akbar and his
immediate successors they were not only prominent
in politics, but led the Eastern world for a brilliant
period in arms, in letters, in art and in architecture.
I think the Indian Mussulmans realise that they
have, as a whole, too long neglected the educational
o-pportunities that the British Government wish to
offer as freely to them as to the Hindus, with the
result that in those spheres of public employ-
ment, the doors of which are opened by Western
education, they have not attained a position propor-
tional either to their achievements in the past or to
the numbers at present. They see some of their

224

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

eminent men in high places. There is a Mussulman)
who is a member of the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council ; another sits upon the Council of the
Secretary of State for India ; a third is legal
member of the Viceroy's Council, and many of them
occupy important judicial and administrative posi-
tions. These examples are indications, if indications,
were needed, that there is no sort or kind of
discrimination against their creed or their race.
The Mussulmans themselves have only to utilise
the opportunities that already exist, and there has^
been considerable progress in the last ten years.
During that time the number of Mussulmans at the
elementary schools has increased by 50 per cent, and
durine the last few vears the number of Mahoraedan
students in higher institutions has increased by 80
per cent. The scheme for raising the Mussulman
Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh to the status of an
independent university has been delayed, among
other reasons, by the generous contributions which
have been given to the Bed Crescent fund in Turkey.
The Government of India has recently called the
attention of the local Governments to the necessity
for increased facilities for Mahomedan education in
more modest ways. A community that has onoe
lagged behind in education has more difficulty than
in almost any other sphere in making up leeway.
All educated Indians must recognise that it would

225

SPEECHES OF THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

be'disastrous to India if divisions of the popula-
tion, due to religious or historical causes, were
to coincide permanently with a difference of
intellectual level, and if 57,000,000 of people who
include the rulers of great States, land-holders,
merchants, some of the most vigorous and martial
elements in the Indian Empire, were to remain
outside the forces which are moulding the India of
the future. I think we may be sure that such
arrangements as local Governments can make for
the encouragement of the Mussulman pupils by
scholarships and by special courses, will be welcomed
by the best elements in all the other communities.

Dacca University Proposal.

As regards higher education, I should like to
call attention to the scheme for the proposed new
University at Dacca, which has been framed by a
Committee. We have not yet received any definite
proposals from the Government of India. There
are certain points which require consideration,
but the presentment of this scheme opens a new
chapter in higher education in India. Existing
Indian Universities have been formed on the
model of the London University although the
Indian Universities Act of 1904 has, in measure,
modified this conception. The Universities of
•Calcutta and Bombay are, it is true, now developing

226

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

-post graduate teaching ; but the old Indian University
is an examiningfbody affiliating remote colleges which
they control to a certain extent, but do not teach.
The new University at Dacca will have eleven con-
stituent colleges, all at Dacca, all residential, and it
will be somewhat similar to the Old Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge in this country. That is the
novel and important point of scheme. It is to serve as
a model for Indian Universities in the future. The
University at Aligarh and the University at Dacca
will consist of one or more colleges, all local, in
which the pupils will reside, and in which it is
hoped that we shall obtain something like the best
features of English University life. I mention
Dacca in connection with Mahoraedan education
not because it is to be a Mahomedan University,
■but because it is situated in the centre of a rather
backward iSIahomedan community, and therefore
will offer to the Mussulmans the best opportunity
of university education that they have yet had.

I should like to say a word about the other
education progress of the Grovernment. They have
issued this year a resolution which declares their
policy and makes announcements something on the
lines of those which I was privileged to make this
time last year. It clears up some misconceptions.
We intend to rely, as we have relied in the past, on.

227

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

private enterprise for secondary education. It is
difficult to exaggerate the debt that we owe to
private enterprise in teaching in India. One can see-
on all hands the marvellous work done by the mis-
sionaries. I am not now talking about any efforts-
at conversion. I am talking of the real educational
work which they achieve in virtue of the inspiration
which they derive from their religion. Mr. Tyndalt
Biscoe's school in Srinagar has done marvellous
work for Kashmir, The Anglo- Vedic Arya-Samaj

School at Lahore is another example of private
enterprise and in a sense the Brahma Samaj is a

missionary body. The Christian College at Madras^
the Oxford and Cambridge Hostel at Allahabad, St.
Xaviers College at Bombay, and the Salvation Army
work among the criminal tribes — all this private
education is of a kind which, assisted by Government
inspection, recognition and control, by the very
energy and influence of their teachers, has accom-
plished wonderful work in the development of India
and everything in India, but particularly education,
depends upon the personality and human influence
in enlivening and interesting the peoples. I think
we are alive, too, to the importance of making
education in India something different from the
process merely of teaching Indians enough English
to enable them to obtain, or fail to obtain, a B.A.
degree. The Besolution which I am referring to-

228

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

-draws attention to three matters in which education
in the past has been imperfect, the formation of
character, sound hygiene in the schools and colleges,
and the improvement of the teaching and study of
Oriental languages. The first Grant of the old East
India Trading Company of 1813 was chiefly for the
-encouragement of literature. I am afraid we have
lagged rather behind since then, but the project for
■establishing a central Oriental Institution in India
and an Oriental College here in London, will remove
from us the reproach that we have lagged behind
'Germany and Prance in our treatment of Oriental
learning. The Resolution concluded with an appeal
for the co-operation of the Indian people. We
cannot have education in the true sense from with-
out. Millions of apt pupils engrossed in codes and
schemes drawn up by Europeans will not suffice of
themselves to make an. educated people.

I come to the second of my subjects, the ques-
tion of law and order. I think it may generally be
•said that peace reigns in India. The legislative
Councils with their opportunities for discussion, the
great progress that has been made during the last
few years, the evidence that we are considering all
outstanding questions, these have their effect, but I
■cannot paint a rosy picture without saying a word
about certain disquieting features. I am bound to

229

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

express the view that all is not well with Bengal..
The elaborate rules and the diverging procedure
in all the provinces which have for their object the
fixing of rent or revenue due by land -holders to the
Government or from tenants to the Zemindars or
land-lords, are absorbingly interesting to any student
of Indian agriculture. I am not sure that they are
not in some cases perhaps over-elaborate and over-
irksome, but no one can study them without being
impressed by the fact of the relentless efforts with
which land records, unequalled in the world, are
kept, and by the help of these records justice and
equity between the States and the land-holder on the
one hand, and between the land-holder and his
tenants on the other are meted out. This elaborate
system of rent and revenue administration has-
incidental advantages in bringing together the rulers
and the ruled. It gives infinite opportunity for
knowledge of the condition of the peasant, and
occasion upon which to foster village life and agri-
cultural co-operation — which, as I have described
before to the House, is making such wonderful
strides in India — and for understanding and appre-
ciating the character and the habits of the people.

Land Settlement System.
In Bengal, the permanent land settlement and'
the absence of continuous land records have together

230

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

resulted incidentally in one tremendous disadvantage
that these opportunities for close relationship between
the people and the administration have been
limited, with the result of estrangement and a
reliance, not on the revenue officer, but on the police
for the link between the people and the Executive.
The problem in Bengal is, then, to devise some
remedy for this state of affairs by perfecting the
machinery of local Government, and on the
other hand, improving the police. All these
matters are engaging the attention of the Govern-
ment, and I have only stated them because it will
enable the House of Commons to realise the sort
of problem with which we have to deal. The House
hears from time to time about dacoity in Bengal.
In the year 1912 there were fourteen cases of
dacoity, or attempted dacoity, by armed gangs in
Eastern Bengal in the quest of money or of weapons^
and in December a large quantity of arms and
ammunition was discovered in a house in Dacca, in
which also were found many articles of jewellery
looted on some of these occasions. The peculiar
feature about these crimes is that they have nearly
always been brought home to a class which, outside
Bengal, is very law-abiding— the young men of the
more or less educated middle class, sons of respect-
able parents. There are not many of them — an
infinitesimally small number when thinking of the

231

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

population of India, but gangs of a dozen or fifteen
young men of respectable parents cannot engage
in these exercises without attracting the notice of
their neighbours. A head constable was murdered
in the streets of Dacca last December by three
young men armed with revolvers who were seen by
many passersby. We must rely in our effort to
correct these things upon the co-operation of the
people. But it must be remembered that in
Eastern Bengal the communications consist almost
entirely of waterways, and crimes of violence are
'difficult to guard against and hard to detect. An
enormous area of country, full of small isolated
villages, intersected with rivers and courses must
•always offer an easy field to daring criminals and
^ present great obstacles to the police.

Measures to deal with Dacoity.

There was a remarkable case in 1908, when
-about thirty young Bengalis were able to travel for
many miles with the loot obtained by robbery in
broad day-light, meeting no police and encounterinc;
little resistance from villagers, though they murder-
-ed four men, and that led to an investigation of the
position. It was then found that the average pf
police stations, excluding outposts, was one to every
400 square miles. It is all very well to talk about
the co-operation of the people, but you cannot

232

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

•expect villagers to travel great distances, leaving
their agricultural pursuits and leaving their homes
:and women unprotected, in order to go and help the
police. The situation is being faced, the police are
heing strengthened and reorganised, and a system
■of river patrols is being established. The first
step is necessarily to cope with existing crime.
"The larger problem is to prevent the recruit-
ing of criminals in the future. So far as
prevention goes, the Bengal Government are
engaged in a comprehensive and carefully devised
scheme, including, besides the measures I have
described, a reorganisation of the village chaukidars
and police. But the permanent problem is the
cure of the conditions which made these crimes
possible, and here we are face to face with economic
and educational problems of great complexity. The
development of the industrial resources of the
province, the improvement of education on lines
which will enable young men to earn a living in
practical pursuits, instead of turning out educa-
tional failures who find themselves divorced from
the humble callings which their fathers followed,
endowed with just enough book learning to make
them bad politicians, yet far too little to enable
them to live by any liberal profession — these are
the real problems of the future in Bengal, and their
•solution must be at best, slow.

233

speeches op the rt. hon. mr. e. s. montagu,

Character and Service op Police.

In the meantime it is plainly the duty of the
State to protect the law-abiding, to give confidence^
to the timid, and to deal so energetically with
crimes of violence that public confidence may be
restored in the ability of the Government to give
protection to a population which has no natural
sympathy with crime, but which has too often found
that the dacoit can strike harder and quicker than
the Government. One necessary step is to improve
the police. The attention of the House is from time
to time called, quite justifiably, to cases in which
Indian constables have abused their powers. I only
want to pause for a moment before saying a word on

this well-worn theme, to regret that no members of
that force, except its few bad characters, are ever
heard of by the public in this country and I should
like to draw attention to the splendid material we
have in the English officers and those rnder their
charge. I have been looking at the most recent re-
wards and I wish to tell the House of some of them.
I find that three recipients of the King's Police Medal
risked their lives to save helpless people from drown-
ing, while five awards were made to two superior-
officers and three constables on the occasion of a
fire and explosion in the laboratory of the Delhi
Fort. Twenty-five live shells were known to be in

234

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

the burning building when a superintendent and-
three constables mounted an adjoining wall, and
for two hours played the hose on the fire, until
their comrades succeeded in getting into the build-
ing and removing the shells. I find that a Calcutta
constable unarmed, captured an armed burglar after
he had just killed another constable. A Punjab con-
stable, who had saved two women from drowning
at the risk of his life, came to the rescue of a
comrade felled to the ground by four criminals. Two
constables in the United Provinces attacked a band
of twenty armed robbers, wounding and capturing
one, and putting the rest to flight. A sub-inspector
in Madras, unarmed saved a magistrate from an
angry mob during a religious disturbance. A Euro-
pean inspector in Behar saved two Indian women
from a burning house at the risk of his life.
I have taken these from difi'erent provinces,.
and all from the one year's record, because I
wish the House to realise what good material we,
have in the Indian police. I hope that the reci-
tal of such cases may raise a desire on the part
of some of my fellow Members, who are laudably
anxious to eradicate torture and practices of that
kind from the Indian police, to encourage merit by
seeking information also as to the other side of the
shield.

235

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR, E. S. MONTAGU.

In Bengal, within three years, no less than
five Indian police officers have been murdered
by political assassins, and one has been severely
wounded. We punish severely any constable whom
we can detect in abuse of his power. Facts
are notified by way of warning to all members
of the force. We must to complete the process,
say a word of recognition and sympathy for the
members of the force who have lost their lives
in the fearless performance of their duty, and
amid difficulties which I think are not always
sufficiently appreciated by the House. May I add
that, although we propose to relax no effort in
improving the condition :of the police and their
character, we cannot see our way to doing what
some Members of this House would have us to do
—abolishing a record of confessions prior to trial.
We have two duties, one is to avoid and to prevent
torture, as I believe we are increasingly successful
in doing, but we are not justified in hampering
ourselves against the other side of our duty — the
punishment of crime and the protection of law-
abiding citizens — by action which, as the House
will see when the papers are published, is opposed
by all the local Governments, and nearly every
Court of law throughout the country. I have said
before, and I say again, that the prohibition of con-
iessions would not prevent the risk of ill-treatment

236

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

of accused persons by constables. It would not
prevent the ill-treatment of witnesses in hopes
of discovering clues of stolen property. However,
we can, I think, perfect our precautions to ensure-
that confessions are really voluntary and carefully
recorded.

I should like to read to the House some of the
measures which the Government of India propose
to adopt. These proposals are still under the con-
sideration of the Secretary of State, and I am able
to say that he will be only too glad of the
co-operation of any Hon. Member of this House in
suggesting further reforms for consideration by the
Government of India. The police are to be for-
bidden to interrogate accused, if remanded, without
the permission of the Magistrate. Instructions
will be given that a remand of a confessing prisoner
to police custody should only be granted if the
police could show good and satisfactory grounds,^
and only by magistrates who have first-class or
second-class powers under the Criminal Procedure
Code. Where the object of the remand is verifi-
cation of prisoner's statement, he is to be remanded
to the charge of the magistrate, and the remand
should be as short as possible. "When a prisoner
has been produced to make a confession, and has-
declined to do so, he is in no circumstances to be-

237

-SPEBGHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

-remanded to police custody. The recording of
confessions is to be limited to special divisional
magistrates and magistrates of the first class, or, if
especially empowered, of the second-class. An effort
will be made not to record a confession without the
orders of the District Superintendent of Police, or
until the accused has had some hours out of police
custody. The police are not to be present ivhen
confession is recorded, and ordinarily a confession
shall be recorded in open Court, and during Court
hours, and a magistrate recording a confession shall
endeavour to ascertain the exact circumstances in
which confession was made, and shall record on the
Becord the statement of the grounds on which he
believes the confession genuine, and the precautions
taken to remove accused from the custody of the
police.

Mr. MacCallum Scott :— The Hon. Gentleman used some
words which I do noc quite understand. Will he kindly explain
what is meant by the words " remanded to make a oonfession."

Mr. Montagu : — I am very sorry if I did not
make the statement quite clear. I did not say,
" remanded to make a confession." What I said
was : " When a prisoner has been produced to
make a confession, and has declined to do so, he is
in no circumstances to be remanded to police
•custody.

238

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

Mb. MACCallum Scott : May I ask what is meant by
■** produced to make confessiou ?"

Mr. Montagu : When he is produced in Court
for the purpose of making a confession, and he
declines to do it, he is not to go back to the custody
of the police who produced him. I wish to say one
word about the Delhi outrage. A bomb was thrown
in daylight, the Viceroy was severely wounded, and
two men were killed. The assassin got clear away
and has not yet been caught. That is the story,
and I want to say how it was possible for such a plot
to be matured without any inkling of it reaching
the authorities, why the actual attempt was not
frustrated, and how it is that the criminals have
not been detected. If there is an active organiza-
tion, however small in number, however abhorrent
to the general sense of the people, an organization
including men competent to manufacture effective
■bombs, and men willing to take the risk of throwing
them, and if that organization is in the hands of
men who can keep their secrets and confine their
knowledge of particular plots to a very narrow circle,
then carefully thought-out plans could be prepared
and no Government in the world can guard against
them, except by such a network of surveillance
and of espionage as would be absolutely intoler-
able. Even so, history has not shown that Govern-
ments who were ready to subordinate their main

239

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

business to a policy of intense suspicion have,
thereby succeeded in preventing political murder,
and State occasions which draw immense crowds
may draw, too, persons secretly armed with
explosives and ready to use them. There are
certain precautions which are not only possi-
ble, but which it is the clear duty of the
police or authorities to take. They include
careful arrangements for the regulations of traffic^,
the presence of troops and police, a knowledge of the
occupants of houses along the route ; and the
ascertaining whether strangers of known bad
character have come to the place. The judgment
of the Government of India, after the most careful
inquiry, is that there was no failure on the part of
the local authorities or the police to carry out
these duties. There was no reason whatever to
suspect that such a crime would occur, or that
the arrangements made to guard against crime
were not thoroughly adequate. Lord Hardinge
said in the moving speech with which, while still
suffering from his wounds, he opened the first
Session of the Legislative Council in Delhi, one of
the most moving occasions at which I was ever
privileged to be present.

" In my desire for kindly intercourse with the people and
accessibility to them, I have always discouraged excessive pre-
cautions, and I trust myself and Lady Hardinge more to the.
care of the people than to that of the police."

240

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

I think we owe to this fact, and to the splendid
courage with which the Viceroy and Lady Hardinge
acted throughout — (cheers) — the magnificent display
of sympathy with them and the abhorrence with,
which the crime was treated throughout India. Had
His Excellency desired, further precautions would
have been taken. When a procession moves through
a city of flat-topped houses, it is possible by posting
men practically to garrison the roofs, but this would
not prevent the throwing of a bomb. There are
assassins who will kill even with the certain
knowledge that they cannot escape. The building
from which the bomb was thrown is really a collec-
tion of houses built round a courtyard, a warren of
passages and staircases with over a dozen means of
access to the adjoining buildings and streets, and so
the assassin got clear away. The fact that the
assassin got away does not mean that the police have
been idle and that there is no hope of ultimately
bringing him to justice.

" India Abhors the Crime."

But this crime is not an outcome of a wide
national movement. The fact that a lot of
irreconcilables, enemies of authority, can effect
political murder is not confined to India. There
have been times and countries in which the
deliberate opinion of the people was opposed to

241

tgPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

the Government and in which political murder
is the extreme manifestation of a sentiment
which, in its milder form, the mass of the people
shares. In such cases as the detection of a political
crime is, as a rule, not difficult, for the existence of
conspiracies is no secret to the people at large. In
those circumstances a particular crime can be detect-
ed and punished without affecting the general situa-
tion. A situation of this kind differs radically from
the present situation in India. A spontaneous
expression of horror came from all classes and all
creeds from one end of India to the other wholly apart
from any difference of political opinion. The
aplendid thanksgivings for the recovery of the
Viceroy constitute one of the most striking things
in the history of our Indian Empire. A closer
association of leading Indians in the Government
of the country has precluded all possibility that an
attempt on the life of the Viceroy, the President of
the enlarged Legislative Council, in which speeches
of sympathy and dismay of such striking eloquence
and sincerity were made, can be the act of a politi-
cian lationalist.

India abhors the crime, and I think Indians
have reflected sadly that its occurrence casts an
unmerited strain upon the reputation of their coun-
try. Lord Hardinge declared at once that he
would puraue unfalteringly the policy which he had

242

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

followed hitherto. There is no question of with-
drawing from innocent millions the measure which
we have thought it right to take, merely because in
India, as in a dozen other countries, terrorists
have committed a crime which could, by no possi-
ble means, have brought one single national as-
piration nearer fulfilment. (Cheers.) The good
.name of India has suffered very unjustly, and the
.position of our Indian fellow-subjects in other parts
of the Empire, difficult enough already in many
ways, has not been made easier by the Delhi bomb.
The outrage provoked a genuine outburst of indigna-
tion from severe critics of our Government as well
as from those who are more generally in sympathy
with us. I want to draw attention to the words of
one Indian member of the Council in a recent debate,
who said : —

" I fully share the feeling of shame, but I ask myself, ' Hive
I been able to help the Government or those responsible for the
aflminiscration of the country to get rid of these people ? Though
these outrages are committed against my own couatrymen, my
kith and kin, what havcl done? That is the real thing. "j

This question, I think, shows a feeling of
personal responsibility which is new, behind a feel-
ing of loyalty which is not new and this feeling of
responsibility is one of the greatest needs, as it is
•one of the most hopeful signs, in the India of to-
day.

•243

speeches op the rt. hon. mr. e. 3. montagu..

Public Services Commission.

I come to my last subject, the Eoyal Commis-
sion which is now sitting. I think that I can
describe the year of which I have been speaking
as the year of deliberation. It has marked out, as
it were, a halt after a period of advance. The
last March, the march of the Morley-Minto-
Report, covered a va st tract of unconquered
and valuable territory, and we are now halting
to consolidate our recent conquest while reconnoitr-
ing parties are being sent out to spy out the land
that lies before us. To two of our pioneers I have
already referred, the Royal Commission presided
over by the right Hon. Gentleman, the member for
East Worcestershire, and the Military Committee
which has sat under Field Marshal Lord Nicholson.
The third is the Public Services Commission, Lord
Islington's Commission, now sitting in London, and
soon to go back again to India, where it has already
sat during the last cold weather. The Com-
mission has conducted its inquiry under con-
ditions of great difficulty. It has been subjected
to misunderstanding, based on imperfect reports-
of its proceeding and often to slander. I want
to say that the Government appreciates the
determination and assiduity with which it is-

pursuing its labour, and the Government is confi-
-dent that when its Report issues v*'e shall have the

244

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

Ibasis of many desirable alterations in our system,
the material for another march forward. I do
4iot want to say one word which would prejudge
its conclusions, but I do want to say that we cannot
go on governing India with a dissatisfied public
service, and there is evidence thit the recruiting
sergeant is hampered by the evil reports which are
brought home from India at this moment.

At the risk of once again stating a platitude I
will say that unless you can get the best men,
selected by the most suitable tests, animated by
the highest, traditions, proceeding — this is the
.important point — to India confident of their
•choice of a permanent career and of the good-will
of and fair treatment by the British people in whose
name they are going to administer you will lose,
.and you will deserve to lose, the hold of the British
people upon the affection of the Indian people.
In saying that I am not referring for one moment
to those few, very few, Civil servants who regret
the good old days when they were sent out to govern
the people, who were content to be governed, and
lainent the fact that they have now to co-operate
with the people and the Government of India.
With all respect and all recognition for their servi-
ces in the past, we do not want those men in India.
.After all, what did we go to India for "> If the peo-
.ple of India have not made any progress under

245

SPEECHES OF THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

British rule, if the'problems of the Government are-
still to-day what the}' were a hundred years ago or in
the days of Lord Chve, then I think we have failed
in our justification. Nor do we want to Hsten for
one moment to those men who tell us that they do-
not like the educated Indian, and that the educated-
Incian does not Hke us. If the educated Indian
has faults or shortcomings, different from or greater
than the faults of the educated Englishman, these-
faults are the faults of the education which we have
given them.

Civil Service.
Even if it can be said against us that there are-
some educated Indians who do not like us, do not
sympathise with us, do not believe in our motives,.
I think that there is no necessity to be dismayed.
Our part, difficult and worthy, is to bring the
educated Indian onto our side, and to go on helping
him in order that he may help us, or to ask him tO'
help us in order that we may go on helping him.
The problem of India is not a problem of material
advance of increasing prosperity. It is not a pro-
blem of new schools and university buildings. It
is not a problem of new hospitals and Government
Houses. It is a problem of Government and of co-
operation, of giving to the Indian increasing oppor-
tunity in the country which is his own, and

246

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

increasing assistance in the development of bis
capacity for local Government and administration.
No, the grievances, as I understand, in the Indian
Civil Service, to uhich I desire to call attention are
three : The first is want of pay. The Indian Civil
Service claim that their pay has not been revised as
has the pay of people in private employment, to keep
the pace with the enormous increase in the cost of
living in India. The standard of life, the slowness
of promotion, and the lateness of life at which they
are recruited are all questions of the utmost
importance, and if an under-paid service is an
unsatisfactory service, the Koyal Commission have
got a worthy task to perform in a thoiough investi-
gation of this grievance in order that they may
recommend pay which shall be adequate to the

altered conditions and pensions proportoinate to the
services rendered.

Sir J. D. Rf.ES ; Is the Hon. Gentleman referring to any
general complaint by Indian Civil servants or a complaint by the
Punjab, the United Provinces and the Central Provinces ? Is lie
referring to something specific and local?

Mr. Montagu : Of course, I know that there
is a particular grievance from the Punjab and the
United Province owing to the block in promotion,
and we have taken some steps, not wholly satisfactory
perhaps, but which will not — if I may use the
expression — queer the pitch of the Royal Commis-
sion, for temporarily dealing with these places. But

247

SPBBCHE8 OP THE RT. HON. MB. B. S. MONTAGU.

I was taking a general view that the cost of living
had increased, and that the pay had not. The next
grievance of the Indian Civil Service is the growing
complexity of the system under which they live.
Half the faults which are found from time to time
with the Indian Civil Service are mainly attribut-
able to their overwork. Every year sees an increase
in the inflexible rules laid down for the guidance
of all grades of officers. Every year, therefore,
decreases the responsibility of officers which makes
their task less agreeable, and who devote
more of their time to reports. I have heard
of an officer who said that when he joined* the
Service a small volume of rules was sufficient to
guiie him when he went into camp ; now he kas to
pack a portmanteau with codes and regulations. At
the risk of repeating what I have said before in this
House, I cannot pass by this subject without saying
that one of the cures for this is devolution. We
must seek to find indigenous voluntary agencies to
conduct a large amount of our detailed work. We
are always inclined to thrust upon India, in the light
of our own experience in this country, laws and
regulations comparable to those which have been
found satisfactory to us. In this country, when
laws are passed, we hand them over in the main to
our voluntary agencies — our county councils, our
municipal councils and our rural district councils —

248

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

"to carry out, but in India every such enactment and
*very such resolution must at present mean work
for the officials. Even if there be some loss of
•efficiency, even if a district board be worse run, a
municipal body be less capable, we ought to find the
indigenous agency in India which will alone ensure
our progress being real and complete. ,

How can this be done ? I hope the Hou se
will forgive me for saying that there is this
problem. How can a district officer entrust detail s
of his work to voluntary assistance if the local
<TOvernment is always asking him detailed ques-
tions on matters for which he ought to be respon-
sible ? How can the local Government forbear
worrying each district officer if the impe rial
^Government at Delhi is for ever interfering and
worrying the local Government for reports '> How
<;an the Imperial Government at Delhi refuse to
interfere with its local Government if it is always
being worried for reports or details by the Secretary
of State, and how can the Secretary of State forbear
lo worry the Imperial Government at Delhi if the
House of Commons and the House of Lords are
always asking for information V The tightness of
<;ontrol of each step in the machine is an excuse for
the step below. 1 hope the House will forgive me.
Honourable Members are entitled to know anything
and everything they want to know, but if you

249

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

devolve on other people duties which you cannot or
will not perform yourself, you must leave them
with trust, to do the things that you have asked them
to do for you. Let them do confidingly the things
that you have asked them. I know I shall be told,
indignantly, by Honourable Members, that were if
not for their interpolation of questions as to Indian
affairs, there would be no opportunity of any public
and recognised criticism of the Indian Government.
All these things are a matter of degree, and, as time
goes OQ, and you take steps in India to bring the
Government more and more face to face with the
people, every step you take in India in that direction
ought to lessen control here. But I should like to
remind the House that devolution in this respect
was accomplished by recent reforms, and that in.
the Legislative Councils, now enlarged, elective and
representative questions are asked and answered,
and resolutions moved and discussed on questions
of every variety of importance concerning every
branch of administration. It is only necessary to
glance at the proceedings of one of those councils to
realise that a very genuine interest in administra-
tion is taken by the leaders of Indian opinion, and
that there is very little danger that any real or
apparent grievance, or any Government action of
any kind which appears to require explanation, will
pass unchallenged.

250

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

Then there is a third grievance, the last
grievance of the Indian Civil Service, and this-
applies to all the Services in India, British and
Indian. They are sensitive of your opinion and
dependent on your support, and believe me I speak
from the bottom of my heart when I say they are
in every way worthy both of your support and of
your good opinion. The isolation, the courage, the
indefatigable work of exiled men and women,
often in lonely stations, in the Forest Service of
the Indian Civil Service, in Salt, in education
and other services, to name only a few, ought
to call for the admiration of every Member in this
House. What I ask in their name and what they
ask silently, is an appreciation of their difficulties-
and a belief in their undoubted singleness of purpose.
It too often happens that they are discouraged in
their work, because the criticisms of them from this-
country are so very vocal, whereas praise and
appreciation is so often silent, because men have-
not time to attend to Indian subjects. So much for
that side of the public services inquiry. But there
is the other side of the public services inquiry
which opens up the whole vast territory of the
share of Indians in the administration of the
country. What our attitude is i/i regard to this
I have already indicated. The old era of a hard and
a fast division between Government and the

251

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON, MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

governed on racial lines has long ago disappeared.
The watchword of the future is co-operation. We
are pledged to advance, and we mean to advance
but it must be steadily and prudently. The very
appointment of the Commission is a good earnest
of our sincerity, and, as their share, we ask from
•the progressive section of the Indian community,
^patience. The Commission will advise us as to
what changes, what reforms, are necessary to take
us as far forward on this new road as we are now
justified in going.

All I take leave to do now is to make this one
comment on the subject. It is not only a question
of new regulations, of carefully balanced proportions
between the two races, it is not only a question of
words and of figures, it is, above all, and beyond all,
-a question of real determination on both sides to
act up to the spirit of the underlying principle,
Mere lip service to a formula is worthless, I wish
to appeal to British and to Indians alike, to make
this co-operation a real thing by inspiring it with
-the vital elements of tact, sympathy and sincerity —
the instruments of success in India. Finally, I want
to remind the House that there is another side of
ihe question which the Commission probably will
not touch, but which is as important, as serious
and as deserving of our most earnest consideration.
There are in India millions, tens of millions,

252

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

I might almost say hundreds of millions, who do-
not, cannot and probably never will aspire to a shar&
in the Government of their country, who live the life
of an Oriental, unstirred by the Western life we have-
imported. We measure their lands, we administer-
justice to them, we teach them to keep themselves,
their houses and their village clean ; we show them
how plague may be avoided, and we bring to bear
on their material improvement all the resources of
Western science and civilisation. But all this is to
them but as a phase passing in amaze and murmur
of words, in the Eternal Scheme of things.
(Cheers.) The principle on which we act is right.
It is our bounden duty to give of the best that we
have to the betterment, according to the best of our
ideas, of the people under our rule. We must do
these things, and we must do them by rule and
by code, and through the agency of officials who
speak the language and use the practices of officials^
But let there be added to the rules and codes, and
to the official book, a note of explanation, a gentle-
ness of application and an endeavour to interpret.

The Indian of whom T now speak has a view
of life which is not our view. His ways are not our
ways ; our books, our medicine, our sanitation, are
as mysterious to him as the rites of Shiva or of
Vishnu to the average middle-class Londoner. The
language of officialism booms in his ears and stupefies

253

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

him ; he is entangled and trapped and terrified in
the coils and meshes of official codes. He is, in spite
of all our Western importations, the same man as
he was 15 centuries ago. That is one of our difficul-
ties that we find in India — living side by side the
20th century and the fifth, and the same machinery
to deal with both of them. I do not ask for separate
machinery, but what I do ask is that, where the
machinery, with all its complications and intricacies*
suited to the 20th century comes in contact with
the fifth century, let every effort be made to simplify,
adjust and explain. (Cheers.) Understanding is
what is wanted. Understanding is impossible
unless the officer who meets the people in direct
contact has the time to see and talk to them
face to face, and the liberty, the freedom, to adjust
^nd to lighten their difficulties, and to ease
their condition by the intervention of his personal
agency and sympathy. And so my last word is
a plea for devolution, not necessarily by a redis-
tribution of duties and powers, but by the liberty
t© exercise a wise discretion in the use of duties
and powers as they now are. If we make co-opera-
tion and devolution our guiding principle, I am
convinced that we shall be on the right lines, and if
anything we have done during this year, or if any-
thing I have said this afternoon, helps towards
securing for the one section of the Indian commu-

254

THE INDIAN BUDGET — 1913.

nity another instalment of their just and proper
ambition, for the other and largest section of the
Indian community a more personal, a more elastic,
a more understanding rule, and for our public
servants some due recognition of their loyal and
unsparing service by the removal of any existing
or potential cause of discontent, then I shall feel
that, though I have taxed the patience of this
House, I have not wasted its time.

265

THE INDIAN KAILWAYS AND IKRIGATION
LOANS BILL.

SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
ON 17TH MARCH, 1910.-

On the motion for the second reading of this
Bill, Mr. Montagu said :

The Secretary of State for India possesses no
power to raise money by loan in this country except
with the consent of the Houses of Parliament, and so
from time to time he comes down to the House of
Commons with a bill of this kind and asks for power
to raise a limited sum of money. There were Loans-
Bills passed into Loans Acts, comparable to this, in
1893, 1898, 1901, 1905 and 1908. There are two
kinds of these Bills. Sometimes power is sought to-
raise money for general purposes. Sometimes it is
sought only for specified purposes. The Bill which
is now under discussion is of the latter kind, and
-only seeks to raise money for the specified purposes
of irrigation and railways.

256

THE INDIAN RAILWAYS AND IRRIGATION.

General borrowing powers are only used to
meet great emergencies, such as war or famine,
and it is a matter of great rejoicing that since the
Bill of 1908 no such emergency has arisen ; and
the Secretary of State still possesses unexhausted
the whole of the borrowing power for general
purposes granted by this House in 1908 together
with an unexhausted portion of the borrowing
powers granted by the Act of 1898, to the extent of
sums amounting altogether to £6,371,699, so that it
is absolutely unnecessary to ask for power in this Bill
to borrow money for general purposes. The Govern-
ment asks the House for power to raise i^25,000,000
sterling for railways and irrigation. I may say
that these powers are not to be exercised at once, but
only during the years 1911, 1912 and 1913 and sub-
sequent years, and they will only be exercised with
due regard both to the necessity of the services involv-
ed and the conditions of the money market at the
time. I may also say, having regard to the discussion
in the previous Debate, that in the undertaking con-
templated there is nothing military or strategic. All
the work contemplated has to do with the develop-
ment of the commercial prosperity of India. The
subject of irrigation is only included in this Bill so as
not to limit unduly the powers of the Secretary of
State. But, as a matter of fact, the money required
for irrigation is nearly always raised in India, and

257
17

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E, S. MONTAGU.

probably the money raised under this Act will be
used entirely for railway purposes. •

Irrigation Grants.

I will deal shortly with the subject of irrigation
first. There can be no doubt as to the value of
irrigation, and the success of expenditure under this
head is one of the outstanding features of the
recent development of India. It was in 1864, that
the principle was accepted of constructing works,
of irrigation out of funds supplied by loans,
and since that date various systems have been
steadily pursued of supplying water to country
previously arid or exposed to the danger of famine
in seasons of occasional drought The policy
now governing this work is based on the approved ,
report presented by Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff'g
Commission in 1903. The sum of i'32,143,278
had been invested in major irrigation by the end of
1908-9 and i;4,028,29'4 in minor works, irrigating
together the enormous area of 16,435,527 acres.
This showed increase over the preceding year of
iSl, 628,541 capital expenditure, of iil26,761 gross
receipts of £22,041, working expenses, of £104,720
net receipts, and of 358, 639 acres irrigated. These
figures are only the departmental index of the
general increase in the productivity of land and
the effective production of districts previously

258

THE INDIAN RAILWAYS AND IRRIGATION.

liable to famine in times of drought and in some
'Cases the settling on land previously uncultivated
•of large and prosperous populations. The
major works only are constructed from borrowed
money. The net receipts from these have increas-
ed from i:l,711,000 in 1900-1 to an estimated net
-<japital liability at the same time has increased from
£*23,47o,332 to £33,643,278, so that the percentage
of net receipts to capital liability has remained
practically constant throughout the ten years. We
can therefore face the consideration of increased
expenditure on irrigation with a confidence that the
money spent is not only of immense profit to the
population of India, but is spent on sound commer-
cial undertakmgs, eminently satisfactory to the
revenues of the Government of India.
Railways in India.
Turning to railways, we are again occupied
with work, the advaatages of which are undoubted.
The building of railways in India, dating from
1853, has been the foundation of the growing pros-
perity of its people, the basis of any war against
4he famine, the fundamental support of law and
order, the root of all progress. Thanks to railways,
food can be supplied to distressed districts, and
good harvests do not entail the waste of crops.
Railways have equalised prices and distributed
food and produce; they have colonised new dis-

259

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGF.

tricts and led, so far as is possible, to establishing
a greater commnnity of interest among the various
peoples of India. Turning to the mor'e material
question of profit to the Government of India again,,
we see a story of satisfactory investment. About
24,000 miles out of the 31,485 opened for traffic are
now the remunerative property of the Government
of India, yielding in 1909-10, which has not been a
particularly favourable year, 4'41 per cent, of the
money invested in them, which now amounts to-
about i'300,000,000. The railway service gives
employment to 525,000 persons, of whom 508,000*
are Indians. The number of passengers rose from
161,000,000 in 1899 to 321,000,000 in 1908, and
during the same period there had been an average
increase of 790 miles opened per year. Loans-
raised under Bills such as we are now discussing
are spent, first, in fulfilment of the railway pro-
gramme for the year ; and, secondly, in the dis-
chai-ge of capital liabilities. The railway pro-
gramme for the year is decided by the Eailway
Board, which, subject to the approval of the
Government of India and the Secretary of State,
manages Indian railways. A portion of the money
spent goes to improve the equipment of existing
lines ; increasing trade makes increasing demand on
the lines built to meet the more modest requirements-
of earlier years. A great increase of goods carried

260

THE INDIAN RAILWAYS AND IRRIGAXION.

necessitates the provision of more rolling-stock and
heavier waggons. This means new bridge girders,
■strengthening the permanent way, and new goods
yards. By far the larger part of the money raised for
capital expenditure is used for such purposes. Of
the 1^20,900,000 included in the programme of capital
outlay for this year 1909-10 and the coming year,
^8,800,000 goes to open line works, £'7,000,000 to
rolling-stock and i'4,500,000 to new lines and lines
in progress. I may add that the Railway Board and
the Indian Railway Companies themselves pay parti-
cular attention to the proper distribution of the
•charges for improved equipment between revenue
and capital and only such work as can properly be
•said to improve the revenue is charged to capital.

Continued representations were received from
India some time ago as to the insufficiency of rail-
way development to keep pace with the development
•of India to supply the needs of its trade and to
■enable the railways to be worked to the best possible
advantage. A Committee was appointed as a
consequence of these representations, which was
presided over by Sir James Mackay and reported in
1908. The report recommends that a capital
•expenditure of i: 12,-500,000 should be incurred
annually on railways, on which 14,000,000 should
be provided in India and the remainder in England.
It is with a view to meeting the recommendations

2G1

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

of this Committee that expenditure has been
increased, and this accounts for the shortness of the
interval between this and the last Loan Bill. The full
expenditure recommended, however, has not yet
been attained, and may not be attained for some
time to come. The resources of India in the near
future may fall short of the £'4,000,000 contemplated
by the Committee which was to be contributed
from such sources as the Revenue Surplus, Rupee
Loans and Coinage Profits. It is probable, there-
fore that about iJ8,000,000 a year must be raised
in this country for the purposes of the programme.
Some part of this sum will be raised in the form of
Capital Stock or Debentures of Guaranteed Railway
Companies, for the creation of which the authority of
Parliament is not required. It is not possible to give
any accurate estimate, but, based on past experience,,
it may be suggested that about j£6,000,000 a year will
be raised for programme purposes by the Secretary
of State. The amount raised for programme pur-
poses under the Bill of 1908 has been i* 13,307,273..

Railw'ay Contracts.

As regards liabilities for the discharge of capital
most of the railways belonging to the State in India
are worked by companies, guaranteed by the State,,
under contract. Termination of a contract witb
any company means of payment of capital contribute

262

THE INDIAN RAILWAYS AND IRRIGATION.

ed by them ; this, together with the repayment of
terminable bonds, must be met by borrowed money.
Under the Loans Act of 1908, £'997,300 has been
spent on the discharge of debentures ; before the
end of this year, when the contract between the
Secretary of State in Council and Indian Midland
Railway Company comes to an end, it will be
nec'essary to repay to that company i^-2, 250, 000 ;
possibly, also, though I hope this will not be
the case, A*l,510,000 may be required for repay-
ing capital and certain debenture bonds to the
South Indian Railway Company. The loans-
for these purposes will be raised under — and, I
may add, go far to exhaust — the borrowing powers
of the Act of 1908. In 1911-12 ,i'l,776,200 worth
of bonds originally issued by the Madras and Indian
Midland Companies will have to be discharged, and
in 1912-13, £1,477,600 worth of similar bonds, and
in 1913-14, £1,281,200. Accepting, therefore, the
estimate of six millions as the amount to be raised
annually under present Bill for the railway
programme, the House will see that it is po.ssible to
estimate the requirements of the Secretary or State
in each of the next three years at about seven and a
half millions and that the powers asked for under this
Act will have to be renewed at the end of 1913-14.
There are only two other points which I should
mention, rather by way of anticipating criticism, and

263

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

they are not wholly unconnected. I have shown
that railway undertakings have in recent years
nearly always means a considerable profit. This
amounted to £9,770,000 during the last ten years,
supplementing the revenue raised by taxation for
meeting general administrative expenditure ; but in
1908-9 there was a loss of 4^1,242,000. This was
•due to a decrease in gross earnings consequent
on unfavourable agricultural and trade conditions,
and an exceptionally high rate of working expenses,
resulting partly from the necessity of giving special
allowances to compensate for the high urices
of food while the effects of famine were still
felt, and partly from the large outlay on rene-
wals. This brings me to say a word on the
matter raised on discussion of the last Bill as to t he
passenger facilities of the railways, the improve-
ments of which was responsible to some extent for
the increase of working expenses in 1908. The
Bailway Board in 1905 issued a circular to the
several railway administrations urging the necessity
for providing (1) facilities for passengers to obtain
their tickets a longer time before the departure of
the trains ; (2) facilities for examinmg tickets of third
class passengers so as to enable passengers to have
proper access to the platform ; and (3) proper ac-
commodation for the third-class passengers to pre-
vent overcrowding. There is every evidence that

204

THE INDIAN RAILWAYS AND IRRIGATION.

ample response has been made to this circular.
Continuous booking at the principal stations and
•the opening of town offices for the taking of tickets,
deals with the first evil. As regards the second, the
railway administrations are re-arranging their
waiting-halls and platforms. The only way of dealing
with the third evil is to increase the supply of coach-
ing stock. New third-class carriages of a modern
.type are being provided with every possible speed.

Railways ; A Comparison.

Finally, if there be any Member who thinks
1;hat we are proceeding too rapidly, I would
■remind him that, if we compare India with
any of the advanced countries of the world,
there is room and need for a great development
of railways. To compare it with the United King-
dom, with one-fourteenth of the area and one-
sixth of the population, you find that the United
Kingdom has three times the mileage of rail-
ways. I would also point out that the productive
debt of India makes up by far the larger portion of
her debt. The total permanent debt on 31st
March, lyOU, amounted (in round figures) to
£251,000,000. Of this total i.;182,000,000 repre-
sented railway debt, producing more than 4 per
cent. interest; 4*31,000,000, irrigation debt,
producing 8 per cent, interest ; and iJ38,000,000,

205

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

ordinarj' or unproductive debt. Few countries caa-
show so favourable a record.

Railway Profits.

I wish to be clearly borne in mind that it is
for this remunerative debt, not for the unproductive
debt, that I now ask for powers to raise money.
Profitable as the expenditure of capital on railways
is now, it will be more profitable in future. In the
first place, the purchase of railways by the State
has, in the majority of cases, been made by means of
terminable annuities. When these are paid off, the
railways in the possession of the Government of
India will become an unburdened commercial
property of enormous value. In the second place, a
considerable number of railways have been built,
not for immediate profit, but for the development of
certain areas, and these will become remunerative
in proportion as they achieve their object. Nor dO'
the people of India have to pay highly for-^the-
inestimable benefit conferred upon them by railway
development.

Although during the four years ending 1907-8'
the net annual gain to the State from this source
was approximately .4*2,000,000, the rates charged
for passengers are only one-fifth of a penny per mile
and for goods half a penny per ton per mile. I
think now I have laid before the House sufiicient

266

THE INDIAN RAILWAYS AND IRRIGATION.

evidence of the necessity for this Bill, and the
purposes for which it is required. This was granted
to the Secretary' of State in 1908 borrowing powers
for railway and irrigation purposes, which have
now been nearly exhausted on new construction,
better equipment and repayment of capital. I ask
it with confidence to renew this power in order to
give further assistance to the Government in
providing for the continued improvement of the
first necessity of the modern development of
commerce, agriculture and general prosperity —
improved means of communication.

2G:

THE CONDITION OF INDIA.

Mr, E. S. Montagu, Under-Secretary for India,
was the principal speaker on November 2, 1910, at a
Liberal meeting held at Bishop Auckland. Mr.
James Ramsden, Chairman of the Auckland Division
Liberal Association, presided. Sir Henry Havelock-
Allan, M.P., for the division, also spoke.

In the course of his speech Mr. Montagu said : —
A striking phenomenon of the last few years is the
awakening among English people at home of an in-
creased interest in the affairs of the Indian Empire.
On the platform, in the Press, and in general
literature there is year by year more attention
devoted to India ; and everywhere we find a
dawning realisation that what has been called
the " brightest jewel in the British Crown" is
• no mere ornament, but an Imperial charge
involving great and growing responsibilities. The
importance of the connexion between India and
' Great Britain cannot be over-estimated, nor is it
possible to exaggerate the magnitude of the task to
which we have put our hands and the absorbing in-
terest of the problems that we have to face. That

•268

THE CONDITION OF INDIA.

India is coming more prominently before the public
eye in England is, therefore, all to the good. The
increased interest is due partly, no doubt, to the new
spirit in the East that is now forcing itself upon
our notice, the arising in an insistent form of pro-
blems that an older generation was content to leave
in the lap of the future, and to the political outrages
which, by dramatically arresting public attention for
the moment, have assumed a fictitious importance.
But if I were asked to say what single thing has
played the largest part in this assumption by Indian
affairs of a greater prominence in England, I should
say that it was the act of the present Government in
appreciating the dignity of India's place in^
our Empire, and the importance of her problems,
by giving to India of their best, by allotting to
the India Office a man who was perhaps the most
striking and best- known personality on the Liberal
front bench. (Cheers).

Lord Morley's Administration.

I am reminded of an article in one of the re-
views that I was reading the other day, written with
an object frankly hostile to a certain aspect of Lord
Morley's administration, which, nevertheless, pointed
out that whatever the shortcomings of ,the present
Government and of Lord Morley's treatment of
Indian questions, together they had done India one^

269

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

great and lasting service — they had put an end for
■ever to the practice of regarding the Secretaryship
for India as a dumping-ground for mediocrities. I
hope that it is true. It is certainly true, I think, of
Liberal Governments ; further than that I would
not presume to prophesy.

But Lord Morley's services to India are not
confined to illuminating the Secretaryship of State
for India with the reflected lustre of his name.
What he has done and is doing is so well-known
that I need not enlarge upon it. He has had a
difficult time. He has been much criticised by the
old school of thought, he has been criticised with
'even greater acerbity from a diametrically opposite
point of view by well-meaning enthusiasts on our
•own side, who do not realise that their true aims are
best served to by his policy and are inclined to forget
•that, to quote from a book recently published about
India regarding which I shall have more to say later
it is specially true of that country that " the pen-
dulum violently lurched forward will speedily swing
back." But Lord Morley has steadily held to his
course with unswerving courage : and history will, I
think, speak with no uncertain voice as to his place
in India's story. (Cheers.)

•270

the condition op india.

Prosperity and Poverty.

Mr. Montagu went on to say it was self-evident
that the Government of India by England had been
for India's material prosperity. He was not blind
to the fact that, nnfortunately, a vast number of.
people in India live their whole lives in extreme
poverty, but he asserted that poverty had been
decreasing under British rule. Examining the trade
returns he showed that in 1858, the earliest year for
which we have figures, the total sea-borne trade
of India was £39,750,000. Last year it was
£203,000,000, an increase in the half-century of
more than 500 per cent. Again, the revenue of
India, which was last year £74,250,000, had more
than doubled during the last 50 years, and this
although the sources of revenue have remain-
ed almost unchanged. Land revenue, a rough
index of agricultural prosperity, had increased (if
measured in rupees) by 60 per cent. Moreover,
the increase had been concurrent with a very much
greater increase in the value of the gross agricultu-
ral yield, and was in no way the result of increasing
burdens.

Then, again, we in England had lent India vast
sums of money for the purposes of internal develop-
ment. The total amount invested by Englishmen
in commercial concerns in India had been estimated
roughly at a minimum figure of i;350,000,000. But

271

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

leaving out of account investments in private con-
cerns, for calculations about that were largely
guess-work, it might safely be estimated that
upwards of £130,000,000 had been lent by England
to the Indian Government for what were technically
called " public works purposes " — that; was to say,
for the construction and development of railways
and irriiration canals. The total amount of what
was called " ordinary debt " — that was to say, dead
weight debt, corresponding to our National Debt at
home — was £42,250,000, a ridiculously insignificant
sum compared with the £700,000,000 with which
we were burdened here.

The " Drain " upon India.

By a curious perversion of reasoning this loan from
England to India was regarded by a certain school
of thought, fortunately small, as an offence to us-
because it entailed the payment of interest, and
the annual payments made by India to England
were spoken of as a " drain " by the latter on the
former. It would be absurd, of course, to take
credit upon ourselves .for having lent money to
India ; but so it vvas grotesque to regard the
payment of the very moderate rate of interest at
which India could obtain this capital in England
and put it to an immensely profitable use in India

272

THE CONDITION OP INDIA.

as the bleeding of a helpless people by a tyrannical
capitalist nation.

The so-called " drain," in the eyes of those who
alleged its existence, consisted, however, not only
of the interest on debt but of the whole of^
the annual remittances of the Government of
India for the purposes of defraying what were called^
" home charges " — that was to say, payments made
in England' from Indian revenues. Last year these
amounted to just over £19,000,000, of which interest
on debt accourited for rather more than half. Of
the balance the principal item was pensions and
furlough pay to European ofhcers amounting to-
5^ millions, while about one million was attribut-
able to Army and Marine effective charges and about
one million to stores purchased in England, such as
railway rolling stock and material which could not
be manufactured in India. Army and Marine
effective charges were the payments made by India
to the War Office and Admiralty for services
rendered to her by the British Army and the
British Navy, and were part of the price of her
security. In the case of stores, the benefit to India
was obvious and direct ; it no more involved a
" drain" than the purchase by the British Govern-
ment of a French dirigible balloon involved a
" drain " from England to France. In the case of
pensionary and furlough payments the benefit to

273
13

SPEECHES OF" THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

India was indirect, bat it was none the less real.
Unless India was to be severed from all connexion
with England, the administration must contain a
nucleus of European officers. That nucleus was
Ifemall enough. Europeans in the Indian Civil
Service actually engaged in the administration of
the country at any given moment numbered only
955 — that was to say, there was one to about every
230,000 of the population.

Turning to the moral welfare of India, Mr.
Montagu said he might repeat what he had said
elsewhere, that, though some times our methods
might have been shortsighted and our means
crude — these were inevitable features of great
experiments, however lofty and disinterested the
Aims of those who made them might be — the
situation was full of hope. We had sown Western
ideas in Eastern fields ; our harvest was ripening.
We were too much inclined to regard the whole
problem of Indian administration as wrapped up in
the problem of meeting the spirit of unrest that had
been kindled in a small fraction of the people of
India. Perhaps hardly one in a hundred of the
population of India was aware that a spirit of unrest
was abroad. Still less must we permit our views
to be vitiated by the occasional occurrence of
political crime. Outrages and crime were, numeri-

274

THE CONDITION OF INDIA.

^eally, very rare, and had nothing to do with the real
spirit of unrest.

The Articles in the " Times,"

I am the more unwilHng to enter at length into
the question of " unrest," in that, since I made my
Budget speech, a series of articles has been published
in the " Times " on this subject. The writer, it is
an open secret, is Mr. Valentine Chirol, the well-
known writer on Eastern questions and foreign editor
of the " Times." They deal with the question from
every conceivable point of view, and run, I think,
to about 75 columns. I am glad to hear that they
are to be re-published in book form, when they will
be more accessible. It would be idle to pretend that I
am in agreement with all that they contain ; in fact,
the writer more than once attacks statements made
by me. But this does not prevent me from recognis-
ing the intiaitely careful research of which they are
the fruit, the moderate tone that they adopt, their
pregnant arguments and illuminating exposition,
the thoroughness with which every branch of the
-question has been examined and set forth. It would
perhaps be ungracious and presumptuous for me to
say anything in criticism of these articles — ungraci-
ous because everyone who takes an interest in Indian
problems must recognise the debt of gratitude that he
owes to Mr. Chirol for his masterly illumination of

(275

SPEECHES OF THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. 'MONTAGTT. p

the causes, progress, and ramifications of the com--
plex movement that we call Indian unrest ; presump-
tuous because he has made a minute and laborious-
examination of conditions on the spot, and I have
not. But this much I may perhaps be permitted
to say. 1 venture with the greatest respect to-
suggest that he does not give sufficient prominence
to the paramount necessity of drawing a line between,
the healthy and natural growth of aspiration that we
ourselves have awakened and the small malignant
growth that manifests itself in political crime.

" Repression and Concession. "

It is often very difficult to draw the line : some-
times it seems almost impossible. But it must be
drawn if we are to do our duty by India, even if it
sometimes involves giving the benefit of the doubt.
The malignant growth must be cut out by the
relentless application of the knife, but we must not
let the knife slip in doing so. Still less must, we
for security's sake, deliberately cut away the sound
with the rotten. The policy of '' blended repressiori
and concession" — I seem to detect a note of hostility
in that compendious jingle — is the only possible
policy for dealing with the " unrest " problem. I do
not like either word. I do not like repression because
unless it is made clear that it is applied only to crime
it suggests unsympathetic and un-English methods,

276

THE CONDITION OF INDIA.

;Still less do I like the word " concession," which is
"wholly inept, because it suggests going beyond the
requirements of strict justice for the purpose of
■conciliation. It should be made clear that repres-
sion and concession, accepting the words for the
moment, are not alternative politics applied
in turn to the same section of t^e community,
but concurrent policies applied to different sec-
tions of the community, it is often suggested
^by journalists less dignified and less fair than Mr.
Chirol that our policy is to give so-called "conces-
sions " for tHe purpose of ingratiation, in order that
we may be in a better position to defend ourselves
when we want to take so-called " repressive " mea-
sures ; that we grease the wheels of Indian opinion
with the former, in order that the latter may ran
more easily. They adopt a different and metaphor
■call it, with more brevity than grace, the ** powder
and jam policy." By whatever name it is called
it is, of course, a groundless calumny. (Cheers.)
Thk India Office and the Civil Service.
There is one point in which I venture with all
respect to suggest that Mr. ('hirol is definitely
unfair towards the Government of which I am a
member, and that is in his allegations regarding the
attitude of the India office towards the Indian Civil
Service. " An unfortunate impression," ho says,
*' has undoubtedly been created during the last few

277

SPEECHES OP THE RT, HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

years in the Indian Civil Service that there is no-
longer the same assurance of such support and en-
couragement either from Whitehall or from Simla "'
and he goes on to speak of " the frigid tone of
official utterances in Parliament, which have
seemed more often inspired by a desire to avoid
party embarrassments at Westminster than tO'
protect public servants, who have no means of
defending themselves, againt even the grossest forms-
of misrepresentation and calumny, leading straight
to the revolver and the bomb of the political
assassin." An accusation that Government attaches
more importance to the avoidance of party embarass-
ments than to the protection of their servants from
assassination is not one that should have been lightly
made. Mr. Chirol adduces no specific instance in
support of his statement. I hope he will forgive me
if I suggest that he would find it impossible to do so.
I am sure that Mr. Chirol is not in sympathy
with the contention that the Indian official should,,
as a matter of high policy, be exempt from outside
criticism. Place a man outside the pale of criticism
and he will deteriorate ; that is a universal law to
which there is nothing in the conditions of India to-
make that country an exception. On the contrary,
the very irresponsibility of the Indian official to the
people whom hfe governs makes proper criticism the
more salutary. The Home Government and the

278

THE CONDITION OF INDIA.

British Parliament, together with the Press and the-
cable, replace at present an electorate to which he
is directly responsible. He has to answer and wel-
come honest criticism and to establish his prestige
on the only certain foundation — justification of his
action. This plea for freedom from criticism has
been put forward on the ground of prestige, not so
much by the Service itself as by ill-advised persons
outside it, and the Service has had to suffer.
Very largely owing to this, the Anglo-Indian has
become the constant quarry of a small section of
the British public. Their criticism in its more
moderate form assumes that he is unsympathetic,
aloof, arrogant, narrow, a cog in a relentless
machine. From this it soon follows that in their
eyes nothing he does can do good, no motive is
pure; in every question the presumption of guilt is
always against him. He is subjected to constant,
unreasoning, ill-informed^ cruel and cowardly dis-
paragement. This sort of thing can do nothing
but harm, just as honest and well-informed criticism
can do nothing but good. It irritates and takes
the heart out of him and drives his apologists to
claim on his behalf immunity from criticism to an
unreasonable extent.

Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's Book.
As I have had occasion to denounce in public
more than once, this habit on the part of certain;

279

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

people in England of imputing to the Englishman
in India a sudden and complete loss of all the
English virtues on the possession of which is detrac-
tors so pride themselves, I should like to call public
a,ttention to an example of the sort of criticism to
which no one can object, which does real service to
Indian Government, not sparing the faults, but
moderate and good-tempered, well-informed and
brilliantly vivid. I have in my mind Mr. Ramsay
MacDonald's recent book " The Awakening of
India." I think he was in the country for about
two months. If all itinerant politicians in India
spent their time as well as he, that now classical
poem, " Padgett, M.P., " would never have been
written ! I do not, of course, mean by this to put
ah official endorsement on all Mr. MacDonald's
arguments, still less on all his conclusions, with
some of which I profoundly disagree, and I think
he has once or twice dropped momentarily from
the very high standard of criticism he set himself.
But Mr. MacDonald went out with an open mind
to see for himself. He comes back out of sympathy
with some of the stock shibboleths of the party
towards which he naturally inclined, and he has
honestly and squarely said so. Similarly, he found
much to criticise in our administration, and he has
spoken his opinion with no less good humour than
vigour and conviction. Criticism of this kind never

280

THE CONDITION OF INDIA.

<iid anything but good, fts effect on the person
criticised, if he is an honest man with a well
balanced mind and sense of humour, will be like that
of a cold bath, it may convey a startling shock for
the moment, but its after effect will be invigorating.
Mr. MacDonald's book should be a model for those
who write on political holidays.

Indeed, this has been the wonderful year in
the history of literature dealing with India. First
comes M. Chailley's disinterested, dispassionate view
of an interesting question in which he has no
■concern save that of an-onlooker. He describes with
great knowledge and hesitates to prescribe. He
shows a remarkable appreciation of the British love
of order and of government, the British genius for
altruistic rule. Then comes Mr. Chirol, the
anotomist, with great knowledge, indefatigable
research, large view, great control making a work
of reference on one respect of Indian conditions as
they are, and lastly Mr. MacDonald, a portrait
painter, an impressionist, with his peculiar gift of

gaining glimpses and conveying them to its readers.

These three gentlemen have helped the problem of
the Empire which we are engro-ssed on your
behalf. I say advisedly 'on your behalf' and
that is why I commend their efforts to your atten-
tion. (Cheers.)

281

INDIAN HIGH COURTS BILL.

SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS ON JULY 21, 1911.

In moving " that the Bill be now read a
second time," Mr. Montagu said : —

In asking the House to agree to the second
reading of this measure. I do not think it will be
necessary to occupy much time, because so far as
the House is concerned it is a very unimportant
measure indeed. But I want to explain it as fully
as I can, because, as at present advised, I propose, if
the House gives it a Second Eeading, to move that
it be retained on the floor of the House, and I will
ask the House to be so good as to pass the subse-
quent stages of the Bill without discussion, which is
not in any way necessary. The reason for
introducing the measure at all is the great conges-
tion of legal affairs in India at present. The House
will agree with me that if you have great arrears in
the Law Courts the delay of justice very frequently
amounts to a denial of justice. I have only to read
to the House some figures concerning the Calcutta
High Court to show what I mean. In 1908 the-

282

INDIAN HIGH COURTS BILL.

cases in arrears on the appellate side of this Court
were 5,245. At the end of June, 1911, the number
of civil appeal cases pending was no less than 8,889.
The Courts work as hard as any Courts could possib-
ly work. Every kind of re-arrangement has been
attempted, but it has now become obvious, not only
to every Judge of the High Court, but to the Govern-
ment of Bengal and the Government of India, that
the time has come to ask for the raising of the
maximum number of Judges in the Courts. At the
same time, because I think it is desirable in these
matters to be prescient, a similar increase of the
maximum possible Judges in India is asked for.
where is no fear that the Government of India will
abuse the power for which it asks. The Courts of
Madras and Bombay, which have a maximum of
fifteen now, have got eight Judges, so that it is for
future and not for immediate application that the
first clause of this Bill includes them. I should
hke, before I dismiss this clause, to remind the
House that there is no excess of Judges in India
at the present moment. The maximum number of
Judges of the High Court in Bengal and Eastern
Bengal is now fifteen.

There are 80,000,000 people there. In Eng-
land and Wales the population is 33,000,000, and
there are thirty-three Judges of the High Court.

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SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

Now I come to the second clause, which is
■highly technical, and only, I think, of technical
importance. There is no immediate desire to esta-
blish a new High Court anywhere in India, but the
Government of England desire to be able to cope
with circumstances which may arise by a less
■clumsy method than having to wait for an opportu-
nity to pass an Act of Parliament while justice is
being delayed. It is possible for the Government
of India at present to immediately establish a
new Chief Court anywhere. Anyone familiar
with the Indian Courts will appreciate the difference
between Chief Court and a High Court, and I
venture to suggest that it will not be wise to
drive the Government of India for the sake of expedi-
. ency and the saving of time to the establishment of a
Chief Court, having regard to the circumstance that
in prestige, dignity and confidence the High Court
is the better alternative. In the Act of 1861 it was
enacted that a High Court might be established by
letters patent in any area where no existing High
■Court has jurisdiction. At that time the well-known
appreciation of the advantages of litigation, which
is a characteristic of the Indian people, had not yet
developed so far as it has at the present moment.
It was not contemplated that it would be necessary
at any time, I think, to establish new Chief Courts
or new High Courts in areas in which existing

284

INDIAM HIGH COURTS BILL.

High Courts affected by that Act already had
jurisdiction, and I submit that if it should become
necessary in the future to establish a High Court or
a Chief Court, Parliament should adopt the same
procedure with regard to this as was adopted by our
predecessors under the Act of 1861.

There is only one other clause in the Bill of
any importance which is clause 3. It deals with the
appointment of temporary Judges. There is no-
intention at any time that the number of Judges,
temporary or permanent, in any Court in India,,
should exceed the maximum number prescribed by
this Act. If a Judge is away on leave or if a Judge
is ill, at present it is possible for the Lieutenant-
Governor of a Province to appoint a temporary Judge
on his behalf, but even if there is not the maximum
number of Judges at the time occupying seats on the
Bench, if there is a lesser number than the maximum
number of possible Judges, which is fifteen, and
there are only fourteen, and there are great arrears
which the Government of India is anxious to wipe
off, they have no power to appoint a temporary
Judge. The only possible way in which it can be
done is to appoint a new permanent Judge, raising
the number to the maximum of fifteen and leaving
no vacancy. That is a very cumbrous method, and
it may lead to overstocking the Bench and these-
powers allowing the Government generally to-

285

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

appoint temporary Judges up to the maximum
number with a view to clearing off arrears are, I
think, necessitated in the interests of economy and
of speed in dealing with legal matters. We are
only asking for power to appoint temporary Judges.
The House will agree with me, I think, that this
measure does not require any elaborate Debate, and 1
think that all classes in India will welcome its speedy
passage for the improvement of the legal machinery
:Jn the Provinces of India.

2S6

THE INDIAN POLICE.

Policy op the Government.

Mr. Montagu, M, P., Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State
for India, has addressed the following letter to a correspondent : —

India Office, 23rd September, 1911.

Dear Sir, — You inquire whether I can give you
any information regarding the nature of the state-
ment that 1 intended to make on the debate on the
Indian police, which was to have taken place on the
motion for adjournment of the House of Commons
last month. As you are aware, the attention of the
House of Commons was exclusively occupied on that
occasion with the serious labour troubles in England,
and I am glad to have this opportunity of communi-
cating to you what I was thus prevented from
saying to the House.

First as to the Midnapore case. On this there
could have been no discussion ; fairness to those
involved demands suspension of judgment until the
appeal has been heard. But I may remind you that
Mr. Justice Fletcher's judgment did not endorse all
the suggestions of the learned Chief Justice in the
criminal trial, notably the suggestion about the
b»mb. The decision was, however, gent!raUy,.adxerse
■to the police officers and they have filed an appeal.
Every one must hope that these officers, whose

287

LETTER OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

record of service is of the very highest, will be able
to clear themselves from charges which, if substan-
tiated, must entail the very gravest results to their
careers. No one will wish to prejudice the last*
stages of the trial, nor, I think, would any one desire
that the Government, for whom these men have
laboured all their lives, and in whose service they
have erred, if erred they have, should fail to provide
the funds for giving them every chance of clearing.-
themselves. (This course is strictly in accordance
with precedent.)

Meanwhile the men will not be employed ia
administrative office, and the promotions gazetted
immediately after the hearing of the civil case —
promotions which would, m ordinary circumstances,
have been matters of normal routine — have been
cancelled. These are suspensory steps, in no way
final or condemnatory, but wise, as I think you will
agree, pending the hearing m the Court of Appeal.
I may add that in future all proposals for promotion
or bestowal of honorary titles are to be held in
abeyance in cases where inquiry or legal proceedings
are pending.

This is all that can be said about the Midnapore
case. But I intend also to take the opportunity
of announcing to the House certain new rules and
regulations for the better control of the Indian
police.

288

THE INDIAN POLICE. ^

A Tribute to the Force.

In the first place may I remind you of a few
facts and figures ? The police in India are an
indigenous agency numbering 177,000 men with only
500 European Superintendents. They deal with a
population of 244 millions spread over an area of
eleven million square miles. This force has ta
preserve the public peace and to maintain order in
a country where there is little public opinion or
civic sense as we know it in England to assist them.
It performs its duties with great bravery and
energy. Its superior officers have often to supervise
areas of over 5,000 square miles, and under their
scanty supervision the indigenous police loyally
fight dacoity, murder, robbery, and all the violent
crimes to which the general population, now
assured of security by their aid, would otherwise
be exposed. No praise could possibly be too high
for the conduct of members of the force in recent
years in quarters where it has been necessary to
deal with anarchical conspiracy ; of men who have
steadily pursued the path of duty, knowing well
that they risked their lives, until perhaps a bullet
in the back in a dark by-street has ended a career
of humble but heroic service to the State.

No greater mistake could be made than ta
imagine that the distressing cases of torture about

289
19

LETTER OP THE RT. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

which questions are asked in Parliament are the
rule. They are, indeed, the very rare exceptions.
When they occur, attention is immediately directed
to them, and every effort is made to prevent recur-
rence. The annual average number of convictions
for torture during the last six years is nine. This,
out of a force of 177,000, is a record of which many
European forces might be proud. You, I am sure,
<3o not associate yourself with the cruel and unfound-
•ed suggestion that British officials try to hush those
cases up. I may remind you that the superior
officers are, if anything, disposed to err on the other
«ide, and many prosecutions are brought for charges
which cannot be substantiated.

Of course, I have never denied that scandals
occur occasionally. As long as these scandals
■continue to occur so long will the Government of
India continue to devote themselves unceasingly to
stamping out the evil that remains.

It was my intention to inform the House of
Oommons of certain measures that have recently
been taken with this object. These measures must
not be regarded as the sudden move of an Adminis-
tration hitherto mactive. On the contrary, they
are the latest instalment of a history of continuous
improvement. For fifty years there has been steady,
unremitting effort to improve the police by means
•of Commissions, legislative inquiries, executive

290

THE INDIAN POLICE.

■orders, training schools, and so forth, but most of all
by quiet Departmental methods of exhortation,
example and punishment. In this way natural
merits have been developed and natural imperfec-
tions eliminated.

M.kGISTRATES AND CONFESSIONS.

The most dangerous natural imperfection is
■the tendency to rely on confession, which inevitably
involves the temptation to apply pressure. The
maxim, " optimum habemus testem confitentem
treum," formerly recognised in Europe, still appeals
•to the Indian mind. It was laid down many years
a20 that no inducement was to be offered for a confes-
sion, that no confession was to be recorded by
police, that no confession made by any one in police
custody was to be admissible in evidence, and that
no prisoner was to be detained in police custody for
more than twenty-four hours. It has been further
laid down that only magistrates can record confes-
sions, and that a magistrate must be satisfied that
the confession is being made voluntarily.

The magistrate's part is important, and with a
view to seeing that it shall be performed adequately,
the Government of India have recently collected the
■various orders dealing with the matter in the
■different provinces in order to prescribe uniform and
'efficient procedure and to eliminate opportunity foe

291

LETTER OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

abuse by interested officers. In future the power
to record confessions will be confined to (a) magis-
trates having jurisdiction in the case, (6) first-class
magistrates (magistrates of high standing and large
powers), or (c) specially selected second-class magis-
trates. Owing to considerations of time and distance a
certain elasticity is necessary, but third-class magis-
trates will no longer record confessions. The
Government of India have further prescribed that
the Bombay rule which enjoins the examination of
a confessing prisoner should be invariably adopted.
The police interested must be ordered out of Court,
the accused must be asked whether he has been ill-
treated, and if there is reason to suspect ill-treat-
ment there must be a medical examination.

Certain further measures are under considera-
tion. Local Governments have been asked to consider
whether it is advantageous to have confessions
recorded at all before the trial begins except in very
special circumstances or by order of the District
Magistrate. There is, moreover, to be an exhaus-
tive inquiry into the conduct of lock-ups with a view
to obtaining proper supervision. The police are
already forbidden access to the gaols, and the
Government of India are considering the possibility
of a rule that no prisoner who has confessed should
be given back to police custody, and also that no-

292

THE INDIAN POLICE.

"Confession should be recorded until the person
confessing has spent one night out of police custody.
So much for preventive measures. It must be
remembered that the restrictions on the police
are, especially as regards remands and confessions,
already far greater than in England. There is a
maximum of precaution beyond which it is impos-
sible to go without crippling the force. We must
not, in our anxiety to prevent opportvinity for occa-
sional and isolated abuse, render the police and
detection difficult or impossible. Nor must we
refuse a confidence which the vast majority of the
Indian police thoroughly merits. If we refuse
confidence we kill all sense of responsibility, all zeal
for improvement, and sap the loyal energy and
esprit de corps upon which we must rely for the
preservation of peace.

Abuse op Power,

I pass on to describe one or two new measures
of importance of a deterrent nature which have been
taken in order to increase the efficiency of the
police and the confidence of the public by advertis-
ing widely the grave view that Government takes
of abuse of power.

Orders have been given that punishment of
police officers, judicial or departmental, shall be
widely published. They will be inserted regularly in
the " Police Gazette." Steps will also be taken to

293

LETTER OF THE RT. HON. MB. E. S. MONTAGU.

bring home both to the public and the police that
the merits or fitness for promotion of police officers
are not judged by statistical results or the number
of convictions obtained.

Further than this, the Government of India,
recognising that the importance of securing public-
confidence in the genuineness of inquiries must
prevail over departmental considerations, have urged
Local Governments that, in inquiring into allegations
of police misconduct, there should be freer recourse
to magisterial inquiry. When inquiries are conse-
quent on strictures passed by magistrates in the
course of a judgment there is to be inquiry by a supe-
rior officer of police when the charge is unimportant
or a magisterial inquiry when the charge is serious.
When a serious charge is made by a superior Court,
and the Court indicates the necessity for inquiry,
there is to be automatically a public inquiry by two
officers, and one of these is to be an officer of
judicial experience. Of course, where a prosecution
is possible, it takes place, and no inquiry is needed ;
but as regards other cases, I am sure you will
regard these new rules for adequate inquiry as-
satisfactory.

This is, I think, the substance of what I should
have said in other circumstances in the House. —

. Yours, etc.,
Edwin S. MoN^tAOir.
294

LIBERALISM AND INDIA.

speech at cambridge.

Guildhall, February 28, 1912.

The Hon. E. S. Montagu, M.P., Under-Secre-
tary of State for India, visited Cambridge on
February 28, and in his capacity as President of
the Cambridge and County Liberal Club, addressed
a large meeting at the Guildhall. The chair was
taken by Dr. Apthorpe Webb, and among those
upon the platform were Mr. A. C. Beck, M.P.,
Sir J. J. Briscoe. Bart., Dr. Sims Woodhead
(Professor of Pathology), Dr. J. S. Reid (Professor
of Ancient History) and Dr. Scarle, F.R.S.

Mr. Montagu, fiftcr devoting the opening portion of bis
speech to domestic questions, continued : —

True Empire-Building.

I want, also, to invite your attention to the
other branch of the justification of our Imperial
organisation — our oversea activities — and I am going
to contend, and, I think, prove, that the Empire, as
we know it, and the ideal which it fulfils, is the
production of the Liberal Party. Englishmen

295

SPEECHES OF THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

liave a conception of Empire different from that of
-their predecessors or forefathers and different from
that of other countries, an ideal which alone justifies
the existence of an Empire. It is not enough for this
thinking generation to wave a flag or shout a song
or do a turkey strut in pompOus celebration of the
number of square miles over which the British flag
flies, or the population which owes its allegiance to
his Majesty the King. Land has been won by con-
quest often under (Conservative rule, not by
•Conservative statesmen, but by British Scotch —
and I would remind you in this important juncture
— by Irish soldiers on behalf of an Imperial ideal
which should know no party. (Applause). But it
is not a question of land, but of hearts. It is not a
question of domination and of subjugation, but of
alliance, co-operation and perfect freedom between
the component parts. Empires have died or been
destroyed either from deterioration at home, which
the legislation of the last six years is designed to
combat, or through the denial of justice or arrogant
misrule which makes the yoke gilling to the younger
parts. We should use our administration and our
legislation at home as an example to those sister
nations who are linked with us, and we should make
our Imperial ideal one of spreading throughout the
Empire free institutions, and all that is meant by the
wonderful word " justice." If this be true, then, if

296

LIBERALISM AND INDIA.

you will bear with me while I go into history, I
think I can show that the freedom of the Empire
has been the gift of Liberalism, which has ensured
its permanency in the teeth of a short-sighted,
stubborn Conservatism.

Canada and South Africa.

The keystone of Canadian loyalty is the free-
dom of the Canadian people. Yet Lord Stanley,
speaking in the House of Commons in 1839, voiced
the opinions of the Conservative Party, when he said :
" What would be the consequence of granting the
Canadian demand ? The establishment of a Republic.
The concession would remove the only check to
the tyrannical power of the dominant majority, a
majority in numbers only, while in wealth, education
and enterprise they are greatly inferior to the
minority." Translated into Carsonian English they
could imagine how it would sound : " Ontario will
fight, and Ontario will be right." (Laughter and
applause.) And then you had the Duke of Welling-
ton in the House of Lords: "Local responsible
Government and the sovereignty of Great Britain
are completely incompatible." Well, Canada has
not moved a step towards separation nor Republi-
can institutions, yet Canada is divided only by an
imaginery line from the greatest and most pro-
gressive Republic in the world, and the tie of free

297

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

association within the Empire has held in face of
the strongest natural and political attractions.
From that the Conservatives ought to have learnt
a lesson in Empire-building, but they learnt nothing.
When more than fifty years had passed, when
Canada was becoming increasingly loyal and pros-
perous, we came to South Africa. Had the Conser-
vatives learnt anything in Empire-building ? The
Lyttelton Constitution, rejected by the Dutch^
fraught with friction an^ irritation at every step,,
was their best performance ! Wh«n, fortunately ^
and by the mercy of heaven, the end of their reign
came, and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman by hi&
application to South Africa of the liberal principles-,
of freedom, laid the foundations of the South
African Union, of another Canada in Africa, which
in my opinion justified the policy of the British
Empire in the eyes of the world, yet the then leader
of the Conservative Party, Mr. Balfour, called our
policy " the most reckless experiment of modern
times," and declined to take any responsibility for
this experiment in principle and civilisation, and'
there once again we have the Conservatives object-
ing to a Liberal institution, which I think is the
only principle of modern Empire-building.

The Turn op India.
M^ell, then, when these principles of Self-
Government had been applied in their most extreme

298

LIBERALISM AND INDIA.

form, came the turn of India, when Lord Morley
introduced his Indian Councils Act in 1909. Here
was no far-reaching scheme, here was no reckless
experiment, merely a cautious attempt to associate
the governed with the governor and to give expres-
sion to popular opinion in India. And we had the
late Lord Percy in the House of Commons saying, .
" Therefore, although it is our duty to warn the
Government of the dangers which in our opinion
attend many of the steps which we are recommend-
ing, the responsibility of acting upon or neglecting
the warning must rest with the Government them-
selves." And we had the usual carping criticism of
Lord Curzon. Well, nobody can doubt the success
of the Indian Councils Act, but still the Conserva-
tives have learnt no better. The latest efforts in
Imperial workmanship were the far-reaching reforms-
announced the other day at Delhi as the ceiltral
feature of his Majesty's successfud visit to his Indian
dominions. It would be improper for me to discuss
these reforms without prefacing my remarks with
a word of my own personal belief that the great
outstanding triumph of that Indian tour was the
personality of King George himself. The good
results of his gracious voyage to India will long
outlive the pleasure afforded to the Indian people by
the opportunity of demonstrating tJheir overwhelm-
ing loyalty to the British Throne. But what of

299

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

our policy, what of the new provinces and Delhi?
You have invited a Departmental Minister to
occupy the office of President, and you have so
brought it upon your heads that I should take, as I
am bound to take this, an opportunity which does
not assort ill with the theme of our discussion, of
answering the critics of that scheme.

The Durbar Announcements.

In the House of Commons Mr. Bonar Law
dismissed it with two criticisms ; firstly, that it
would cost money ; and, secondly, that the reversal
of the partition of Bengal, as he called it, was a
damaging blow to our prestige. I would say in
passing that the complaint about expense as the first
objection to a great Imperial measure is typical of
modern Conservatism. To them, ideals, poetry,
liberty, imagination are unknown ; they reduce
Empire to a profit and loss account ; their ideal is
■ one of a cash nexus, and a million or two is to them
far more important than the fact that the transfer of
capital provides India with a new city, in a historic
place, amid the enthusiastic welcome of the whole of
a tradition-loving people. And as for prestige — 0
India, how much happier would have been your
i history if that word had been left out of the English
vocabulary! But there you have Conservative
Imperialism at its worst : we are not there, mark

300

LIBERALISM AND INDIA.

you, to repair evil, to amend injustice, to profit by
experience — we must abide by our mistakes, con-
tinue to outrage popular opinion simply for the sake
of being able to say " I have said what I have
said." I have in other places and at other times
expressed my opinion freely on prestige. We do
not hold India by invoking this well mouthed word
we must hold it by just institutions, and more and
more as time goes on by the consent of the governed.
That consent must be based on the respect which
we shall teach them for the progressive justice of
the Government in responding to their legitimate
demands. But Mr. Bonar Law knows nothing of
India, as he will be the first to admit, and it is to the
House of Lords that we must turn for a more ex-
haustive criticism of our proposals.

Lord Curzon's Attitude.

And here we come face to face with the great
Lord Curzon himself. Now, Sir, no one who has
held my office for two years would be absurd enough
to speak on a public platform upon this topic without
paying a tribute to the great work Lord Curzon has
done for India. His indomitable energy, his
conspicuous courage, his almost unrivalled self-con-
fidence have placed India under a lasting debt to
him. But I would venture, with all respect, to ask
how has he spent his time since ? Admiring what

301

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

he has done, not looking and saying, " We have
done this," but saying, "This ie my work." In the
lengthy speech which he delivered last week in the
House of Lords he did lip-service of Parliamentary
control, but notwithstanding the fact that Lord
Midleton was sitting next to him, notwith-
standing the fact that it was Mr. Brodrick,
as he then was, not Lord Curzon, who was
technically responsible for a large part of the
Cnrzonian administration, he never mentioned the
Secretary of State in the whole course of his speech,
nor did Lord Midleton speak himself. Lord Curzon
has chosen as a point of survey for the work of
which he is so proud a point in which he is in
his own light, and his shadow is over everything
that he has done. It is not " Hands off India"
that he preaches : it is " Leave Curzonian India
as Lord Curzon left it." To alter anything that
Lord Curzon did would be damaging to our
prestige. I want to ask you in all seriousness
what would be the first criticism which a man
wholly ignorant of India — the man-in-the-street
— would make to Lord Curzon's speech ? I
think he would say : " We read of the welcome
given in India and in England to this scheme
by statesmen, soldiers, civil servants, by speech
and by Press of all parties, and we know, there-
fore, that it is not wholly bad." Therefore, am

302

LIBERALISM AND INDIA.

I not justified in discounting the whole of Lord
■Curzon's speech by the fact that, although he went
into exhaustive details, although he knew the
■sensitive nature of Indian opinion, the way in
which his words would be telegraphed throughout
India, although he did not hesitate to bolster up his
•case with a gossiping story which, as he told it, was
obviously untrue and for which he could not state
his authority in public, he had no word of praise of
any sort or kind either for the conception of our
policy or for any detail by which it was carried out
— (applause) — although he spoke even longer than I
am speaking to-night ; he curses it from beginning
to end ; he curses it for what it did and for how it
was done ; he curses it because we did it without
•consulting him — oh, horror of horrors ! — and be-
cause it ended something which he had done ; he
cursed it because his Majesty the King was gra-
ciously pleased himself to announce it to his people
assembled at the Durbar at Delhi. I say again that
these are not the grave and weighty criticisms of a
statesman : they are the impetuous, angry fault-
findings of a man thinking primarily of himself.

• The Story op 1905.
May I take his criticisms in a little more
detail'? He objected to his Majesty making the
:announcement because, he said, that made it irre-

303

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. K. S. MONTAGU.

vocable. Well, educated India reads with full
knowledge the words of his Majesty's proclama-
tion : " I make this change on the advice of
my Ministers," and knows what is meant by a
constitutional monarch, and that blame, if there be
blame, and credit, if there be credit, must be laid
at the door of his Majesty's advisers. Lord Curzon
complains that what the King has said is irrevo-
cable ; so I hope it may be, but if it had been made
by the Viceroy, Lord Curzon would have said it is
irrevocable, and surely what is said by the Viceroy
on the King's behalf is as irrevocable as what the
King said. In fact, as the Prime Minister said,
" What Lord Curzon might do in Lord Curzon's
opinion his Majesty the King ought not to do."
(Laughter and applause.) Then he asks why Parlia-
ment was not consulted. It is a little curious that
he should blame us in this regard, for he objects
to our having reversed, as he says, a policy of his.
Lord Curzon's partition of Bengal was an accom-
plished fact before any discussion in the House of
Commons had taken place. Mr. Herbert Koberts
asked Mr. Brodrick on July 5, 1905, a question, and
was told " The proposals of the Government of
India on this subject reached me on February 18,
and I have already communicated to them the
decision of the Secretary of State in Council
accepting the proposals." But the proposals them-

304

LIBERALISM AND INDIA.

selves were not divulged. Mr. Eoberts, having-
moved the adjournment of the House on the question
of the partition, withdrew his motion on Mr.
Brodrick's promising to lay further papers. The
recess intervened, during which the proclamation,
which finally constituted the new provinces, was
issued, and when Mr. Roberts protested against
this treatment he received from Mr. Brodrick,.
a letter from which I quote the following
passage : " You will remember that when the
discussion took place in the House of Commons
the scheme put forward by the Viceroy had
already received the assent of the Home Govern-
ment, and the resolution of the Government of
India embodying the scheme has been published
and presented to Parliament." Again, Lord Curzon
says that the decision in the case of his partition
was announced after a Blue-boob full of information
had been for months in the possession of Parliament.
What are the facts ? After despatches had been
passed between the Government of India and the
Secretary of State, the decision was announced in
a resolution of the Government of India, dated
July 19, 1905. The resolution was presented to
Parliament in the form of a White-paper on
August 7, and a Blue-book, containing further
papers, was presented on October 12 — i.e., almost

305
20

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON. M"R. E. S. MONTAGU.

three months after, not months before, the announce-
ment of the decision.

The Real Responsibility.

The fact of the matter is, the Secretary of
State is responsible to the House of Commons, and
the House of Commons can censure him or the
Cabinet just as much as it could have done if the
Viceroy had made the announcement. The House
of Commons has never claimed more than a general
control over the Government of India therefore
anaouncements such as the partition of Bengal, and
new administrative changes which must be made
suddenly and by proclamation, conflicting interests,
conflicting claims having to be balanced and adjusted,
public discussions would make them diflicult, if not
impossible, of accomplishment ; and that is why the
British and the Indian Constitution retain the
Royal proclamation as a method of bringing about
such changes as this in India or the Self-Govern-
ment of the Transvaal.

Why the Partition was Reversed?
Next, Lord Curzon stated that our policy in-
volved a reversal of his policy. I trust Lord Curzon
will forgive me for saying that he never had a
policy at all. (Laughter and applause.) He was
a mere administrator, an industrious, fervid and.

306

/ '

LIBEBALISM AND INDIA. |

'efficient administrator. He was, in a word, a
-chauffeur who spent his time poh'sbing up the
machinery, screwing every nut and bolt of his car
ready to make it go, but he never drove it ; he did not
know where to drive it to. (Applause.) He merely
marked time and waited until a reforming Govern-
ment gave marching orders. If he were to claim
that the partition of Bengal was more than an ad-
ministrative measure, designed as a part of a policy,
4hen I say that it was even a worse mistake than I
thought it, for the making of a Mahomedan State was
a departure from accepted British policy which was
bound to result in the antithesising and antagonising
• of Hindu and Mahomedan opinion. I 4iad always
hoped that this was the unforeseen result, and not a
' deliberate achievement, of Lord Curzon's blunder.
It has always been the proud boast of English rule
in India that we have not interfered between the
different races, religions and creeds which we
found in the country. That he himself regarded
the partition as not more than a mere matter of
local administrative convenience may be gathered
from the passage in his speech in which he says
that, owing to the size of the old Province of Bengal,
it had become necessary to draw a line dividing it
into two ; and he goes on to say " What was the
particular line to be drawn was a matter not for the
'Viceroy." The creation of a vast new province, the

307

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

meddling with the lives of millions of people, with
all the possibility of offending religious and racial
susceptibilities, not a matter for the Viceroy ! He
looked no further than the necessity for instituting
two small provinces where previously there had been
one, and thought it not a matter for his concern
what line the division should take. So far from-
being a reversal of Lord Curzon's policy, if policy it
can be called, are the changes announced on
December 12 last, that we maintained the necessity
for the division of the province, but have made
three where he made two divisions.

^ The New Policy.
Where the difference lies is in this : that we
have endeavoured to look ahead, to co-ordinate our
changes in Bengal with" the general lines of our
future policy in India, which is stated now for the
first time in the Government of India's despatch
that has been published as a Parliamentary Paper.
That statement shows the goal, the aim towards
which we propose to work — not immediately, not in
a hurry, but gradually. Perhaps you will allow me
to quote the sentence in the despatch which contains
the pith of the statement : " The only possible
solution would appear to be gradually to give
the provinces a larger measure of Self-Govern-
ment until at last India would consist of a number

308

'J-

LIBERALISM AND INDIA.

of administrative autonomies in all provincial
affairs with the Government of India above them
all, and possessing power to interfere in cases
■ of misgovernment, but ordinarily restricting their
functions to matters of Imperial concern." We

• cannot drift on for ever without stating a policy.
' .A new generation, a new school of thought, fostered

by our education and new European learning, has
grown up, and it asks : " Wh.it are you going to do
with us?" The extremist politicians, who form the

• outside fringe of this school, have made up their
minds what they want. One of their leaders,
Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal, has drawn up and publish-
ed a full, frank, detailed, logical exposition of the

• exact form of " swaraj," or, as may be roughly
translated, " Colonial 8elf-Government," that they
want. The moderates look to us to say what lines

• our future policy is to take. We have never ans-
wered that, and we have put off answering them
■far too long. At last, and not too soon, a Viceroy
has had the courage to state the trend of British
:policy in India and the lines on which we propose
to advance.

The Transfer op the Capital.

As for the transfer of the capital from Calcutta
to Delhi, Lord Curzon objects, as far as I can
understand, because the Uuke of Wellington thoughfc

309

: SPEECHES OP THE RT, HON. MB. E. S. MONTAGU.

Delhi was a bad military centre. The Duke of
Wellington was not one of our greatest contempo-
rary soldiers. His interference in military matters
dates from a time when there were no railways in
India, and to mention even one detail, whea artil-
lery had not reached its present perfection. The
battle of Waterloo is a long way removed from
present problems ; we have taken our stann and
placed our king's Government in the historic capital
of India. He talks of Calcutta, the capital of India
of 150 years ; Delhi, the scene of a King's Durbar
— and, yes, of Lord Curzon's Durbar — has been
the capital of India for dynasty after dynasty,,
for family of rulers after family of rulers, right
back into the dim and distant epochs of Indian
history, and it is reverenced from one end of
India to the other. I venture to say that we
have chosen a spot not only the centre of India
from every point of view, not only the most
convenient for the carrying out of administration
effectively, but also one which would appeal to
Indian opinion of all classes and all kinds from one
end of India to the other. Lord Curzon goes on to
say that if you put the capital at Delhi you will
have a capital remote from public opinion, I say it
will be remote from Calcutta opinion, and that the
Government will survey India from the real centre
of India, from an eminence in the midst of India,.

aio

LIBERALISM AND INDIA.

and not from a depression in the corner. It will
no longer have its vision of the wood obscured by
the obstruction of one single and very large tree.

Ireland's Demand.
You have been very good to me and have
listened to the most dangerous of all kinds of men —
the man who has mounted his own hobby-horse
and rides it carelessly at the risk of boring those
who have got to listen ; but I should not be doing
my duty, I should not be earning the salary which
the Indian taxpayer gives me, if I did not on this^
as on all public occasions, defend the policy which I
believe is consistent with the highest traditions of
LiberalEmpire-building — (applause) — which, by the
speech of Lord Curzon and the utterances of Mr.
Bonar Law, the Conservatives have once more re-
fused to take part in. And now they are going to have,
.one more chance. We apply these same principles,,
with the consent of the nation to Ireland ; we are re-
versing the one no more than we have reversed the
other ; we are going to bring about a union between
the English and the Irish people. We are going to
improve the government of Ireland by giving her a
governing institution ; we are going to improve the
government of England by removing the burden
which clogs her legislative machinery. The land
purchase part of Mr. Gladstone's scheme is now an

311

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

accomplished fact — the adoption by the Conserva-
tives of the Liberal policy, or a part of it. Ireland
awaits the treatment which you have given to the
rest of the British Empire. Ireland is anxious to
have as good reason to be loyal to the British
Empire as the rest of the Britisn Empire. Ireland
hampers us at home, and its discontent is a blot upon
our escutcheon. Our Colonies, all of them sympa-
thise with the ambitioQ of Ireland to get what they
have got. Ireland stands at your door asking that
its demand, as the demand of Canada, as the
demand of South Africa, as the demand of Bengal,
shall be granted by the Imperial Government. We,
the Government I represent, are prepared to grant
it. The record of our Imperial achievements since
1839 is there for you to consider ; the record of
Conservative opposition, or refusal to move, is there
for you to consider. If Conservatism moves, as it
threatens to move, in opposition to Irish demands,
then it will have set a hall-mark upon its Imperial
incapacity, and we shall have once again the proud
position of being the only party capable or willing
to justify our British Imperial ideal. (Applause.)

3] 2

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OP C0MM0N3
ON APRIL 22, 1912.

» Mr. Montagu, in moving the second reading
• of this Bill, said : The Bill which 1 ask the House
of Commons to read for the second time to-day is
a machinery Bill necessary to carry out the policy
which was announced at the Imperial Durbar at
Delhi last December. The House of Commons is
proceeding to discuss it at a moment when it is safe
•to say that the policy has been acclaimed by the
vast majority of all classes and all races concerned
until its out-and-out opponents have come to occupy
a position of pathetic, if splendid, isolation. The Bill
begins with a preamble which recites acts which
have already been performed, and since every act
recited in the preamble is an act for which there is
ample Parliamentary authority, the method, pro-
posed for carrying out these changes is strictly con-
stitutional, and is, in facr,, the only method that the
Government could have adopted. It has been said
that we are relying upon antiquated or even obsolete
practice, but they are only obsolete in the sense that
they are unfamiliar to members. They are perfectly

313

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

well-known to those who have to administer India.
Acting under those powers, in a strictlj' constitu-
tional way, the Governor-General of India in Council
fixed by proclamation the limits of the Presidency
of Fort William in Bengal and constituted a new
Province of Behar and Orissa on March '22, 3912.
On March 21, 1912, his Majesty appointed by Royal
Warrant Lord Carmichael as Governor of Bengal,
under Section 29 of the Government of India Act,
1858. On the same date, under Section 58 of the
Government of India Act, 1869, His Majesty
appointed three Councillors to be Executive
Members of the Council of the Governor of
Bengal. I have quoted these sections as the
evidence on which I base the claim that we have
acted strictly in accordance with the powers given
by Parliament in past years and that we have
proceeded in the proper way to carry out the changes
as recited in the preamble of the Bill, which I ask
the House to read a second time.

The Provisions of the Bill.

The first clause of the Bill gives to the new Gover--
nor of Bengal exactly the same powers as are now
possessed by the Governors of Madras and Bombay.
The Act of 1853 extended to the Governor of the
new Presidency that might be formed all the powers
of the Governors of Madras and Bombay at that

314

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIi BILL.

date. It is now only necessary, by Section 1 of the
Bill, to extend to the Governor of this new Presi-
dency the powers given to the Grovernorsof Madras
and Bombay since the passing of the Act of 1853 —
such powers as were granted, for instance, under
the Councils Act of 1861, through the Governors of
Madras and Bombay, to make rules for the conduct
of business in the Legislative Council, and so on.
The House will see, in Clause i, that there are two
provisoes added. Tne first reserves to the Governor-
General who now ceases to be Governor of Bengal
certain powers that have been exercised by the
Governor-General in the past. The powers specially
referred to are powers granted to the Governor-
General under the High Courts Act of 18(50 and
1911, which gives the power to appoint temporary
and acting Judges of the High Court. At
present the jurisdiction of the High Court
sitting at Calcutta will extend beyond the limits
of the Presidency of Fort William and Bengal
as testified by the proclamation. It will extend
to the Province of Behar and Orissa, and it
seems right to leave the Governor-General the
power of appointing Judges. The second proviso
obviates the necessity of appointing the Advocate-
General of Bengal as a member of the Legislative
Council of Bengal. The reason is that the Advocate-
General is a law ofhcer who has to give advice by

315

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU.

the terms of his appointment both to the Govern-
ment of Bengal and to the Government of India.
Sub-section 2 of Clause 1 merely transfers from
the Governor-General the power to alter the limits
of the town of Calcutta, which was conferred upon
him by Section 1 of the Indian Presidency Towns
Act of 1815 and which is now obviously under the
■Government of Bengal. Clause 2 of the Bill gives
power to establish an Executive Council for the
new Province of Behar and Orissa. Behar and
Orissa will have a Legislative as well as an Execu-
tive Council, and it is necessary to put in a provision
for that in the Bill because, under the Indian
Councils Act of 1909, it is possible to appoint an
Executive Council for the Lieutenant-Governor.
•Clause 3 gives power to the Governor-General to
appoint a Legislative Council for a province which
is governed by a Chief Commissioner. The Governor-
General has power to take under his own government,
and therefore technically to appoint, a Chief Com-
missioner to govern a territory in India under
Section 3 of the Act of 1854, just as Lord Curzon,
when Viceroy, made the North-Western Frontier a
Chief Commissionership.

Councils fob Chief Commissionerships.

If the Government obtain the powers now
sought it proposes to exercise them at once in two

316

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

provinces under a Chief Commissioner. The firsts
is Assam. I do not think the House will deny that
the case of granting a Legislative Council to Assam
is a good one. Lord Curzon, in the speech which
he made in the House of Lords, made a complaint
against the scheme that it would detract from the
position of Assam by removing it from conjunction
with the Government of Eastern Bengal. Assam has
been under a Legislative Council, and by giving it
a Legislative Council through this Bill we shall
enable the province to go on with the same
representative Government as it has had in the
past. The other province — the Central Provinces — -.
to whom the Government of India propose to give •
a Legislative Council include the territory of Berar,
with a population of 14 millions and extending over
an area of 100,000 square miles. I think that
those who have some experience of that part of the
British Empire will agree that in education, in
enthusiasm for progress, the claim of the Central
Provinces to have the same legislative system as
exists in the neighbouring provinces is a good "one,
and it is at any rate, a move strictly in accordance
with the principle of the Liberal Imperial policy of
devolution and the granting of representative
government in response to the demands of the
majority of those people in the country who have
expressed an opinion. Clause 4, read with the

317

SPEECHES OF THE RT, HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

Schedule, repeals and amends certain enactments
which now either require alteration to harmonise
with the new condition of affairs or require repeal.
The only one I need mention is the repeal of
Section 57 of the East India Act of 1793, which
dates from the time when the Civil Service of each
Presidency was a separate Civil Service, and which
prevents us from appointing civil servants from one
Presidency to act in another. Now that the whole
of the Indian Civil Service is an Imperial Service, it
seems to the Government of India that that provi-
sion is unnecessary. The repeal of Section 71 is
consequential, and the other provisions are merely
slight verbal alterations. Perhaps I may make
special mention of Section 50 of the India Council
Act of 1861, the amendment of which makes it
possible for the Governor of Bengal to act as
Governor-General in the absence of the Viceroy.
The Bill, it will be seen, consists merely of altera-
tions in machinery to carry out a policy which has
been generally accepted and which I believe the
House will agree contains elements of lasting
advantage and the germs of improved government
for the great Empire of India. (Cheers.)

Keply to Criticisms.

I have not the right to address the House again,
but perhaps I may be allowed to reply to some of

318

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

the questions which have been put to me. Sir John
Jardine asked whether the repeal or alteration of
certain sections of the Act of 1793 will affect the
position of the Indian Civil Service. The answer is
emphatically in the negative. This Bill only repeals
•parts of the Statute which were not repealed
when the rest of the statute was repealed in 1865.
Colonel Yate put three specific points. The first was
as to the defence of Delhi. I want to assure him that
I think, the authorities are agreed that the strategi-
cal position of Delhi as the central point of the
railway system of India is a very good one, but the
weighty words which he addressed to the House
will, of course, be noted by those who are concerned
with these affairs.

The Mahomedans op Eastern Bengal.

We come to a much more substantial point
when we consider the position of the Mahomedans m
Eastern Bengal. Much has been said in various places
and in various newspapers on this point. It would be
a mistake to talk of the Mahomedan people of Irudia
as though they were a homogeneous people of one
nationality. The Mahomedans of Eastern Bengal are
the descendants of Hindu converts, or are Hindu con-
verts themselves, and have little or no relation except
that of religion with three-fifths of the Mahomedan
population of India outside the limits of Bengal, but
-also belonging to the native races of the north. So

319

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MOl^TAGU.

far as the Mahomedan population outside Bengal is.
concerned, they have no objection to the restoration
of Delhi, which they have always regarded as the
capital of historic India. They have shown good
will and have gratefully acknowledged and accepted
the change. Their position is very carefully safe-
guarded under the Bill. They are perhaps the
most backward part, or one of the most backward
parts, of the population of the old Presidency pi
Bengal and they are keenly and eagerly desirous
of new educational facilities. They are to have
a new university which will be largely used for
the benefit of Mahomedans, and that is one of the
most valuable consequences connected with the new
arrangements. They will form in the Presidency
of Bengal rather more than half of the population.
I could give the House statistics to prove that there
will be more Mahomedans than Hindus in the new
Governorship, but, roughly speaking, they are about
equally divided. In the Executive Council which has
been appointed by His Majesty the King for the
Presidency, the Indian Member is a well-known
Mahomedan. Again, it is the avowed and declared
intention of the Government that the new Governor
of Bengal must spend a substantial part of each
year in Dacca in the Government Building. It
is not to be a statutory provision, but the Maho-
medans of Eastern Bengal are perfectly entitled ta

320

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

policy. It has never been the policy of the
British GoVerDment in India to interfere with and
construct artificial regions, territories, and provinces
for the benefit of one race or one religion. They
have always tried to hold impartially the balance
between different races and religions.

Lord Curzon's Policy.
If it be claimed that the policy of parting
Bengal in 1905 was a policy intended to set
up a Mahomedan province, then I say emphatically
that that departure from British policy for which
Lord Curzon will stand revealed to have been
guilty was a far greater blunder than his worst
critics have accused him of committing. But Lord
Curzon will be the first to admit that there was
no such pohcy. Sir J. D. Rees, who was welcom-
ed back to the House in surroundings which will be
more congenial to his ultra-Conservative views,
talked about this new policy as a reversal of the old
policy. I do not mean it disrespectfully of one of
the greatest Viceroys we have ever had when I say
that Lord Curzon in this matter had no policy of
any sort or kind. He was a great administrator.
He produced efficiency which is one of the most
cherished possessions of the Indian Government at
the present moment. But his concern was with an
unwieldy province. He found it too big, and deter-

321

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON, MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

mined to divide it. He moved nationalities about
and he moved individuals about as though they were
automatons.

Mr. MAIiCOLM : The Hon. Gentleman is speaking' now by
leave of the House, and I wish to know whether he can enter into
this controversial matter to which none of us can have the oppor-
tunity of replying.

Mr. Montagu : I apologise to the Hoa.
Member if he thinks that I am doing something I
ought not to do. I quite appreciate that it is only
by the courtesy of the House that I can speak now
But Sir J. D. Rees charged us with reversing the
old policy.

Sib J D. Rees : We did not discuss it. I would have done
so if 1 had been at liberty to do it.

Mr. Montagu : The Hon. Member made the
charge that we were reversing Lord Curzon's policy,
and I am defending the Government against that
charge. I wish to point out that much of the criticism
made by Hon. Members opposite this afternoon
against this measure would have been more appro-
priate if it had been directed against a reversal or
policy which is going to happen. Sir Gilbert Parkef
and Mr. Malcolm based their speeches upon the great
constitutional outrage which had been perpetrated
by the Executive Government, which is increasingly
aggregating to itself powers, and which is bringing
about these changes before the consent of the Parlia-
ment has been obtained. Mr. Malcolm is not quite

322

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

accurate in his facts. He talked of two opportunities
which the House of Lords had no opportunity of dis-
cussing ihe matter before it was a settled fact. They
took the opportunity of discussion on two occasions
after it had become a settled fact. In this Session of
Parliament Hon. Members opposite could have had
similar opportunities by raising the subject on the
Debate on the Address, or they could have asked a
day for the discussion of it afterwards. They delibe-
rately did not do so. Neither of these opportunities
have been taken.

Mr. Malcolm .- The speaker has already ruled that it is out
of order.

Mr. Montagu : I do not understand that the
Hon. Member is in a better position than myself
to decide points of order. The Bill concerns the
whole of the re-partition of Bengal, the creation of
the new provinces of Behar and Orissa, the segrega-
tion of Assam under a new Chief Commissionership,
and these matters and nine-tenths of the Durbap
policy could have been discussed under this Bill,
4ind in so far as the removal of the capital was
incidental to the changes in Bengal that was equally
in order. That has not been done by Hon.
Members. They claim great patriotism in refusing
to discuss the matter. The fact of the matter is
that there are some acts which this House, or the

323

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

great majority of its members, have never claimed
and rightly never claimed, to criticise. I suggest
with regard to policy in India that the practice ol
this House never has been to claim to criticise ir
detail the administrations in India before certair
acts have been accomplished. I base myself upon
the speech made by Mr. Gladstone on the Indian
Councils Act Amendment Bill in this House on
March 20, 1892 : — "It is not our business to de-
vise machinery for the purposes of Indian Govern-
ment. It is our business to give to those vfhc
represent Her Majesty in India ample information
as to what we believe to be sound principles of
Government, and of course it is the function oi
this House to comment upon any cases in which
we may think that they have failed to give due
effect to those prmciples." When Bengal was divid-
ed in 1905, there was no discussion in this House
of Commons at all and no information or opport-
unity was given to the House of expressing any
opinion until after the proposals of the Government
of India had been accepted by Mr. Brodrick, who
was then Secretary. The fact is that these changes,
in which so many interests are involved of grave
Imperial concern and result, have always been dealt
with by administrative action, and afterwards the
House of Commons has had its opportunity of
expressing its opinion upon them.

324

the government of india bill.
The " Agitation " Against the Partition.

Sir J. D. Rees has thought fit to revive the old
charge that we are altering the partition of Bengal
in response to an agitation. All the information at
the disposal of the Government of India is to the
•effect that he is totally misinformed. Lord Curzon,
in making precisely the same allegation in the House
of Lords, relied on and quoted the authority of two
gentlemen. One was an Indian gentleman who had
long been absent from Bengal altogether, and another
an English writer who never wrote the words which
Lord >Cui-zon quoted. I venture to suggest that the
root of the Hon. Gentleman's objection is this, that
•there are in India, as has often been said in this
House, two kinds of agitation. One is the agitation
which is the genuine expression of a genuine grie-
vance, or what the people believe to be one ; a grie-
vance against an outraged nationality ; an agitation
which is the genuine desire for redress of something
▼^'hich is wrong. Then there are those agitators often •
the anti-British purpose who take advantage of the
existence of that grievance who are almost a parasitic
growth upon the legitimate unrest. That kind of
agitation is almost dead. It was wisely handled
and severely repressed during Lord Morley's
Secretaryship of State, when Lord Morley and Lord
Minto used exceptional measures for dealing with

325

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

that sort of agitation, which was not genuine and
could not be permitted to continue. But the real,
deep, bitter resentment against the hne which Lord
Curzon drew right across the BengaH-speaking
district, the sentimental grievance, the grievance
of unfair and disproportionate representation,
remained as deep after that long interval as it did
when the new state of affairs was first created.
That kind of agitation was at the root of every-
thing that was threateningly wrong in India. I
conceive it to be the wisest kind of statesmanship to
investigate this grievance to see how well-founded
it was to remove the grievance and to settle a
national wrong. So no one can say that we have
responded to illegitimate clamour or have done more
than merely redress a grievance which would remain
as great as long as it lasted.

Sib J. D. Rees : Does the Hon. Gentleman include the
compounding of a felony by the Government of India among these-
wise measures ?

Mr. Montagu : The Hon. Member is bringing
a new charge which I will be happy m a general
Debate to prove to be as unfounded as any of the
other charges which he has brought. But it would
be trespassing too far on the matter before the
House at present to deal with it now.

326

the goveenment op india bill.

The Question op Finance.
Mr. Malcolm asked me a question about the
finauce in connection with the estabhshment of the
new capital. The estimate with regard to Delhi
remains to-day what it was. It is not possible yet
to submit the revised estimate. The Hon. Member
is at liberty to suggest twelve millions. He has
opportunities doubtless of arriving at a more
accurate figure than the Government of India. But
the estimate given was put forward by the Govern-
ment of India and accepted by the Secretary of
State with due regard to the existing difficulties.
There are all sorts of offsets to be made. New
buildings would have been necessary if the seat
of Government had remained unchanged, and there
is a certain amount of profit to set off against outlay,
appreciation in the Government lands and the sale
of certain lands and buildings. It is a rough
general guess. The site is now being surveyed by
an expert Committee, and as soon as the revised
estimates are available they will, of course, be pre-
sented to the House. But it is as fair to assume
that the expenditure would be approximately four
million pounds as to assume that it would be
approximately eight million pounds.

The Promise of " Federation."
Mr. Bonar Law, with other members, referred
to the change of policy which was obtaining as the

327

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E, S. MONTAGU .

result of this measure. He quoted the words of
Lord Crewe and words of my own in Cambridge,
and he suggested that there was a discrepancy
between them. The despatch and the answer to
the despatch have been pubHshed in the White
Paper, and the words of paragraph 3 are definite
and unmistakable, and I should have thought would
have admitted of no possible doubt. If a micros-
copic examination can detect any difference of
meaning in the words that I used at Cambridge and
the words which my chief used in the House of
Lords, I will ask the House to attribute the differ-
ence to the obvious difference of atmosphere bet-
ween the other place and the platform in my own
constituency. There is to be no immediate step, no
resulting step as a consequence of the changes
which the House this afternoon is passing, but
surely, when every moving section of the people of
India has got a policy, when there are preachers
and teachers all over the country advocating this
and that course of atjtion, and some are advocating
policies which are hostile to British interests, it was
not out of place, I conceive, to show to the people
of India, as Lord Hardinge did in paragraph 3 of
this despatch, that there was a direction in which
the British occupation was tending, that there was
some definite aim and object in which, in the
opinion of the Government in India, all these

328

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

changes might be co-related, that we were there,
not merely to administer, but to develop India on
a plan which had been brought out by those who
had been advising the Secretary of State. That is,
^s I understand, the meaning of paragraph 3, and
as such I regard it as one of the most important
parts of that historic despatch.

The Policy of the Opposition.

If there is one other matter which I might
respectfully venture to put forward, it is that I
feel a deep regret that even those who confine their
remark entirely to the way in which these changes
have been brought about took an opportunity by
some side phrases to express their doubts of and
their disagreement with the policy and the Bill
which carries it out.

Sir. Gilbert Parker : I expressly said that I would forbear
from making a single remark about change of policy, and I did
not make any such remark.

Mr. Montagu : And then you added that there
were large numbers of people in India who had
grave doubts as to its efficacy. What I mean to say is
that I should have thought it was quite clear to the
people of India that what they believed to be a great
step forward in the process of governing that country
was the gift offered by His Majesty at the Durbar

329

SPEECHES OF THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU^

on the advice of his responsible Ministers from the
people of Great Britain in respect of party. And
it is a matter, I think, for regret that Lord Curzon,
who has spoken most on the subject, adopted an
attitude of complete hostility, and so far as in this
debate any expression of opinion has come from
those benches at all it has been either like that of
Mr. Malcolm or like the assertion of Mr. Bonar
Law. Why was it wrong for His Majesty most
graciously to make this announcement himself at the
Durbar ? Is it that Mr. Bonar Law objects to the
policy of Durbar boons altogether, or is it simply that
people feel that there is a peculiar sanctity about a
policy recommended by His Majesty the King on the
advice of his Ministers which does' not touch the
ordinary policy recommended b}' the Viceroy on
behalf of His Majesty the King, and with the
sanction of the Ministers ? If that is the criticism,
then it is based upon the partition of Bengal, and
very much of what has been said falls to the ground.
The same sanctity, in our opinion, would have
attached to the Proclamation had it been made by
the Viceroy as attached, and I think rightly
attached, to it when it was made by His Majesty
the King.

Sir J. D. Eees : The Opposition have not had an opportunity
of discussing what was done under the cover of His Majesty's
prerogative, and the Opposition and those who oppose this policy
are really deprived of the opportunity of stating their objections.

330

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

Mr. Montagu : I am merely suggesting that,
there has been no difference in the treatment of the
question from the announcement having been made
by His Majesty instead of by the Viceroy. It was
announced in His Majesty's gracious speech from
the Throne at Delhi, instead of by Lord Curzon,
as in the partition of Bengal, by Viceregal Procla-
mations. In spite of the criticisms which have
been made, and notwithstanding some small
questions of boundary readjustment which remain,
I am profoundly convinced that this policy has been
welcomed by the overwhelming majority of all races
and all creeds, and that it will open, as Colonel Yate
has said, a new era of peace, contentment and pro-
gress in India. There is every sign upon the horizon
which gives those who are proud of the achievement
ot the Government in India of great hope of increasing
contentment, increasing prosperity, and increasing
consent of the Government to be governed by those

whose policy shows sympathy with their legitimate
aspirations.

Jleplying to the criticisms in the House of
Commons on June 10, 191S, on the third readi7ig of
the Government of India Bill, Mr. i\fontagn said : —

He would leave the discussion of the finances
of Delbi to the Debate on the Indian Budget. All he

331

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

would say now was that Delhi was being financed out
of windfalls which were due to exceptional circum-
-stances which did not render them available for the
reduction of taxation. It did not very much matter
whether debts were paid off with surpluses such as
these, and fresh loans contracted, or whether these
surpluses were used directly for purposes for which
they were bound to borrow.

The scheme in the Bill provided for the
removal of the seat of the Government of India
from Calcutta to Delhi. Calcutta was the seat
of the Government of Bengal, and the difficulty of
disentangling the Government of India from that
of Bengal was so great that it would be far better
for both the Government of India and the Govern-
ment of Bengal if they removed the seat of the
-Government of India to Delhi, which was not the
centre of any provincial Government. The word
" provincial " was used in this sense, that it merely
referred to the fact that the Government, whilst at
■Calcutta, was the centre of the Government of one of
the provinces of India. It was provincial in the
sense that Calcutta was the provincial centre of
Bengal, and, therefore, the Imperial Government
of India was in the provincial centre of Bengal.
He asserted without fear of cootradickion that
students of the Government of India for generations

332

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

past had been impressed with the growing difficiiltj
which was presented by the two sets of Government
in the same place, interlaced and intertwined, so
that those who were affected by the decisions of
one or the other had difficulty in disentangling the
responsibility. The Government of India was now
going to Delhi, which was not the centre of a
provincial Government, because it was strictly the
enclave of India, as Washington was the enclave
of the United States of America. Sir J. D. Rees
so far as his position was based on the statement
that we were going from one province to another,,
was misrepresenting the true state of the facts to
the House. The same object might have been
achieved possibly by making Calcutta the enclave,
and transferring the Government of Bengal out of
Calcutta. But, as the Hon. Member would be the
first to admit, Calcutta was far too large and
important a commercial centre to be adapted to the
purposes of the Imperial Government.

•

Sir J.D. REES: In what respect are the Government of India
and the Government of Bengal interlaced and intertwined ? Their
functions are quite distinct.

Mr. Montagu said that he would send the Hon.
Gentleman papers ^hich would instruct him. Delhi
was the historic centre of India, and it was also the
railway centre. It was from many points of view the

333

SPEECHES OP THE ET. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

most acceptable part of the great Empire to which to
remove the seat of the Government of India, for it
was far nearer to Bombay and the whole of the
East of India than Calcutta was. It was also a
considerable manufacturing town already. He could
not enter into the dispute between the Hon.
Member for Nottingham and the Government of
India as to the reverence felt for Delhi by the
various peoples of India. He would only say that
his description of Delhi did not carry conviction to
him when he read such words as these which appear
in paragraph 6 of the White Paper : — " Throughout
India, as far south as the Mahomedan conquest
extended, every walled town has its ' Delhi gate,'
and among the masses of the people it is still
revered as the seat of the former Empire."

The Fund.\mental Error op the Critics.

So much for the removal of the Government to
Delhi. The fundamental error made by critics of
the policy of the Government of India was the sug-
gestion that there had been a reversal of the Parti-
tion of Bengal. He had been accused of speaking
in derogatory terms of Lord Curzon when he
suggested that Lord Curzon in these matters had
no policy at all. It was merely a well-known
fact. Jjord Curzon was as great an administrator

334

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

as India had ever had. He had found a great
province of 98,000,000 people — (An Hon. Member :
^' Eighty-five milHons ") — and had become acquaint-
ed (as he had said) M^ith the scandalous mal-ad-
ministration which was going on in the eastern parts
of Bengal. He had found that owing to its
vast size, it was quite impossible to administer the
province according to modern ideas. So Lord
Curzon decided to divide it, but he did not divide it
with the idea of making a Mahomedan State, or with
a view to redress alleged Mahomedan grievances.
There was no policy underlying it ; it was merely
an administrative reform to produce efficiency. He
could quote from Lord Curzon 's own words : —
What was the particular line to be drawn was a
matter not for the Viceroy. The line was settled
by consultation and discussions between the Local
Governments and the officials " Lord Curzon was
not concerned to find where the line was drawn at
all. He wanted to split up an unwieldy province
and make two parts of it which would be m6re
wieldy. Bitter experience had taught that even in
the sacred cause of efficiency we could not move
masses of the population about and destroy their
national ideals without regard to their thoughts
and opinions.

The Earl of RONALDSHAY .• What am I to understand by
the Hon. Gentleman's statement as to moving masses of

335

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. ME. E. S. MONTAGU.

population about ? Nobody has ever suggested moving the'
population.

Mr. Montagu explained that he meant moving
them from one Government to another. You,
could not order the man to cease to be a subject of
the Government of Bengal and put him into Eastern,
Bengal without very serious consequences, even in
the cause of efficiency. It did require investigation-
as to whether the Hne —

Sir J, D. Rees .• The man remains where he is.

Mr. Montagu : The Hon. Gentleman is per-
fectly right in saying that the man remains where
he is, but is no longer in Bengal.

Sir J. D. Rees ; He is subject to the same class of adminis-
tration.

Mr. Montagu, continuing, said that the
Government had therefore, because the unrest
produced militated against the efficiency which Lord
Curzon desired, done over again in the light of
experience of Lord Curxon's work.

A Better Partition.

There was now a partition of Bengal, not into
two pieces, but into three pieces, and all they claimed
was that, having regard to the fact that they had kept
the national boundaries, their partition was a better
one than Lord Curzon's.and likely to produce greater

336

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

efficiency, because it was more acceptable to the
population. Lord Eonaldshay might say that what-
ever the motives of Lord Curzon were, a Maho-
medan State came into existence, and the Maho-
medans had a right to expect that the state of affairs
should remain for ever, and that the Government
had in that sense broken their pledge to the Maho-
medans of Eastern Bengal. These were serious
charges. Nobody knew better than the member for
East Nottingham how what was said in these
Debates found its way to India. Nobody had been
more vehement in criticising members below the
gangway on this ground, and he hoped the Hon.
Member would have serious misgivings about his
own utterances that afternoon, when he had brought
accusations of breach ol' faith and of pledges, not
only against Lord Crew and the Government here,
but against the whole fabric of the Government in
India, who were jointly responsible for these great
changes. The Hon. Member regretted, and the
noble lord regretted, that there should be any idea
in India that we had broken our pledges. But how
much had the Hon. Member not done to encourage
that idea by* words carelessly thrown out which
were without a shadow of foundation ?

Sir J. D. REES said he only pointed out the facts.

Mr. Montagu said the Hon. Gentleman's
alleged facts were not facts. The words which had

337

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

been continually quoted against the Government in
that Debate were the words of Lord Morley, " The
partition is a settled fact." He would ask the
noble lord to be good enough to read Lord Morley's
own speech on this subject in the House of Lords.
Lord Morley was a member of the Government
responsible for this Bill, as he was when he used
the famous words, " The partition is a settled fact."
What Lord Morley meant was that the great im-
provement of administration which was to result
from the sub division oi" Bengal could never again
be sacrificed, and that the partition of Bengal could
never be reversed. There had been no reversal.
"What was to be the meaning of the words " settled
fact" in politics ? Were they to mean that a thing
once done should never be modified in the light of
experience ? However badly it had been done, were
they all to sit and admire it for generation after
generation without having the courage to alter it ?
That was a theory of crystallised conservatism
which he believed to be the worst that could be
applied to a quickly changing and developing coun-
try like India.

The Mahomedans of Eastern Bengal.

The Mahomedans of Eastern Bengal had lost
nothing by this change. At the commencement

338

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

-Eastern Bengal was not the overwhelming Maho-
medan State some critics seemed to think it was.
At the commencement of last year the Legislative
Council in Eastern Bengal included ten Hindus.
What had the Mahomedans got now ? They had
got their new university. One of the seats of
Government of the new Presidency of Bengal
was at Dacca. They were governed under Lord
Curzon's scheme from Dacca by a Lieutenant-
Governor — the Lieutenant-Governor of Eastern
Bengal, who had no Executive Council. Sir J.D.
Bees poured scorn on the difference between
a Lieutenant-Governor and a Governor. Surely
he forgot that the Lieutenant-Governor of Eastern
Bengal had no Executive Council. The Governor
of Eastern Bengal has an Executive Council.

SIR J.D. Rbes : And the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal had
-an Executive.

Mr. Montagu : The Hon. Member is wrontf
in his facts. The Lieutenant-Governor of Eastern
Bengal had no Executive.

SIR J.D. REES : Bengal, I said.

Mr. Montagu was afraid the Hon. Member
•was now getting excited. (Laughter.) He was
referring to the Mahomedans of Eastern Bengal.

2|3Q

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. B. Si MONTAGU.

The Mahomedans were in form governed under
Lord Curzon from Dacca by a Lieutenant-Governor,
who had no Executive Council to assist him. Under
the new scheme they were governed still from?
Dacca for certain portions of the year by the Gover-
nor of Bengal, who would be assisted by an Executive
Council, and they would, therefore, have a more-
modern and up-to-date system of Government.
Further than that, when the Partition of Bengal
was brought about. Eastern Bengal had no repre-
sentative Legislative Council, because the Reform
Bill of Lord Morley and Lord Minto was in 1909.
The form of Government Mahomedans would enjoy
now would be better and more efficient than the
old Government. When the partition was brought
about, the Mahomedans of Eastern Bengal were 30
per cent, of a population of over 80 millions. Now
they would be about 50 per cent, of a population of
50 millions. Under the partition they were about.
35 per cent, of the old population of Eastern Bengal.
In numbers, in form of Government, in position,
the Mahomedans of Eastern Bengal had lost
absolutely nothing by the modification of the parti-
tion. In addition, though it was only a side question,
the present Indian Member of the Executive
Council of the Governor of Bengal was a Maho-
inedan from Eastern Bengal.

340

the government op india bill.
The Claim op Calcutta.

He desired, in conclusion, to deal with two
•criticisms made by Sir J.D. Rees. The Hon.
Member had referred to the position of the member
for Commerce and Industry. He said he had been
asked to voice the opinion of the Chambers of
Commerce, and then showed that he meant the
Chamber of Commerce in Bengal. He would be
the last to detract from the great importance of that
representative Chamber of the greatest commercial
-community in India. But it was only that Chamber
which was anxious to have its objections to this
-policy represented. Naturally, what Calcutta lost,
Bombay and Karachi gained. If the Hon. Member
would come to the India Office and read the files
-of the newspapers in India, which he had carefully
■collected ever since this reform scheme came into
'being, he would be struck by the remarkable way in
which the serious alarm of the Chamber of Commerce
in Calcutta had been isolated and ignored by thes:est
of European opinion from one end of the country
to the other. He thought that alarm wasprobabiy
based on a misapprehension : and he believed that
when the scheme was seen at work the fears of the
commercial community in Calcutta would be
allayed, and that they would share in what was the
•enthusiastic welcome of this scheme from the vast

341

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU..

majority of the people of all classes and races in the'
great Empire of India.

The Charge of Surrender to Agitation.

There was one further matter he felt bound to
refer to. The Government had been accused of
giving vv'ay to agitation and irresponsible clamour.
The House would have noticed a very curious
inconsistency in the way in which this charge
was brought. It was levelled with great vehemence
by Sir J. D. Rees, who immediately afterwards
quoted from Lord Minto an assurance that there-
was no agitation and no clamour to which to give
way. He could not have it both ways ; he could
not say that there was no agitation to which to give
■^ay, and immediately afterwards award blame for
having given way to an agitation that never existed.
The fact of the matter was that in Bengal, as in so
many other countries, the large, overwhelming, and
almost universal number of the inhabitants were
peaceful, law-abiding, and loyal citizens. There was
a small — very small and insignificant— minority of
irresponsible agitators. He challenged the House to
say, looking back over history since 1906, that
the Government which he was there to represent
had been supine in putting down the agitation
which was the work of that insignificant, disloyal,
and rebellious minority. Lord Minto himself

342

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BILL.

brought back from India, as one of the greatest
triumphs of his rule, the way in which he and
Lord Morley put down and, as he believed, stamped
out what was known as the seditious movement in
India. But there were two ways of stamping out
sedition, and neither was complete without the other.
They had not only to punish the seditious, but they
had to remove the just causes of complaint which
brought recruits to the ranks of the seditious, and
which, therefore, prevented repressive legislation
from having the effect they desired, whilst there was
the slightest suspicion to make honest men's minds
uneasy that those responsible for the Government
of the country were not quick to redress legitimate
grievances. The Government of India believed that
the real feeling — spreading far beyond the miserable
confines of the seditious, disloyal, and rebellious— of
wounded nationality, of wounded race susceptibili-
ties, of unfair treatment, which had resulted from
the Partition, was as strong on Durbar Day as it
ever was when the irresponsible agitation existed.

He hoped Lord Ronaldshay would not think he
was making any accusation against him, but no
greater disservice could be done to the Government
of India than carelessly to lump together in speech
an agitation such as the presentation of a petition
against the University at Dacca, and, let them say,

343

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

the agitation that was punished by deportation. The
one was a legitimate Western method of gaining
access to those who were in authority and in a country
like India the responsibility of those who governed to
listen to grievances when they were represented
was even more vital than in a country where votes
were the armoury of those who were governed. If
in any part of his speech he had shown irritation
with anything that had fallen from Hon. Members
opposite, he could only plead as an excuse that a
charge of broken pledges against a Government,
annoying and irritating and wounding as it might be
in domestic affairs, could not be ignored and must
be met by a Government which had the over-
whelming responsibility of the good Government of
India to answer for. It was because he believed he
had answered a charge which he wished had never
been made on a subject in which party politics played
no part that he ventured confidently to commend this
Bill to the House, a Bill which, he believed, would
lead to the improved Government and the greater
peace of a country which benefited to a greater
degree every day by the fact that the British people
were responsible for its government. (Hear, hear.)

344

OPIUM TBAFFIC

SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

IN MAY 1913.

Mr. Montagu said that in the unavoidable absence
of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs it fell to his lot
to explain the policy of his Majesty's Govern)iient
and the Government of India on the subject of the
resolution before the House. Personally he wel-
•comed the fortune of the ballot which had given
■them an opportunity of discussing the question, not
•only because he thought the discussion itself would
be of considerable value, but also because it would
relieve the always inadequate debate on the Indian
Budget of one of the subjects which always loomed
very largely. Any one listening to the debate
might, be pardoned for thinking that the House of
'Conmions was once again reiterating its detestation
of this trade, while there was a Government in
oftice deaf to all entreaty which refused to take any
steps to translate the views of the House of Com-
mons into action. Mr. Taylor had been the first

345

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

of the speakers to pay a tribute to the Government
for what had taken placed in recent years. The
opium traffic was in a flourishing condition at the
beginning of the sixteenth century. It had been
going on ever since. No member of the House could
read the history of the traffic without serious mis-
givings as to whether Great Britain had not
fallen far short of her Imperial ideals upon several
occasions during that time. There was satisfaction
in the fact that there had always been in the House
of Commons a small but growing number of men
who had never faltered in their determination to
urge the cessation of the traffic, and its ultimate
extinction of this trade ought to be placed first and
foremost to the credit of such men as Sir Joseph
Pease, Mr. Samuel Smith, Sir Mark Stewart, Mr.
Henry Wilson, and Mr. Taylor himself. "When the
present Government came into office in 190G the
opium traffic with China was flourishing, legahsed,
unthreatened. No end was in sight. If anyone
had then predicted that in a short period of years
an Indian Finance Minister would have viewed
without excessive emotion or even panic a total
loss of the Indian revenue derived from the Indo-
Chinese opium traffic he would have been regarded
as a wrong-headed visionary. But the whole
complexion of the situation was changed when
it was demonstrated beyond doubt that there wa&

346

OPIUM TRAFFIC.

in China a large number of men who abhorred the-
traffic, and were determined to put a stop to it, and
when it was found that the Government of China,
acting on behalf of the Chinese people, were anxious
to rid themselves of the terrible curse. In spite-
of the remarks which had fallen from Sir. J. D. Rees,
he would like the House to accept it as indisputable
that the Chinese Government and people, as a whole
were with earnestness and courage ridding themsel-
ves of opium (Ministerial cheers). On this question
there was no reason for cynicism or for scepticism,
and no work for the scoffer and the sneerer. (Minis-
terial cheers.) All the evidence pointed to that conclu-
sion, and when one knew the proverbial difficulty of
getting rid of an old habit, when one realised how
widespread was the opium habit, the extent of the
country, and the size of the population, he asserted
without fear of contradiction that the history of the
world showed few actions comparable to the efforts
now being made by the Chinese people to rid them-
selves of a drug that was sapping the manhood of
the nation and destroying their chance of develop-
ment. (Cheers.) China had shown an example of
moral courage which was rare in the history of the
world. That was the situation with which Lord
Morley and Lord Minto had to deal. But for this

desire on the part of China any self-sacrifice on the-
part of India would have been useless. It would.

347

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

have simply meant for China the establishment of
a Chinese monopoly. We should have lost our
revenue and would not have benefited the people
of China in the slightest. They had to consider in
•evincing sympathy for the Chinese attitude what
■course would be most useful and likely to help
China itself. China had an almost overwhelmingly
difficult task. She had not only to get rid of
opium growth in China, but to deal with the
desire of people for opium. If therefore, we had
suddenly ceased to send any opium to China, the
result would have been to give a few incentive to
opium growing in China. According what the
Chinese suggested was the pari passu policy — the
policy of stopping imports as she stopped her gro-
wth. He hoped they would not talk about forc-ing
China to take opium. China wanted to rid herself
-of opium and asked for our co-operation. As a free
-agent she asked us to conclude a treaty, agreed to
that treaty, and expressed satisfaction with it as a
means of assisting her in getting rid of the opium
she grew in China itself. And so in 1907 the Indian
•Government, acting through his Majesty's Groveru-
ment, agreed to extinguish the Indian opium trade
with China in ten years on condition that in the same
time China extinguished her growth of opium. The
extinction of the poppy in China went on at such a
a-atethanin 1911, at the end of a trial period, the

348

OPIUM TRAFFIC.

Chinese Government suggested a modification of the
treaty with a view to quickening this pari passu
poHcy. The treaty was accordingly modified. We
adopted the plan of certificating the opium which
was to go into China, and we agreed to abandon our
treaty rights of importing opium into China indis-
criminately, and to stop the importation into any
part which might be proved to be free from opium^
so that any province of the Chinese empire could
rid itself at once of Indian opium if it could prove
that it had no opium of its own. The three Man-
churian provinces and Szechuan, by far the largest
of the poppy growing provinces of China, and Shansi
were closed at the end of August, 1911. Two more
provinces, Chihli and Kwangsi, were closed in
January, 1913, and His Majesty's Government
have also agreed that three others — Hunan, Anhui,
and Shantung — should be subject to a joint inves-
tigation, with a view to their closure if the result is
satisfactory..

The End in Sight.

Under the other parts of the treaty of 1911, we
had a right to sell to China 16,580 chests of opium
this year, 11,461 next year, 10,200 in J 915, 5,100
in 1916, and that was the end of the Indian-Chinese
opium trade, (Hear, hear.) That may not be
so quick as some people would wish, but the end

349

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MB. E. S. MONTAGU.

is in sight in 1916 of a traffic over 400 years old,
an end which could not be seen at all seven years
ago, when this Government came into power. The
situation had been complicated by the accumulation
■of approximately 20,000 chests of opium in the
treaty ports. These accumulations were due to the
disregard of treaty engagements of some of the
provincial governments. In some of these pro-
vinces, opium was actually being grown by the
farmers with impunity. His own belief was
that the accumulations never represented a desire
of the Central Chinese Government to shirk
its treaty obligations, but were merely an index of
the trouble which the Chinese Government went
through in its transition from an Empire to a
Republic. Now that better order had been restored
these stocks were no longer lying at the treaty
ports, but were going into the country in a regular
way, competing with the Chinese native opium,
except in the provinces that had been closed, at
the rate of '2,000 chests a month. Roughly
speaking, in a little over a year the difficulty will
have disappeared. To send the stocks elsewhere
would constitute an abandonment of the pari passu
policy, and would embarrass the Chinese Govern-
ment. For if the demands of those who smoked
opium in China were not met by imports, there
would be an incentive to grow the poppy in China.

350

OPIUM TRAFFIC.

In order, therefore, to assist China the Indian
"Government was prepared to take a third step in
•advance. They had abandoned altogether the
revenue derived from the sale of opium to China
for this year, and v^^ere to-day selling no opium to
€hina. He was in as proud a position as an
Under-Secretary for India had ever occupied in
saying for the first time in the modern history of
India that we were selling not an ounce of the poppy
to China. (Cheers.) "When the present stocks
were absorbed in, roughly speaking, a year's
■time we should have the treaty right in response
to China's own demand, to sell her -26,781
chests more, but he was glad to be able to
iell the House that notwithstanding that we
might get from these chests s<>me eleven millions
•sterling of revenue, notwithstanding that we had a
right to go on selling to any province in China in
which opium was still being grown, we were pre-
pared to revise the treaty of 1911 — (Hear, hear) —
and not to send any more opium to China— fiot
only this year or while the stocks were being
absorbed, but never again. (Cheers.) The single
-condition was that we desired to be satisfied that
China was steadfast, as was believed, in the pursuit
of her present policy. That condition was in the
interests of China herself, (Cheers.) We were in
the satisfactory position of being able to say that

361

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

the traffic from India to China in opium was dead,
and would never be renewed unless China showed
by her own action that she would not actually benefit
by the cessation of the importation of Indian
opium. The growth of the poppy in India would
be reduced to an amount sufficient to supply the
Indian and the extra- Chinese markets. He believed
the whole force of British public opinion would be
with the Government in the response they had made-
(Cheers.) We had been able not only to respond
to the request of the Chinese Republic for the-
prayers of the Churches in this country, but to show
in the House of Commons a real sympathy with
Chinese desires by the action now being taken..
(Cheers.) He asked the House to acknowledge the
debt owing to the representatives, so far as there
were any, of the people of India, who at a time
when India was quickening, and money was much
needed had, so far as could be seen, with the excep-
tion of a few isolated grumblers, cheerfully foregone
this, source of revenue, and accepted the arrange-
ment. (Hear, hear.)

Sir J. D. Rees asked what was to be done with the opium
which was held up in Shanghai.

Mr. Montagu replied that the opium in Shan-
ghai and Hong Kong would be released at the rate
of 2,000 chests a month, and, it was anticipated,.

352

OPIUM TRAFFIC.

would be absorbed in about a year in the ordinary-
way of trade. As the controversy was ending that
night, he wished also to pay a tribute to those, who
had brought this question constantly before the
House, and, above all, he wished to congratulate
his hon. friend (Mr. Theodore Taylor) on the
termination of his labours. (Cheers) His name,
with others, would be associated with the termina-
tion of this traffic, and he ventured to suggest as
another field for their activities the havoc that was
being brought by morphia and cocaine, as was
pointed out at the last Hague Conference. The
Government were ready to ratify the agreement
come to at the Conference to introduce the necessary
legislation to prevent the harm revealed, but there
were two or three Great Powers lagging behind.

353

MR. MONTAGU'S VISIT TO INDIA.

In the course of a speech to his constituents at

Histon on March 28, 1914, Mr. Montagu, M. P.,
Under-Secretary of State for India, said :

It is not now a suitable opportunity or place to
enter into a lengthy discussion or account of the
impressions I formed in India. Indeed, the duty of
a Minister who has been permitted this great
opportunity of investigation must largely be to use
his information inside his office and not on the
platform. I have only to thank you for the generous
•confidence which alone made it possible for me to go
and I have to tell you that I am confident of the
complete success of my journey. I was met with
the splendid hospitality so characteristic of those
brave men and women on whose shoulders rest the
heavy responsibility of a task of increasing diffi.culty
and increasing demand. I was honoured with the
confidence of British and Indian, and, in the 15,000
miles I travelled, was able to see something of the
unending varieties of Indian conditions, and meet
the great leaders of Indian opinion as well as our

354

MR. MONTAGU'S VISIT TO INDIA.

•officials. I cannot find words in which to thank
lihem for all that they did for me, and if I can prove
to them that we at the India Office are anxious to
appreciate the difficulties and problems of Indian
Administration both from the British and Indian
points of view in a personal sense as well as by
■despatch and in replies to petitions, I hope to offer
them some return for their confidence and welcome.

Courage is the attribute of the Government of
India which I would place first, courage and single-
.purposed strength begotten of a confident belief in
in the humanity and essentiality of British Govern-
ment What better object lesson, what better example
of this, can one have, than the splendid courage of
Lord and Lady Hardinge on December 28 last,
when the British Government entered the new
•capital of Delhi ? The hideous act of a miserable
.anarchist led to an escape from death which can
literally be calculated in fractions of an inch, and
yet, by the wounded Viceroy's own orders, the
procession continued, and the British Baj was
■firmly installed in the capital of the Great Moguls.
I do not think history records greater physical
courage than was shown that day, or greater honesty
■of mind than was shown in the great speech I
heard in January, with which the Viceroy— still
■with pieces of the miscreant's missile in his back —

355

\J/ w' ^ r

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. ME. E. S. MONTAGU.

announced his unfaltering confidence in the
people of India. And his courage and our policy-
can plead its justification in the joy with which his
complete recovery has been witnessed and the con-
demnation of the outrage throughout the whole of
India. I can only say in this connexion, for I do
not want to spend your time in India to-day, that
the wisdom of the Durbar policy must be recognised,
by anyone who visits India, now, but that we must
not forget that anarchy exists in India, fostered
from hidden sources, some possibly beyond
the Empire itself, wholly independent of political
agitation yielding in no way to political treatment,,
and requiring the rigour of the Executive and the-
co-operation of all Indians in stamping it out.

In another part of his speech Mr. Montagu^
referred to the silver purchases.

He said some people had thought fit to-
bring against his personal honeur charges of cor-
ruption based on the fact that Lord Crewe had
purchased silver, to the great gain of taxpayers
of India, in. the normal course of business and with-
out his knowledge — for it was not in his Depart-
ment— through his brother's firm, a firm with
which he happened to have no personal connexion,-
He could only express a certain amount of family

356

MR. Montagu's visit to india.

pride that his brother's firm were successful in
■carrying out the wishes of the Government of India,
and after the speeches of the Prime Minister and
the answers given to questions in the House there
was no single respectable person of either pohtical
party who beheved that there was anything in the
■charges whatever.

357

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND
ENGLAND.

Lord Inchcape presided at a dinner of the-
Liberal Colonial Cl\^b at the Criterion Restaurant-
on February 19, 1914, when Mr. E. S. Montagu,
who has just been transferred from the Under-
Secretaryship for India to the Financial Secretary-
ship to the Treasury, opened a discussion on " Land
Problems in India and England."

I am painfully aware that I ought to begin by
saying, first, that India is a very large land, or
rather sub-continent, sheltering some 317,000,000
souls of every language, race and creed ; secondly,,
that the problems of its administration are a sealed
book to all but the experts and |that the experts
learn by long experience that nothing is to be
learned about India ; thirdly, that of all adminis-
trative problems that of the land is the one which
is sealed with seventy times seven seals. Yet I am
tempted to leave out for once in a way the time-
honoured warning. There are of course great and
essential differences between the land systems in
India and those to which we are accustomed ; and
we can best clear the ground by fixing them in our

358

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

minds at the outset. When once the ground i&
cleared, we shall be ready, I hope, to see what are
the positive lessons which India has to teach us.

In India you find the state inheriting the im-
memorial claim of the ruler to a part of the pro-
ceeds of land cultivation. The Moghu! Emperors
to whom we succeeded interpreted their claim in a
spirit ot Eastern magnificence ; they fixed one-
third of the gross produce as a fair share for the
ruler to take. It is hardly necessary to say
that the British Government has been a great
deal more modest ; but it has accepted the
principle, and continues to hold the position of
premier partner in the land ; that is to say, in by
far the greatest and most permanent source of
livelihood in the country. It is impossible to define
this feature of Oriental sovereignty in the precise-
terms of Western economics. Perhaps it will be
enough to say, very generally, that the land
revenue taken by the State in India is something
more than a tax, because the revenue-collecting
authorities undertake at the same time a number
of paternal duties more or less like those of a
beneficent lord of the manor ; and it is something
less than a rent, because the State has recognised
or even created individual proprietorship in land,,
while reserving its right to revenue from the areas
so assigned. It will not, at any rate, I think,,

359

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

interfere with the plan of this paper if I am allowed,
like Dr. Johnson when he was pressed for exact
details concerning the life hereafter, to " leave the
subject in obscurity." The practical points to re-
member are that the claim to land revenue is
readily accepted by the people whose traditions it
follows : that it provides, with a minimum chance
for oppression on the one hand or for evasion on the
other, a stable contribution amounting usually to
no less than two-fifths (20,000,000 sterling) of the
net revenues of Government ; and that it is practi-
cally the only impost of any importance that it
is paid by the agricultural classes which form some-
thing like two-thirds of the entire 'population of
India, and whose income, so far as it comes from
agriculture, is exempt from any form of income-tax.

Dominant Power.

My first point, then, is that the State in India
is a dominant power in land administration, with
powers of control that so far we have hardly dared
to contemplate in this country. My second point
is that underneath the State, with its functions of
superior landlord, the grouping of the agricultural
classes, as we shall see, is peculiar. Where there
are landlords below the State, competition for the
land in India, as in Ireland, has squeezed the tenant
a good deal more than it has in England ; there is

360

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

no distinct labouring class underneath, as we know
it to form an economic background on which the
pressure can be conveniently, if perhaps immorally,
worked off. The Indian tenant or cultivator is a
small man holding, we might say, a five-acre plot.
We can return to this point later in discussing
tenant law and practice in India. In the meantime
it will be useful to begin with a description of the
way in which the claim to land revenue is enforced
in order to form an idea of the basis on which the
iand system is worked.

In assessing and collecting the land revenue,
the Government has to deal with a number of
■classes of landholders. To avoid the complication
of using Indian names, I will try to define the
members of the heirarchy in my own terms, always
-on the understanding that definition in English
phraseology is an elusive matter. At the head is the^
State as superior landlord, levying revenue which,
if paid to a private individual, would be called rent.
Below the State there are two main divisions of
landholders. In the one you find landlords, who
may either be individuals, representing for the
most part the successors of the great contrac-
tors to whom revenues were framed out in
prc-British days, or landlord communities letting
their common holding. They differ of course from
British landlords as we know them in that their

361

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

right to the possession of the soil is qualified by the
revenue claims of Government. Below these are
tenants, paying rent to their landlords but not
directly to the State. The second main division
consists of petty occupants or peasant proprietors,
who hold their lands under the State without
an intermediary in the shape of a landlord,
and consequently pay revenue direct to the
State. Although many of them are practically
established as landowners, they ake allowed
as a class the right of escaping the whole or any
part of the revenue liability by relinquishing the
whole or any part of their holdings, in fact, they
are to the State as the average tenant is to the
average landlord in England. I propose to refer to
the two divisions as ' landlords' and ' cultivators'
respectively. In the one division the tenants, and
in the other the cultivators, usually till the soil
themselves, though occasionally with the aid of
labourers whose wages are paid in kind.

The general principle of revenue assessment
in the landlord areas is that the State is entitled to
a share of the ' net assets' of the landlords, which
are taken to represent the rents received plus the
rental value of the lands occupied of the landlords
themselves. The basis of assessment is naturally
the rent-roll, supplemented or checked where
necessary by direct valuation of the output of the

362

(/' o

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

soil. The proportion of the net assets claimed by
Government , usually varies somewhere between
45 and 55 per cent ; in fact, a share of one-half may
be taken as a fair index, though not by any
means as a positive rule. I would like to quote
at this point two principles laid down in a
comprehensive statement of the Government's land
revenue policy issued in 1902. They are as follows: —

. (]) ' That in areas w-here the State receives its
land revenue from landlords, progressive moderation
is the key-note of the policy of Government, and
that the standard of 50 per cent, of the assets is
one which is almost uniformly observed in practice,
and is more often departed from on the side of
deficiency than of excess.'

(2) ' That in the same areas the State has not
objected, and does not hesitate, to interfere by
legislation to protect the interests of the tenants .
against oppression at the> hands of the landlords.'

The first of these allows free scope for elastic
treatment where it is called for ; the second shows
that the Government rejects the short-sighted policy
of acquiescing in a high scale of rents merely for
the sake of extra revenue that cculd be assessed
thereon. To turn to the cultiMited areas, the State
takes a varying proportion— usually a good deal less
than one-half— of what is known as the ' net pro-

3G3

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

duce ' of the land ; that is to say, gross profits, minus
■the cost of cultivation. It will be noticed that revenue
is assessed on the actual cultivator's own profits where
the States deal direct with the cultivators and on
rental profits alone where the States deal with the
landlord. This is explained by the fact that in the
cultivated areas the State itself stands in the rela-
tion of landlord to the cultivator, so that the revenue
in this case corresponds more directly to rent. I
may mention by the way that in the great cultivated
tracts of Bombay, the system is peculiar in that
revenue is assessed on a system of classifying the
fields according to their probable fertility, and not,
one of valuation of the net produce of the land.

Revision op Assessment.

Continual re-assessment on these lines from
year-to-year would of course be a hopelessly cum-
brous and harassing procedure. In nearly every
province there is a periodical revision of the
revenue demand, known as a ' settlement',
which is undertaken once in a cycle varying from
20 to 30 years, and the amount then assessed holds
good for the term of the settlement, subject to such
minor adjustments or remissions as special circum-
stances in each year may make advisajole. There
is, however, a very important exception to the system
• of recurring assessment, or * temporary settlement*

364

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

as it is knoMD, •which is not a little instructive in-
its working. In the last quarter of the eighteenth
centurj', at a time when administrators were-
under the conviction that the best way of
securing prosperity on the land was to free the
hands of the landlords as far as possible, the
revenue payable in certain landlords' areas was
declared to be permanently settled, and Govern-
ment definitely abrogated from that date any claim
to share in the increased protits that, were sure to
come with the rise in the value of the properties.
Consequently, in the greater part of Bengal, in
some of the districts of Benares to the west and in
parts of the Madras Presidency to the south, there
has been no revision of assessment for something
like a century, while the value of the land has risen
greatly in direct consequence of State activity .in
maintaining security and providing trade facilities
by the construction of railways and other means of
communication. The result is that the land revenue
received by the State over the whole province of
permanently settled Bengal is somewhat less than
one-fourth of the lands. It is, I think, generally
recognised that the conviction on which the
system of permanent settlement was based was over-
sanguine. The general level of prosperity in these
areas is no higher than in the temporarily settled
tracts ; the tenants are by no means under-rented

365

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

nor are the estates better run; indeed, the main
result seems to have been a process of sub-letting
carried almost ad infinitum, with its train of mono-
poly, profits, absentee landlordism and inefficient
or exacting management. The Government of
India have prolited by their experience. They have
intervened in the permanently settled areas, so far
as is compatible with their pledges, to safeguard the
rights of tenants ; and they have retained through-
out the greater part of India their controlling
authority by the simple means of revising their
revenue demand periodically, with all the activities
which accompany the process, as we &hall see.
But the permanent settlement may help us, I think,
to realise the disadvantages of landlord endowment on
an extensive scale. We can leave out of account
the loss of the unearned increment which the State
has established the right to share in other parts of
India. That, no doubt, is a peculiar feature of the
Indian land system. But apart from this, the facts
have shown that you cannot increase prosperity
on the land by giving permanent relief to any one
class unless you extend the relief to those who
work below the privileged class. We hear a good
deal just now of the panacea of State-aided land-
purcha.se for the tenant. So long as the tenant
stands at the bottom of the scale of cultivators, the
road is safe; but it is sife only so long as you

366

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

work upwards from the lowest class to the highest.
In England the foundation of agriculture is the
labourer ; and if the foundation is neglected it only
over-weights the structure and then you have only
to strengthen the joists. It i% a noteworthy fact
that when the Government in India has had to deal
with properties that have come into its direct
possession — properties that often lay within perma-
nently settled areas — it has departed from the earlier
policy of disposing of them to private landlords,
and has put ihem into the hands of men of the
' cultivator ' class, for the reason that the agricul-
turists could be better protected. The principle of
working upwards from the foundation is one that
w^e shall meet again in Indian land administration.

System in Villages.

The work of assessment in the temporarily
•settled areas is of course a very intricate affair, with
wide differences of practice in the several provinces.
Our chief interest to-night, I think, will naturally be
with the landlord areas of Northern India ; and we
might perhaps look at the work as it is done in a
single province by way of illustration, and correct
onesided impressions so far as we can by reference to
other provinces with different methods. I would like
to begin with the Panjab, a province for the most part
under the ownership of joint village landlords or

367

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

proprietor communities. These my be called, if you
like, yeoman farmers. The method of assessment
may, of course, vary in details almost from district to
district within the province ; but a summary of r few
typical features may help to give a working idea of
the process on which land administration ultimately
rests. The unit dealt with is the village, that is, the
communal group with the area covered by its hold-
ings. Each village has its ' patwari,' or village
accountant to act as intermediary between the
people and the representatives of Government. An
exact record is kept in his charge, and continually"
corrected up-to-date, giving the entire history of
each plot of land in the area, with not only the full
terms of ownership and tenancy, but a complete
account of its crop possibilities and the particular
advantages or drawbacks under which it is worked.
To ensure accuracy, the patwari, accompanied by
the tenant or owner, who is bound under penalty to
go with him on his rounds, inspects each field twice
a year, and records the condition of the spring and
autumn crops, whether the field is used for fallow-
land, pasture, fodder, millet, wheat, sugar-cane*
and so forth. The account is based on a more or
less scientific system of survey, and the result is the
building up of a record which for accuracy and
minuteness ought to satisfy the most hardened ad-
ministrator. It is not easy to draw a picture vivid

368

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

enough to make an impression in England of all
that this annual verification of agricultural records
means. The accuracy of the village maps is tested
again and again: indeed, I was told very early in my
connection with India that a man who thoroughly
understood and appreciated the patwaris maps and
books understood India, and nothing I have seen sO'
convinced me of the paternity of Indian Govern-
ment and the confidence qf Indian people as th&
testing by an Assistant Collector of these records.

Flat, and of course hedgeless, fields, separated
usually only by the little mud dams which coax the
irrigation water in the most desirable direction ;.
the sharply-defined, glarin-j, baked mnd walls of the
village ; the crowd of patient, iuterested cultivators ;
the hordes of little children, and the heavy manures
dumped on the field. And then, all the machinery
of the survey : the rough cross stick — for ready
surveying the only instrument ; the books in which
are recorded the owners, the tenants, the mortgages,
the sales, the leases and the condition and nature
of crops on each field in the village ; the patwari,
the kanungo, the tahsildar, the Assistant Collector —
all eager to see that measurements are true, that
records are accurate, and all taking the opportunity
of discovering — for the opportunity is unique — the
daily life, the calamities, the good fortunes, of the

369
24

SPEECHES OP THE KT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

people concerned. Here is a system, which does not
permit any ignorance of the owner of the land nor
does it allow profit to escape just taxation, or hard-
ship to fail of beneficent easement. Remove it, and
it seems to me that you leave tenant, at the mercy
of landlord, labourer at the mercy of tenant, the
governing classes as uninterested and inquisitorial
busy-bodies, and the police the only source of
information between villager and the man in charge.

The next step in assessment is that a number of
villages, under similar conditions as regards soil,
water-supply, trade facilities, and so on, is grouped in-
to a larger division known as a circle, for the purpose
of broadening the basis on which the calculations are
made ; and the average of landlords' rents are taken
for a period of '20 to 30 years, corresponding to the
term of the settlement, so as to cover any changes
in the conditions of tenure during the period . If,
as is generally the case in the Punjab, the land is
held by the proprietors themselves as co-sharers in
the proprietary body, or if the rents are paid, as
often happens, in produce, arrival at the revenue
estimate is naturally a complicated process. The
average yield of each crop is found by experimental
•cutting and threshing, and the value of the yield
by reference to the published market prices. From
the result is deduced a cash equivalent for the rents

370

THE LAND PEOBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

paid in the circle, and this in turn gives a theoreti-
cal estimate, on the 50 per cent, basis, of the total
revenue that is due to Government. In the same
way, the ratios are determined in which different
kinds of land ought to pay according to their rela-
tive advantages of soil and position ; for instance,
if it is found thit the value of the output on land
irrigated from a canal is twice that of the output on
land which is watered by a tank or well ; the assess-
ment on the former will be two to one as compared
with that of the latter. With all the varieties of
land roughly classified in the village records, it be-
comes a fairly easy matter to adjust the circle rate
■of assessment to the different village areas, so that
an estimate — still of a theoretical kind — is reached
of the amount of revenue due from each village.
Whet-e the rents are paid in cash and not in produce
the work of assessment is of course a good deal
simpler, although even here recourse may be had to
•the method of direct valuation in order to check the
result.

Test op Revenue Ofpiceh.

But, in a sense, the real work of assessment

begins instead of ending at this point. It is now

the business of the Settlement Officer who is usually

^a member of the Indian Civil Service in the charge

■of the operations, to see that the theoretical rates

371

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGF.

do not in effect fall too heavily, or it may be too-
lightly, on the areas under his supervision. In
dealing w^ith each village, he has to take into account,
all the factors, such as the level of prosperity, means-
of communication, mortality rates, whether the-
inhabitants are by nature good or bad cultivators,,
everything in fact which calls for elasticity in mak-
ing the actual revenue demand ; and the final
result is usually reached after full and probably
prolonged discussion with the village representatives.
It is in the right appraisement of these governing,
details that the man in charge of the work proves

himself to be a capable revenue officer. There are
two points I might bring forward at this stage as.
possible subjects of interest for discussion. One is
whether the risk of duplication of work in assess-
ment— the double valuation first of natural or
artificial advantages and then of the actual output —
might not be more completely avoided by some
system standardising the valuation rates of assess-
ment, and thereafter varying the revenue demand
according to the changes in local circumstances, such
a^ the rise in food prices, the improvement of com-
munications, and so on. Such a system is already
used to some degree in Madras, and might perhaps
be extended with advantage elsewhere. The second
point, I think, is one of rather more general interest.
Youwill notice that each individual liable for revenue.

372

THE LAND PBOBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

has to pay the proportion demanded in his locality
according to the nature of his holding ; if this should
happen to amount, say, to one-fifth of the net profits
of cultivation, the big man pays 20 rupees out of 100,
and the small man pays one rupee out of five. We
are getting accustomed to recognise that the hard-
ship in the latter case is a good deal greater than
in the former. Allowances are made, it is true,
for the small man in India, not it is done at
the discretion of the revenue officers, and not
•on any uniform principle : and one is tempted
to wonder whether it would be possible to apply a
graduated scale of assessment instead. There is, of
<iourse, the theoretical objection that such a measure
would promptly label land revenue as a tax. But
I cannot help thinking that the Government of
India's record shows that it is strong enough to look
this difficulty boldly in the face ana pass it by.

To turn from these points to noteworthy
•differences in practice elsewhere, it may be remarked
that the principles of survey, record and valuation
are common ground. In Oudh, however, where
land-owning is often on the grand scale, and where
i-evenue is assessed on the aggregate of the sums
received by a single landlord as rent from a number
of villages forming his estate, attention is paid more
to actual rents than to general rates of rent that

373

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU..

ought to apply to soils. In the Central Provinces,
there is an ingenious system in force by which the-
value of the different soils is reduced lo a common
denominator, and the proper rent-scales determined
thereby for purposes of revenue assessment. We
can deal more conveniently with the peculiar
features of this system when we turn to matters of
tenancy practice.

In the great cultivated areas, as for instance in
Madras and Bombay, the task is a little simpler. In
dealing with the actual occupant of each field, there is
no need to do more than value and assess the field
correctly ; the determination for rights of tenure,, and
the distribution of assessment over the property-
group as undertaken in the Punjab drops out. In
Southern India we find villages arranged in groups,,
corresponding to the Punjab circles, but a broad
division is observed according as the land depends^
for its water-supply on irrigation, or on rainfall sup-
plemented by wells. Assessment of course is based
on an exhaustive scrutiny of the possibilities of the-
varioLis soils.-

Before I leave the subject of revenue rights and
assessment, I should add that the revenue claim is
held to extend to urban areas as well as to other.
In a resolution of 1879, it is stated that the Governor-
General in Council is aware of no reason why land

374

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

revenue should not be levied upon lands attached to
private residences or covered with buildings as much
as upon arable or pasture lauds. In general, land that
is cultivated for profit in these areas is assessed in
the ordinary on a share of the produce ; land used
for private amenities or other like purposes is assess-
ed according to the usual rate for the description
of soil, although there are provisions making for
leniency in dealing with this kind of property. It
is interesting to tind that in the United Provinces
there are rules under which areas covered by groves
are exempt from revenue payment unless and until
the groves are cut down. Lands taken up by a
municipality for public purposes are generally
speaking exempt, unless they are«devoted to objects,
such as establishment of markets, from which
income is raised. I do not think it is necessary to
deal with local rates or ces<^es, except to say that
they are usually levied on the basis of revenue as-
sessment unless in particular cases they take special
forms.

Premier Partner in Land.

If I may try to sum up in the broadest terms
the feature of the ground we have so far covered,
I would repeat that Government of India has
succeeded to the position of premier partner in the

375

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

land, with not only the rights but the corresponding
•duties of that p@sition. I have shown how, in the
areas under a temporary settlement, it has been
able to take in the form of revenue a large share of
the unearned increment of the land ; this is, of
course, devoted to public purposes, the benefit of
which is ultimately shared by the agriculturists.
But the State's concern for subordinate interest is
shown directly as well as indirectly. There is, for
instance, a general practice of ensuring that favour
shown to the landlord by way of reduction or re-
mission of revenue in a bad season shall be passed
on in some degree to the tenant in the matter of
rent. There is, too, a special circumstance which
has led the Government of India, to quote the words
of Sir J. Bampfylde Fuller, ' to intervene and to
use its proper functions of controlling and moderat-
ing the struggle for life.' By the moderation of
its assessment the British Government has raised
the selling value of landlords' estates from next to
nothing to over 300 millions sterling, says the same
authority ; and the result has been a strengthening
of the power of the landlords and a weakening of
the poorer cultivators which has been met with
fearless and sometimes drastic treatment. We are
told now and then that the Government of India
■contents itself with the function of looking after the
interests of those who have either fallen from a

376

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

higher estate or have enjoyed the protection of pre-
ceding rulers, or for other reasons have historical
claims upon the State. This may have been the
case in the early days of British rule, but the facts
shown that since then the Government has" moved
step-by-step in the direction of what we should call
benevolent interference. Nowhere is this better
exemplified than in the systems of tenant law and
practice for which I should now like to ask your
patience.

I will take first as an illustration the policy that
has been followed in Bengal and in Agra. Two
classes of tenants among others were found ; those
who represented the old landholders, and those
whose position was really, though perhaps not
demonstrably, due to contract. The first of these
clearly had theoretical claims to preferential treat-
ment, but great difficulty was found in drawing
a working distinction between the two. The
difficulty was summarily met by enacting that^
where any tenant had continuously held the same
land for twelve years, he should be regarded as a
privileged or ' occupancy ' tenant, endowed with a
hereditary right and secured against rack-renting
and arbitrary eviction. Landlords found it easy to
forestall the acquisition of occupancy tenant right,
either by evicting and reinstating the tenant or by

377

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

inducing him to change some part of holding before
the twelve years ran out. These devices w^ere met
later b)' specific checks in the case of Agra and by
an enactment in Bengal that the tenant need merely
prove that he had held land in his village for twelve
years continuously. In the Punjab, the Central
Provinces and Oudh, it was an easier matter to dis-
tinguish a class of privileged landholders, who were
recognised as ' sub-proprietors to their landlords,
and there was consequently the less need in theory to
extend the protection of Government indiscrimi-
nately to all classes of tenants. Even so, the Oudh
Bent Act of 1886 gives certain privileges to all tenants
in the matter of seven years' term without ejectment
or further enhancement. In the Central Provinces,
individual landlordships were created at one time
for special reasons by grant of Government, and as-
a set-off the State has exercised itself even more
directly than elsewhere to maintain the rights of the
tenants. At the time of the settlement the revenue^
officer does not stop short at comparing the rent-
rolls with the result of valuation ; he is empowered
by law to fix for a term of years, the actual rents
payable by the tenants to the landlords, in order
to ensure that the general incidence of rent,.
and with that of revenue may as far as possible
be equal. It will not be out of place to mention an
interesting episode that occurred in the Central

378

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

Provinces before power was taken to fix rent under
law. At a time when the wheat export trade was
expanding, the landlords took to demanding their
rents in grain instead of in cash, and at ruinous
rates, in order to gain control of the produce of the
tenant . class that was then unprotected by law.
When revenue came to be assessed on the rent-rolls
as they stood, the landlords complained that these
were fictitiously high, whereupon the Government
offered to reduce its revenue demands on condition
that rents were lowered to a realisable standard and
fresh leases were issued. Since then, as we have
seen, the State has intervened by direct legislation
and there has been the less need to rely on the check
of revenue assessment. That is to say, the State
has tended to emphasise its position rather as the
arbitrator between classes than as merely the pre-
dominant partner in the land ; and I think it would
be pedantic to have to postulate the latter position
before venturing to exercise the functions of the
former. Generally speaking, the privileged or
occupancy tenants still enjoy special measures of
protection as regards fixity of rent and tenure which.
are not, as a matter of principle, conceded to ordinary
tenants ; that is to say, rent enhancement, eject-
ment and distraint are largely taken out of the
hands of the landlords in the former but not in
the latter case. Yet ordinary tenants are protected

379

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

by Government against harshness on the part of.
the landlords in exercising their powers and
the barrier between the two classes is not insur-
mountable. In the landlord areas of Madras,
where the influence of middlemen on the land
has been much less marked than in Northern
India and the tenant's position is of a simpler
iind and has been safeguarded by tradition, the
latest Act, passed in 1908, is of a striking nature.
It declares that every cultivator or ryot, * now in
possession or who shall hereafter be admitted by a
landlord to be in possession of ryoti-land ' (that is,
land on an estate other than the home farm land in
the special possession of the proprietor) shall have
a permanent right of occupancy in his holding. The
tenant's right is hereditable and transferable ; he
can make improvements and claim compensation
for them in the event of dispossession ; his *ent
•cannot be raised except by decree of Court, and then
only to the extent of 12^ per cent. Such are the typi-
cal rights guaranteed by Government to privileged
tenants, not only when their status is historical, but
when they have been raised to that status, as they
not infrequently are, by express enactment.

Over and above these special cases it is import-
ant to remember that as matter of general
practice the revenue officers of the Government,

380

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

where they are not actually empowered to fix rents
by law, can and do use their discretion to settle the
rates that ought to be paid ; in fact, they play the
part of the good land agent to the superior landlord
^ — the State in this case — intervening actively in
matters of dispute between tenant and sub-tenant.
Moreover, when there is occasion for rent or
tenant creases to be taken into Court for decision,
they go in most of the provinces before special
revenue Courts, or at any rate tribunals of revenue
officers composed of men who have kept in close
working touch with the problems on which they
have to adjudicate. The Government of India are
not content to leave these matters to the ordinary
and perhaps inexpert process of civil law.

Protection of Tenants.

I should like to refer to two sets of arguments
against the possibility of applying principles of Indian
land administration to English conditions. In the
first place, it is sometimes said that the right of
appeal to judicial authority in matters of rent and
tenure is confined on principle to the privileged
tenants-class in India, while ordinary tenants are
properly left to depend on the bargains that
th-ey can derive with their landlords ; and it
is argued that the indiscriminate extension of the

381

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

right in England would be a dangerous innovation.
I think it is fair to say that the State protection of
the privileged tenants goes as a matter of fact a
good deal beyond that right. As to the ordinary
tenants, it has to be remembered that the State has
helped them on occasions, as I have mentioned,
either by interposing the check of revenue assess-
ment upon excessive rent demands, or by raising
the tenants' status bodily to that of the privileged
class ; and this apart from the good of&ces, as I have
just said, freely rendered by its revenue officers. It
does not seem to me that measures such as these
are any less drastic in principle than the compara-
tively mild expedient of allowing the right of appeal
in question. If the State in India is ready to take
the most convenient form of protecting the weaker
interests, why should not we in England be prepared
to follow their example ?

The second contention is that the tenant in
India, without State intervention, is so much more
at the mercy of his landlord, by reason of the
keenness of competition and the absence for the
most part of alternative industries and the difficulty
of transplantation to other districts, that a far
greater of State protection is justifiable than
would be the case in England. To this I would
answer that where the strain on the tenant in

382

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

England is removed as is so often the case, by the
simple process of shifting it on the class below hiii
the case for State intervention on behalf of thai
■class is no less urgent. And if the State in securing;
higher rates of wages for the labourer finds it neces-
sary to re-impose the burden on the tenant, it is
•surely no less its duty to lighten that burden by th(
most expedient means, that is as I have said, by tht
principle of working from the foundation upward
It is in the light of this principle that I have triec
to put before you the leading methods of tenani
protection in India.

If your patience is not already exhausted, ]
should like to take up as briefly as possible somt
feature of the land system lying outside the tw(
great spheres of land revenue :ind tenancy. Then
^re, for instance, one or two points of interest con-
nected with lands under the direct control of th(
State in India. These fall mainly into two classes
There are properties which have passed h\
various ways into Government lands, whethei
because the title of succession has lapsed or beer
forfeited, or because estates have been taken ovei
(though very rarely in recent times) for arrears o;
revenue. I have already mentioned how these cam<
for the most part to be handed over to cultivatori
working directly under State, which managed b>

383

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

this means to secure protection for the agriculturist^
at the same time a valuable training ground for
young revenue officers. In the second place,
Government claims the ownership of all waste
lands. Some of these are held by the State as
forest reserves or (in the Punjab) as fuel areas ;
some are gradually made over to villages for cultiva-
tion as the demand spreads ; and in the north-west
of India large arid tracts have been brought under
irrigation by means of monumental engineering
works, and are being parcelled out to colonists-
with the double object of extending the area
of cultivation and of raising the pressure on the land
elsewhere. These canal colonies are worked by culti-
vators directly under the State, land revenue is
payable on the usual basis, but the assessment is very

light during the early years of occupancy when the
outlay is heavy and the return is small. While we

are on this subject we can conveniently refer to the
powers of Government to acquire land when neces-
sary for public purposes. Procedure under the
latest Land Acquisition Act that of 1894, is simple-
and satisfying. The Government notifies the areas
which it wishes to exercise the right of taking
over, and the right is incontestable at law ; a-
State officer values the lands and estimates
the compensation payable at market rates to the-
holders ; and the latter may, if they wish, appeal

384

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

to the Civil Courts against the amount of compensa-
tion assessed. But the Courts are expressly debarred
by Statute from taking into consideration any rise
in the value of the property that may have taken
place since the date on v/hich the Government
notified its intention of acquiring the land. The
expedient is so direct and so wholesome that it
needs no comment ; it is comforting to know that
we shall not have long to wait before municipalities
in this country are empowered to get to work in
similar lines. I will only add that in the course of
the latest and in the most extensive proceedings
under the Act — I mean the Acquisition of Land for
the new Imperial Capital at Delhi extending back
to the early part of 1912— it is being found that the
original estimates for compensation are not being
seriously exceeded as a result of actions at law.

The agriculturist in India, as in other countries,
has always the problem of finding capital for his
needs. Private money-lenders are plentiful but the
rates of interest they ask, ranging from 12 to 24
per cent, or more, are not exactly conducive to
prosperity, and their ambitions to secure land by
mortgage are looked at askance by the Government
which has found it necessary, in some parts, to curtail
the peasant's ability to raise money on his land by
placing restrictions on alienation. Direct State

385

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MOMTAGU.

assistance is forthcoming in the grant of Govern-
ment loans for the purpose of making improvements
and the provision of advances to meet more tempor-
ary needs, such as the rehef of distress and
the purchase of seed and cattle. It is worth while
remembering that Indian peasants give valuable
hostages to fortune in the shape of livestock, and
that fortune is often cruel in India. A second and
more important form of State activity is the encour-
agement of Co-operative Credit Societies which are
run, as far as possible, by the members themselves but
with sympathetic help and directions from Govern-
ment officials. The expansion of the movement
under Government guidance has been most success-
ful, and everything points to continued growth.
Apart from these measures, the State gives direct
encouragement to more expenditure of capital on
the land by framing rules in the various provinces
under which increase of income, due to improve-
ments made by private individuals, are exempted
from revenue assessment, either permanently or for
a rerm of years.

Case of England.

No one, I trust, will imagine that I have tried
to do more than give the barest outline of the Govern-
ment land policy in India. I shall have succeeded

386

THE LAND PROBLEM IN INDIA AND ENGLAND.

if I have conveyed some impression of the methods
followed by what is perhaps the most efficient
administration of our times. In a land such as
England, where reform moves from within, and has
to depend in the long ran upon the pressure of
democratic opinion with its confused voices and
■conflicting interests, it is sometimes difficult to
escape into the hard, clear atmosphere which one
iinds in India. In this country we broaden reluc-
tantly with many creakings, from precedent to
•precedent, and every creak is hailed as a portent of
revolution. AVhatever on the other hand may be
the defects of a bureaucratic Government, its cardi-
nal justification should at any rate be efficiency :
the unbiassed ■ and unhesitating application of the
right method to secure the right result. In India
we find an example oi: a condition, in which the
State, freed from the resourceless grib of hallowed
-catchwords, secures its just shares of the profits it
has created, and intervenes to protect the weaker
interests against, the stronger, and finds its chief
concern in the ceaseless maintenance of prosperity
•on th^ land — are we to say that no lesson is to be
learned, no moral is to be drawn from its activities ?
Can we not for once turn aside from the immemorial
phrase that too often stands in the part of progress
in this country V An Indian landholder some-
times tells the revenue officers, when he cannot

387

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. 3. MONTAGU.

account for the origin or extent of holding, that it:
ig dadillahi, or gift of God ; but that simple utterance-
does not reheve the State of its rights or
its duties in respect of his holding. It is hard to-^
maintain that any equivalent formula should be
allowed to have magic properties in England.

388

THE COUNCIL OF INDIA BILL.

Mr. E. S. Montagu, M.P., the late Under-
Secretary for India, dealt vigorously in the follow-
ing letter to the " Times " of July 6 1914 with the
iattack made by Lord Gurzon in the House of Lords
•on the Council of India Bill in general, and on
^himself in particular : —

Lord Curzon, in moving the rejection of the
-Council of India Bill in the House of Lords on
Tuesday last, found occasion to refer to two persons
of widely different fame and achievements, from
whom he had nothing to fear in the course of
debate His strictures on the late Lord Minto
I can safely leave to be dealt with by more com-
petent hands, but I trust you will allow me space
to reply to an observation which he did me the
honour to direct at me.

In the earlier part of his spech he remarked,
as reported in your columns : — " It is common know-
ledge that this Bill in its main features is the
product of the late Under-Secretary (Mr. Montagu)
who during his term at the India Office found that
the machinery that existed did not suit his ideas,
«nd set alwut to destroy it to the best of his ability."

389

LETTER OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAiSU.

I fear he has attached too much importance to a
compliment which Lord Crewe was good enough to-
pay to me in the House of Lords last July. It is,
of course, easy for Lord Curzon with his wonted
delicacy of touch to lift the skirt of a reforming
measure in order to reveal beneath it the cloven
hoof of a scheming politician, and, what is to him
worse, a politician still young. I will not urge the
obvious plea that the Secretary of State, by intro-
ducing the measure in the House of Lords, has
completely identified himself with its scope and
intentions. So far as I am concerned, I confess I
feel no cause to be ashamed of any part I may
have played in the initiation of the proposals now
brought forward in their matured form.

" A System Petrified in a Statute."

The charge, fhowever, as it reads, is explicit.
It attributes to me no better object than ruthless
destruction, and no higher motive than the satis-
faction of my personal predilections. As, in the
event of Lord Curzon's motion succeeding, I shalt
have no other opportunity, I feel it is only due to
myself to ask you to allow me to correct this most
unfair and entirely false impression. I have no
objection to stating my main motive in helping to
adapt to modern conditions a system petrified in a
statute founded on the conditions of more than half

390

THK COUNCIL OP INDIA BILL.

a century ago. It does not require argument to
show that in the peculiar circumstances of Indian
government it is a grave danger that there should
exist lack of sympathy between the Executive
Government of India and the guiding and ultimately
controlling office at home. I have long been
convinced, from my knowledge of recent events and
from careful enquiry in India, that such lack of
sympathy as may exist is due, not to the exer-
cise by the Secretary of State of those functions
of revision and of determining policy so justly
defined by John Stuart Mill in the passage quoted by
the writer of your leading article on June 29, but
to the intolerable procrastination, iiK-vitable under
the India Office system, and to a tendency to
undue interference from home in the minutiae of
administration. Interference of this kind comes, I
assert emphatically, not from the Secretary of State
who has neither the time nor the inclination for it,
but from his Council, whose energies are naturally
turned in this direction by their Indian-formed and
regularised habit of mind. My ideas have, therefore,
always moved in the direction of a smaller and at the
same time more up-to-date advisory body, working
on a more elastic, adaptable and speedier system,
I could not expect this line of thought to commend
itself to Lord' Curzon, whose every word on the
subject of India since he resigned his office has un-

391

LETTER OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

derlined the essential truth stated by the " Times of
India "on February 24 last, that " India is moving
so fast that it is dangerous for those who have been
long absent to venture on dogmatic opinions re-
garding current politics." T should be the last
to depreciate Lord Curzon's incessant, unwearying,
and uncompromising efforts to perfect administra-
tive efficiency ; but I must be permitted to hold that
it is carrying indulgence for the opinions of a
retired Indian administrator, however great, too far
to acquiesce in his assumption that " the force of
Nature can no further go" than the high- water
mark of his own seven years' achievement. In
considering details of a scheme framed to meet the
needs of 1914, it is difficult to be convinced by
arguments based upon Lord Stanley's speeches in
1858, the experience of an Under-Secretary, however
superior, in 1891, and the ex cathedra pronounce-
ments of a Vicerory of 1899-1905.

I must resist the temptation to comment
upon the lengths to which Lord Curzon's passion
for solid obstructiveness can carry him, as,
for instance, when he makes a pathetic appeal
on behalf of voiceless Indian taxpayers within
a few minutes of stating pontifically that a
proposal to give them a voice is utterly indefensible ;
it is perhaps unfair to cavil at the self-contradictions

392

THE dOUNCIL OF INDIA BILL.

■of a speaker so sadly hampered by a redundancy to
superlatives. The fact is that some of his own
arguments fail to escape the orgy of mutilation
which followed his exhibition in the first few
sentences of the corpse of the Bill hanged, drawn
and quartered.

When Lord Curzon says that in the case of
Oovernment of India autocracy is not a blunder,
but a crime, I can only humbly assent to his august
•and incontrovertible maxim, adding my regret that
its utterance was unaccompanied by any note of
personal repentance.

393

TRIBUTE TO SIR K. G. GUPTA, K. C. S. L

AT THE COMPLIMENTARY BANQUET AT THE |iOTEL
CECIL {2nd JUNE 1915) Mr. MONTAGU SAID: .

It must have struck some of them that it was
not the precise moment when one would, have
chosen an opportunity for a festive gathering.
But this dinner of farewell to a man who had
served the Empire long and well was essentially a
gathering which should take place, war or no war.
(Hear, hear.) It was not really necessary for him
to say anything about their guest. They all knew
him and respected him. They were there without
ceremony and without formality to do him honour.
He was closing a long and valuable ojfficial career.
If they looked at the calendar, and if they carefully
avoided looking at Sir Krishna — (laughter) — they
would learn that he had served the Empire forty-
four years — a period which carried them back to-
the time when many of them, never even turned
their minds to India — when many of them, indeed^
were never even thought of at all. (Laughter.) With
the unconquerable demeanour of youth their guest
had faced every changing problem, prepared to da

394

TRIBUTE TO SIE K. G. GUPTA, K. C. S. I.

battle and prepared to solve all difficulties. He
had been carried through it all by an overwhelming
sense of duty, by an unequalled love of his country
and by a saving sense of humour. H^ had seen
Sir Krishna at work and at play, and if he were
asked to describe the peculiar quality which had
made his^work so valuable, he would reply that he-
was gifted above all of them with a far-seeing
patience which enabled him to work at smaller
thing,s with his eyes still steadfastly fixed on a future
which he might himself never see, but for which he
was working none the less. He had seen Lord
Morley's reforms working for the living and good
of India. He had seen Lord Crewe's memorable
sojourn at the India Office. He had seen the vindi-
cation of his belief in the community of the ideals
of Great Britain and of India. He had vitalised his
work with deep and abiding enthusiasm for the
service of India as an integral part of our Empire.
He hud toiled to see and had helped forward a
progressive and advancing India set firm on the
path of the realisation of a splendid future in partner-
ship with Great Britain, whose predominance
and continuing part in the development of India
was now reaping a gieat reward in the evidence of
loyalty to the common ideal of freedom and liberty
in the cause of which their soldiers were doing
battle side by Tside. (Cheers.) In all this their

395

SPEECHES OP THE BT. EON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

guest had played a part which those interested would
freely and gladly recognise and they now wished
him long and peaceful enjoyment of the leisure
which he had so richly earned. (Cheers.)

396

REPORT OF THE
MESOPOTAMIAN COMMISSION.

SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
ON JULY 12, 1917.

The first consideration which I would like tc
address to the House is that we are discussing the
second occasion which has arisen during the War
in which politicians, soldiers, doctors and civil
servants come in for severe censure. This country,
which started at the beginning of the War, wholly
unprepared for, and wholly unexpectant of a conflict
of this kind, has, despite the / atmosphere of self-
criticism in which we live, somehow or other through
all these mistakes and muddles, developed into the
terror of all our enemies, and the most conspicuous
enemy and the most successful enemy that Germany
possesses. It does seem to me that that is a remarkable
fact. When we consider the Reports of Commissions
of this kind, after all, we are now discussing one
phase in the most successful campaign of the War,
the one campaign in which the objective has been
achieved. To-day the British flag is flying at Bagdad.

397

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGD.

"Where else has been any comparable success ? And
these are only the early stages which played a pre-
liminary part in that great success which has been
won by General Maude. I agree with the Hon.
Gentleman who spoke last and my hon. and gallant
Friend (Colonel Sir M. Sykes) who spoke from the
B^ck Bench opposite. There are many grave
disidvantages in the appointment of these Commis-
sions. As my hon. and gallant Friend said they
are bound by their term of reference to act exactly
as the Allies have acted throughout this War, and to
consider seuarately little bits of the picture rather
than bring it into true perspective with all the other
-events which are happening in other parts of the
world. After all, if our conspicuous success had
been continuous, if General Nixon had reached
Bagdad without a reverse would there ever have
been a Mesopotamian Commission '? And yet there
is no comment upon the fact that just after the
battle of Ctesiphon — I think I am right in
the date — Gallipoli was evacuated and the whole
picture was changed by the liberation of the^
Turkish forces in the Peninsula. That is my
first criticism on the Commission, that you
cannot get a true perspective by examining as
an isolated thing one theatre of the world War •
and the second point that I make against these
Commissions has been rendered obvious by all the

398

INDIAN ADMINISTBATION.

■discussions which took place in the early part of the
afternoon. As a result of the publication of the
Report, necessarily without evidence, serious char-
ges are made against individuals who have never
had an opportunity of learning the evidence against
them.

The result is that if yoa wish to take action
■against these individuals, you are confronted with
difficulties with which my right hon. and learned
Friend dealt earlier this afternoon, and I submit
.that if you are going to have any further proceed-
ings it would have been far better to postpone the
■question until your sittings are completed, because
now, whatever Court sits, it must not only have the
prejudice of this discussion, but the prejudice
of the public discussion upon the Report. I
join with my right hon. and learned Friend beside
me in his suggestion that of the two alternatives
offered that of the right hon. Gentleman the
Attorney-General is much the more satisfactory.
My third complaint against this Commission is
that in the terms of reference they are asked to
attach responsibility to departments of the Govern-
ment, but what the Commission did was to attach
responsibility not to departments of the Government,
but to individuals. The House and the country
are sapping in that way the whole service of co-
operative effort and departmental responsibility in

399

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

this country. Men are asking for instructions in
writing, men are safeguarding themselves by letters
and by minutes, men dare not give advice because
they are afraid of a Commission sitting upon their
action. Under the old system the Parliamentary
Chief of the Department was responsible for what
occurred, and under his rule he cloaked with hi s
authority all those who worked for him. Has that
gone by the board ? This man and that man may
come to be censured, although working seriously
and courageously to the best of his endeavour. I
believe that by that means you are doing irreparable
injury to our system of government ; and you want-
to weigh that well against any good you can achieve-
on the other side.

After all, do not let us pass a verdict upon the
share of these men in this story because of the fact
that we know now, that in this part of the cam-
paign, at all events, they were defeated. Do not
let us punish men for failure. After all, when was
it that the serious defects in the equipment and the
plans of the advance on Bagdad really became-
obvious '? I do not say that there were not serious
shortages, horrible shortages of necessary supplies
before they could be successful, but what I do say
is that if there had been no defeat at Ctesiphon,
and if General Nixon had succeeded in getting to

400

MESOPOTAMIAN COMMISSION.

Bagdad, most of the evils which overtook the Army
in retreat would not have occurred. Therefore, the
greatest charge that you can bring against General
Nixon is that he failed to obtain success and took
serious risks. I do not believe that you will ever
beat the Germans unless you take risks, and I think
at any rate that the press atmosphere, if not the
House of Commons atmosphere, on this Report is a
direct invitation to everybody to take no risks at all.
Supposing — which God forbid ! — we should have a
similar Commission on affairs in Palestine ; in the one
case it would be that the advance was too quick, and
in the other that the advance was possibly too slow.
After all, has anybody read paragraph 9, page 18, of
the Report, where it describes General Nixon going
in the direction of Nasariyeh. The paragraph says : —

" The heat was terrific, still General Nixon
deemed it expedient to carry on the enterprise.
Major-General Gorringe, who was in charge of this
column, succeeded in capturing Nasariyeh on 25th
July, with 950 prisoners, seventeen guns and much
booty. These operations were initiated by the
General on the spot, supported by the Commander-
in-Chief and the Viceroy of India, and acquiesced
in by the Secretary of State. They appeared to us
to be sound from both a military and political view.
Our casualties amounted to 533 of all ranks".

401

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

In that cold and colourless language is described
one of the most courageous and brilliantly executed
exploits in all war, accomplished by General
Sir John Nixon, who has served his country
well, who has served it with distinction and who
has played a vital part in the greater successes of his
better equipped successors, and certainly he ought
not to be censured and punished, and driven out of
the Army on the isolated circumstances after the
battle of Ctesiphon, but we should acknowledge the
incomparable services which that same soldier has
rendered to his country.

From Sir John Nixon I will turn to Lord
Hardinge. There can be no doubt in the mind of
anybody who is acquainted with recent occurrences
in India, that Lord Hardinge when he left India,
left it, by the universal opinion of all Indians,
certainly by the overwhelming majority of Indians,
people and princes, as the most popular Viceroy of
modern times. There have been strong predeces-
sors of his, but when he came to India irritation
was rife, public opinion had been slighted and
ignored ; he showed himself from the beginning to
the end of his viceroyalty to be a Viceroy upon
whose sympathy and assistance Indians could
rely not only in India but in the whole world, and,
as my Hon. Friend has said, through personal

402

MESOPOTAMIAN COMMISSION.

bereavement and attempted assassination, he stuck
to his post to the end of his prolonged term,
never faltering, never losing courage, and he left
having achieved much for India, and now he is
censured by this document for what, for the fact,
that he relied too much upon those who had been
chosen to give him military advice. Among many
things we have never decided in this country are
ithe relations between politicians and soldiers. On
the same day you may read two newspapers:
sometimes, I think, you will read in one news-
paper trenchant criticisms against the Government
for overruling or disregarding or attempting to
hamper the action of their military advisers, and,
on the other hand, you will nnd peremptory
demands that they should hamper, overrule, or
criticise their military advisers. The two accusa-
tions are not in harmony with one another,
and the true relation of the responsibility of
politicians and soldiers has never been satisfactorily
decided in this country, or as far as I know, by any
Government. But the mistake that Lord Hardinge
made, if it be a mistake, is the same mistake as my
right Hon. Friend made when he relied upon Lord
French and Sir Douglas Haig, and the same
mistake which I presume the present Prime
Minister is making when he relies now on the
advice of Sir Douglas Haig. May I give an

403

SPBBCHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. B. S. MONTAGU".

analogy of what I mean ? When we were told th©'
other day that the defence of London against air-^
aids depends upon the number of aeroplanes wanted
at the front, who says how many aeroplanes are-
wanted in France ? — the Commander-in-Chief.

Supposing a committee of inquiry sitting after-
wards discovered that in a particular month — I do-
not make the allegation for one moment — that there
was certain aeroplanes which might have been used
for the defence of London lying idle in a particular
part of the front, would the responsibility be that'
of Sir Douglas Haig or the Prime Minister ? What
is the alternative to a politician relying on his-
military advisers ? If he cannot trust them, let
him choose others. All I say is that Lord Hardinge's
reliance upon Sir Beauchamp Duff is not different
from that of my right Hon. Friend opposite. Lord
Hardinge in this regard cannot be treated as an
isolated figure. I think the real charge against the
Indian Government is a charge in which I want to
include Lord Hardinge and my right Hon. Friend
opposite and his predecessor in office, Lord Crewe.
It is so easy to be wise after the event. The real
charge against the Indian Administration seems to-
me to be this. At the beginning of the War I
believe there was too great doubt of the loyalty and
co-operation of the Indian people. The Times news-

404

MESOPOTAMIA?! COMMISSION.

paper, day after day, for sessions and months
past, had articles pointing out that sedition was
supposed to be rife. It loomed certainly much too
large in the discussions of this House. It misled
;the Germans into thinking India was disloyal, and
the deliberate policy of the Government in regard
to India during the War seems to me to have been,
let us make the least contribution as we dare as far
from India as is possible. Keep the War away
from India ; we will take Indian soldiers and put
them into France, and lend Indian civilians to the
Home Government. India geographically as a coun-
try should be content with defending its own fron-
tiers, and in maintaining order — a very great respon-
sibility—inside the continent of India. Apart from
that, it was to do nothing near itself in the War. The
•people of India were even not asked to contribute to
the War, although they asked Parliament that they
should be allowed to contribute. I am told that
-volunteers were asked for in Bengal for certain
purposes, and afterwards were told they were not
wanted. I am talking now of the beginning of the
War. The policy was that we did not know whether
India should co-operate in this War or not : we did
not trust them ; we dare not trust them — I am not

•criticising them from that point of view — let us keep
the War far from India. Then events proved that
ihe Indian people were anxious to co-operate, and

405

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

the share of the Indian people in this War, froni
the beginning to the end, has always been greater-
than the share of the Indian Government in thi&
War, and always more willing than the share of the
Indian Government. When this atmosphere had
been created, when Indian troops had been sent to-
France and Indian civilians sent here, and when
India, as Lord Hardinge said, had been " bled
white," suddenly there comes a change of policy,,
and we have this expedition to Bagdad, a
complete reversal of policy, unaccompanied, so far
as I can see, with any big enough effort to put the
Government and organisation of India, which was-
then on a peace footing, on a war footing, for an
aggressive war comparable to the change in policy.
Therefore, the machinery was overturned ; there-
was no equipment for war, and when expeditions,
were sent abroad they ought to have been equipped
in a way comparable to the equipment of the ex-
peditionary forces in this country and in our
Dominions. As a matter of fact, here comes what
I regard a true reduction from this source. The
machinery of Government in this country, with its
unwritten constitution, and the machinery of Govern-
ment in our Dominions, has uroved itself sufficiently
elastic, sufficiently capable of modification, to turn
a peace-pursuing instrument into a war-making
instrument. It is the Government of India alone

406

MESOPOTAMIAN COMMISSION.

which does not seem capable of transformation, and
I regard that as based upon the fact that the-
machinery is statute, written machinery. The
Government of India is too wooden, too iron, too
inelastic, too antediluvian, to be any use for the
modern purposes we have in view. I do not believe
that anybody could ever support the Government
of India from the point of view of modern require-
ments. But it would do. Nothing serious had
happened since the Indian mutiny, the public was
not interested in Indian affairs, and it required a
crisis to direct attention to the fact that the Indian
Government is an indefensible system of Govern-
ment. I remember when I first came to the House,
when my Hon. Friend opposite, he will perhaps
forgive me for reminding him of the fact, and I
were members of one of those Committees which
Members of Parliament form themselves into, and
he spent the whole of his time in trying to direct
his colleagues, attention to the necessity of thinking,
about India. He urged people to go to the Debates
about it. I was one of those whom he got to go to
the early debates, when Lord Morley took charge of
its affairs. Was he successful? Does anybody
remember the Indian Budget Debates before the
War ? Upon that day the House was always empty.
India did not matter, and the Debates were left
to people on the one side whom their enemies

407

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

sometimes called "bureaucrats," and on the other
side to people whom their enemies sometimes called
" seditionists," until it almost came to be disreput-
able to take part in Indian Debates. It required a
crisis of this kind to realise how important Indian
affairs were. After all, is the House of Commons
to be blamed for that ? What was the Indian
Budget Debate ? It was a purely academic discus-
sion which had no effect whatever upon events in
India, conducted after the events that were being
discussed, had taken place. How can you now
defend the fact that the Secretaries of State for
India alone of all the occupants of the Front Bench,
with the possible exceotion of the Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster, are not responsible to this
House for their salaries, and do not come here with
their Estimates in order that the House of Commons
may express its opinion '?

Mr. Dillon: I have said so over and over
again in this House.

Mr. Montagu : I know, and I am not
blaming anybody for it. What I am saying now
is in the light of these revelations of this inelasticity
of Indian government, however much you could
gloss over those indefensible proceedings in the past,
the time has now come to alter them. Does the
Hon. Member resent my advocacy of a change ?

408

MESOPOTAMIAN COMMISSION.

Mr. Dillon : For twenty years a small group
of us have been demanding that the salary of the
Secretary of State for India should be put on the
Estimates and the two Front Benches always solidly
combined against us.

Sir J. D Rees : Was there not justification for
that in the tone of the Debates ?

Mr. Dillon : That may be your opinion.

Mr. 8. Macneill : You (Sir J. D. Rees) contri-
buted very largely.

Mr, Montagu : The tone of those Debates
was unreal, unsubstantial and ineffective. If Esti-
mates for India, like Estimates for the Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs and the Colonial Secretary,
were to be discussed on the floor of the House of
Commons, the Debates on India would be as good
as the Debates on foreign affairs. After all, what is
the difference ? Has it ever been suggested to the
people of Australia that they should pay the
salary of the Secretary of State for the Colony ?
Why should the whole cost of that building in
Charles Street, including the building itself, be an
item of the Indian tax-payer's burden rather than
of this House of Commons and the people of the
country ? If I may give one example of the incon-
venience of the existing system, I would refer to the

409

SPEECHES OF THE RT. HON. MR. E. 3. MONTAGU.

Indian Cotton Duties Debate which occurred in this-
House this year. The Cotton Duties had been im-
posed and there was no possible way of undoing
that. That is the attitude in which we always
debate Indian affairs. You have got no opportunity
of settling the policy. It has been sometimes-
questioned whether a democracy can rule an
Empire. I say that in this instance the democracy
has never had the opportunity of trying. But even
if the House of Commons were to give orders to
the Secretary of State, the Secretary of State is not.
his own master. In matters vitally affecting India,
he can be overruled by a majority of his Council. I
may be told that the cases are very rare in which the
Council has differed from the Secretary of State
for India. I know one case anyhow, where it was-
a very near thing, and where the action of the
. Council might without remedy have involved the
Government of India in a policy out of harmony
with the dec lared policy of the House of Commons
and the Cabinet. And these gentlemen are appoint-
ed for seven years, and can only be controlled
from the Houses of Parliament by a resolution
carried in both Houses calling on them for their
resignations. The whole system of the India Office
is designed to prevent control by the House of
Commons for fear that there might be too advanced
a Secretary of State. I do not say that it is possible

410

MESOPOTAMIAN COMMISSION.

to govern India through the intervention of the-
Secretary of State with no expert advice, but what-
I do say is that in this epoch now after the
Mesopotam ia Eeport, he must get his expert advice
in some other way than by this Council of men,,
great men though, no doubt, they always are, who
come home after lengthy service in India to spend
the first year of their retirement as members of the
Council of India. No wonder that the practice of
telegrams backward and forward and of private
telegrams, commented upon by the Mesopotamia
Report, has come into existence.

Does any Member of this House know much
about procedure in the India Office, how the Council
sits in Committees, how there is interposed between
the Civil servant and the political chiefs the
Committees of the India Council, and how the draft
on some simple question comes up through the
Civil servant to the Under-Secretary of State, and
may be referred back to the Committee which
sends it back to him, and it then goes to the
Secretary of State, who then sends it to the India-
Council, which may refer it back to the Committee,
and two or three times in its history may go back-
wards and forwards. I say that that is a system
so cumbrous, so designed to prevent efMciency and
change that in the light of these revelations it can-

411

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

not continue to exist. I speak very bitterly, and I
speak with some feelings on this subject, for in
the year 1912 a very small modification in this
machinery was attempted by Lord Crewe, and
a Bill was introduced into the House of Com-
mons. On the motion of Lord Curzon, it was
thrown out on Second Reading in another place. Its
authorship was attributed to me, and I was suppos-
ed to have forced it on my noble chief, because I
found that the machinery of the India Office was
not good for my own purposes. My only desire
then, as it is now, was to try and find something which
had some semblance of speedy action. Government
offices are often accused of circumlocution and red
tape. I have been to the India Office and to other
offices. I tell the House that the statutory
organisation of the India Office produces an apo-
theosis of circumlocution and red tape beyond the
dreams of an ordinary citizen. Now I will come
to one particular detail of the India Office adminis-
tration before I pass from this subject. I ihink the
Mesopotamia Reports tigmatises the conduct of the
Stores Department as in one respect unbusiness-
like. The Stores Department of the India Office
is a Department whose sole function — a most im-
portant function certainly — is the purchase of
millions of pounds worth of equipment for the Indian
Army, clothing and such like. It is presided over

412

MESOPOTAMIAN COMMISSION.

by a Civil servant. In the year 1912 or 1913, a
vacancy occurred in that office, and it was suggest-
ed then that the proper man to superintend mere
purchasing operations of that kind was a business,
man, an institution of the policy always associated
with the Prime Minister. Great difficulties appear-
ed in the way of the appointment of a business man
and a Civil servant was appointed. But it was-
agreed then that the next occupant of the Office
should be a business man. My right Hon. Friend
the Secretary of State told me yesterday that a Civil
servant had again been appointed.

The Secretary of State for India (Mr. Cham-
berlain) : I never heard of any such agreement.

Mr. Montagu : My right Hon. Friend is not
responsible for any agreement come to by his pre-
decessor. I say it was then agreed as a policy that
a business man should be appointed to succeed the
Civil servant. I am only giving this history to
point out that now, after the Report of the Meso-
potamia Commission, I would suggest to him
that the time has come to abolish the Stores
Department of the India Office, when the work
that it is doing of clothing the Indian Arniy is
comparable entirely to the work which is now being
done by the Ministry of Munitions and the War
Office for equipping our own Armies and the Armies

413

(j^* \) <//i.v /

'K^.

SPEECHES OP THE RT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

■of our Allies, and that the sooner all these multifa-
rious supply Departments are abolished and the
whole business concentrated under one roof and
under one office, the more efficient will the supplies
be. I come now to the question of the Government
of India from India. I think that the control of
ihis House over the Secretary of State ought to be
more real, and I would say further that the indepen-
dence of the Viceroy from the Secretary of State
ought to be much greater. You cannot govern a
great country by the despatch of telegrams. The
Viceroy ought to have far greater powers devolved
to him than is at present the case. When I say
that, I do submit that you cannot leave the Viceroy
;as it is. Are there four much more busy men in
this country than His Majesty the King, the Prime
Minister, who sits opposite, the Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, and the Speaker of the House of
Commons '? Yet the analogous positions of these four
posts are held by one man in India, and he is expected
to be responsible and closely to investigate the con-
duct of a great expedition like this ! You cannot find
an individual who can undertake the work. Your exe-
cutive system in India has broken down, because it is
not constituted for the complicated duties of modern
government. But you cannot reorganise the Exe-
cutive Government of India, remodel the Viceroy-
alty, and give the Executive Government more

414

MESOPOTAMIAN COMMISSION.

freedom from this House of Commons and the
Secretary of State unless you make it more respon-
sible to the people of India. Keally the whole system
has got to be explored in the light of the Mesopota-
mian Commission. It has proved to be of too much
rigidity. My hon. and gallant Friend opposite in
his Minority Eeport, I think — certainly in the
questions he has asked in the House — seems to
advocate a complete Home Kule for India. I do
not believe there is any demand for that in India
on a large scale. I do not believe it will be possible
or certainly be a cure for these evils.

Commander Wedgwood ; I want that to be the
^oal towards which we are driving.

Mr. Montagu : As a goal, I see a different pic-
ture ! I see the great Self-Governing Dominions and
Provinces of India organised and co-ordinated with
the great Principalities, the existing Principalities
— and perhaps new ones — not one great Home Kule
•country, but a series of Self-Governing Provinces
and principalities, federated by one Central Govern-
ment. But whatever be the object of your rule in
India, the universal demand of those Indians whom
I have met and corresponded with is that you
•should state it. Having stated it, you should give
some instalment to show that you are in real ear-
nest, some beginning of the new plan which you

415

SPEECHES OP THE BT. HON, MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

intend to pursue that gives you the opportunity of
giving greater representative institutions in some
form or other to the people of India, of giving them
greater control of their Executive, of remodelling
the Executive — that affords you the opportunity of
giving the Executive more liberty from home,
because you cannot leave your harrassed officials
responsible to two sets of people. Responsibility
here at home v^as intended to replace or to be a
substitute for responsibility in India. As you
increase responsibility in India you can lessen that
responsibility at home.

But I am positive of this, that j^our great claim
to continue the illogical system of Government by
which we have governed India in the past is that it
was efficient. It has been proved to he not efficient.
It has been proved to be not sufficiently elastic to
express the will of the Indian people ; to make them
into a warring Nation as they wanted to be. The
history of this War shows that you can rely upon
the loyalty of the Indian people to the British
Empire — if you ever before doubted it ! If you
want to use that loyalty, you must take advantage
of that love of country which is a religion in India,
and you must give them that bigger opportunity of
controlling their own destinies, not merely by
Councils which cannot act, but by control, by

416

MESOPOTAMIAN COMMISSION.

growing control, of the Executive itself. Then in
your next War — if we ever have War — in your
next crisis, through times of peace, you will have a
contented India, an India equipped to help.
Believe me, Mr. Speaker, it is not a question of ex-
pediency, it is not a question of desirability. Unless
you are prepared to remodel, in the light of modern
experience, this century-old and cumbrous machine,
then, I believe, I verily believe, that you will lose
your right to control the destinies of the Indian
Empire.

417

Mb.* MONTAGU AND INDIA.

HIS FUTURE POLICY— JULY, 1917.

Mr. E. S. Montagu, Secretary of State for
India, unanimously adopted as candidate for West
Cambridgeshire, the Parliamentary representation
of which he resigned on accepting Ministerial office,
said :

The offer, of the position of Secretary of State
for India, was made to him recently, and after
few hours thought he came to the conclusion
that anything a man was asked to do now for his
country by those who were responsible for guiding
its destinies must be done. Nothing else mattered
— no personal, no political considerations. Accord-
ingly he had accepted the heavy responsibilities and
the difficult anxieties of that office.

Ever since he entered public life he had taken
an absorbing interest in the Indiin fellow-subjects
of the King Emperor. He had served first as
Under-Secretary to Lord Morley, the veteran states-
man who represented all that was best in English
public life. He had also served under, and as col-
league of, Lord Crewe. If Lord Crewe has escaped
some of the abuse which public men receive he

418

MR. MONTAGU AND INDI ..

certainly had escaped the credit that was due to a
wise and far-seeing statesman whose counsels were
of the utmost value. He had served as a colleague
of Mr. Austen Chamberlain, who in his resignation
had acted from a fine sense of honour which had
endeared him to the people of this country, but in
doing this he had inflicted a serious loss on the
counsels of the nation.

I take up the work (Mr. Montagu proceeded)
where Mr. Chamberlain left it a few days ago. As
a private member of the House of Commons, when
I had no sort of notion that I should be asked to fill
any vacancy in the India Ofhce, I made a speech on
Indian affairs. That speech embodied the opinions
I held and still hold. Mr. Chamberlain told the
House of Commons that the reform of the Govern-
ment in India was now under discussion between
him and the Council and the Viceroy and his Coun-
cil and advisers in India. I take up that discussion,
I hope, without interruption, where he left it and in
due course the Government will announce their
policy.

There are only two issues now at stake — the
successful conclusion of the war and adequate pre-
paration for peace when it comes. For some months
I have been presiding over a conference to consider
the actual steps to be taken for bringing home from

419

&■ /J

SPEECHES OP THE HT. HON. MR. E. S. MONTAGU.

abroad, releasing from service, and sending back to
their homes the most gallant soldiers in history. The
care of those who fought and won is a first charge
upon statesmanship. Our plans are nearly ready,
and with the co-operation of the Ministry of Labour
and the War Office our report will soon be before
the Government.

Everything depends, after the war on the
rapidity with which we resume our peace vocations.
The future of our returned soldiers depends largely
on the rapidity with which we can start manufactu-
ring. Has not the war taught us, revivified and
made more acute as a motive power, the sense of
nationality? Our country and Empire must be
made secure not only in arms, but in supplies. You
will, after the war as now, have to suffer hardships
and inconvenience. With all the efforts that we
can make, there will be a shortage of shipping in
the early months of peace. That will mean shortage
of all the food we might like and of raw material.
Let no one imagine that these difficulties will
disappear with the coming of peace; therefore, the
more we produce and set ourselves to provide in the
future, the better off we shall be.

You will have noticed that whenever I am
asked to undertake any work I am assisted in the
responsibility I assume by expressions of opinion

420

MR. MONTAGU AND INDIA.

from a certain section of the Press. That is their
method, and they have time for it. What does it
matter to us, after all ? I do not stand alone. The
present Prime Minister, who is squaring up so
successfully to his gigantic task ; the late Lord
Kitchener, to whom we owed almost everything at
the beginning of the war; Mr. Balfour, whose
work in America is still fresh in the mind of every-
body ; Viscount Grey, whose diplomacy was the
machinery for rallying all the civilized nations
of the world against Germany ; Mr. Churchill,
who mobilized the Navy on the eve of the war :
Lord Haldane, who gave us on the Expeditionary
Force; even Mr. Asquith, whose wise leadership
held the country together in unity for the first two
and a half years of the war — all these, Liberals and
Conservatives come in for their share.

What does it matter ? The fact remains that I
base my right to serve my country upon your confi-
dence, and while 1 have that I shall pay no atten-
tion to anything else. (Cheers.)

Mr. Montagu concluded with the statement
that the expressions of confidence he had received
from many in that constituency and in India gave
him this assurance, that it would not be from want
of friends if he failed.

421

INDEX.

Page.
A

Abnormal movemeats ... ... ... 77

Aoourate estimate ... ... ... 262

Administering justice ... ... ... 253

Administrative machine, the ... ... 61

Administrative expenditure ... ... 264

Administrative needs ... ... ... 159

Advisory Committee, appointment of ... ... 48

Afghan Representative, attitude of ... ... 2

Agitation against the Partition ... ... 325

Agricultural records, Verification of ... ... 369

Allotment of grants for building hostels ... ... 185

Alteration of statute ... ... ... 162

Alterations and additions to the Audit ofi&oe ... 202

Altruistic rule, British Genius for ... ... 281

A minister for education ... ... ... 51

Anarchical Conspiracy ... ... ••• 289

Anticipating criticism ... ... ... 263

Anticipating the critics ... ... •*. 132

Application of modern methods ... ... 100

Arbitration committee ... ... ••• 105

Archaic habits in towns become insupportable ... Ill

Article in the Pioneer ... ... ... 141

Aspiration, Healthy growth of ... ... 279

Asquith. The Rt. Hon. Mr... ... ... ii, xi

Assessment, distribution of ... ... 374

Assessment, Revision of ... ... ... 364

Avoidance of dangers ... ••• ••• &2

423

INDEX.

PAGE

Black Death and its efieots... ... ... 113

Blue Books, importance of ... ... 9

Bill — ProTisions of the ... ... ... 314

Boundary readjustment, Questions of ... ... 331

Borrowing powers ... ... 257, 253

British Government in India-polioy of to interfere with arti-
ficial regions ... ... ... 321

British Government in India, policy of to interfere with

territories ... ... .. 329

British Rule, Keynote of ... ... ... 191

Building up of a record for accuracy ... ... 360

Bureaucratic Government, defects of ... ... 388

Bureau of information ... ... ... 165

Burke, Mr. Edmund ... ... ... ix, x

Business concern ... ... ... 170

Canning, Lord ... ... ... vii

Capital liabilities ... ... ... 260

Careful arrangements for traffic ... ... 240

Careful attention of Students of Indian matters ... 58

Careful research ... ... ... 277

Careful scientific research ... ... ... 138

Capital, Transfer of ... ... ... 305

Care of money ... ... ... 49

Carping Criticism ... ... ... 299

Case restated ... ... ... 124

Caste prejudices ... ... ... 173

Caste principles and progress ... ... 118

Celebration, a worthy scale] ... ... 78

Census, the ... ... ... 68

Change of political institutions ... ... 161

Character and service of police ... ... 234

Character taught by text books ... ... 185

424

INDEX.

cGhineBeuonopoly, establishmenii of ... ... 349

-Churohill, Mr. ... ... i

•Civic senee ... ... ,.. 287

Civil Service ... ... ... 246

'Clive, Lord ... ... ... vii

Commercial enterprises ... ... ... 70

Commercial operations ... ... ... 102

Communication consists of waterways ... ... 233

Communication, means of improvement of ... 222

Communications, improvement of ... ... 372

'Comparison of finance ... ... ... H

Compendious Jingle ... ... ... 276

Competition, no enmity to ... ... 199

Complete harmony between all races ... ... 222

Concentration of labour in factories ... ... 97

Concentration of people ... ... ... 109

Conciliation, Strict Justice for ... ... 277

Condition of revenue ... ... ... 19

Considerable extension ... ... ... 164

Conspicuous success ... ... ... 55

Constitutional monarch ... ... ... 304

Constitutional outrage ... ... ... 322

Construction of railways ... ... ... 272

Co-operative movement ... ... ... 103

Cost of living in different centres ... ... 165

Creation of university at Dacca ... ... 187

Crewe, Lord ... ... ... vi, vii

Critics fundamental error of ... ... 334

Cruel disparagement ... .,, ... 279

Crystallised conservatism ... ... ... 388

Cultivator naturally improvident ... ... 102

Curzon, Lord ... ... ... ij, x

Dacoa University proposal ... ... ... 226

Damaging blow to prestige ... ... 3Q9

425

INDEX.

PAGE.

Damaging to prestige ... ... ... 302

Danger of Capitalisation ... ... ... 11&

Debenture bonds ... ... ... 26S

Deep regret ... ... ... 89

Degradation of labour ... ... ... 117

Delegation and Responsibility ... ... ISO

Delhi — The Capital of India no objection to the Maho-

medan population ... ... ... 320'

Deliberate misrepresentation ... ... 39

Deliberate achievement ... ... ... 307

Delights of Display ... ... ... 82

Demand for labour ... ... ... 29r

Democratic system in England ... ... 23

Depressed classes, condition of ... ... 121

Detection of a political crime ... ... 242^

Development of agriculture ... ... 267

Development of Commerce ... ... 267

Development of means of communication... ... 267

Development of Technical education ... ... 188

Development of'education ... ... ... T&

Diffce : bet. chief court and High Court ... ... 284

Difference between East and West ... ... 27

Different soils, value of, ... ... ... 374

Difficulty in obtaining Capital ... ... 211

Difficulties of flying ... ... ... 216'

Disaffection and Reforms ... ... ... 59-

Discovering clues of Stolen property ... ... 237

Discourage the use of stimulants ... ... 149"

Dispassionate view ... ... ... 281

Disposal of Surplus ... ... ... 75

Disquieting features ... ... ... 229-

Distress, relief of ... ... ... 386

Distressing cases of torture ... ... 289

Distribution of quinine by plantation ... ... &

Disturbance of international trade ... ... 71

426-

INDEX.

Domeatic oonoetns
Dominant power
Drainage problem
Durbar announcements
Durbar, arrangements of
Durbar traffic

PAOE.

. 143
. 360
. 156
. 300
80
. 149

Earning of railways, improvement in

Eastern Bengal, Mahomedans of

Economic background

Economics in administration

Economy, Interest of

Education

Educational facilities

Educational problem

Efficiency, Loss of

Efficient discharge of Imperial duties

Efiorts to improve the police by commissions

Elaborate system of rent ...

Elastic treatment. Free scope for

Elements of education, How received

Elements of danger

Elibank, Master of

Eliminate opportunity

Ellis, The Rt. Hon. Mr. ...

Eminent men in high places

Encourage merit by information

EDCouragement of Muasalmans by scholarships

English Government in India, success of...

Englishman's duty

English virtues, sudden loss of

Enhance the circulation of ofiending newspapers

Enhancement of rest

Eradication of Political Crime

'427

... 210
338, 319
... 361

85
... 286
... 211
172
... 171
... 249
... 127
... 290
... 230
... 363
... 183

iv
... 291

iii
... 245
... 235
... 226

65
... 163
... 380

36
... 102
... 127

IND^X.

Eventual oharacteristio of the population

Establishment of Model Govt. Schools

Establishment of a State Bank in India

Establishment of an Executive Council

European officers, nucleus of

European element, necessity for

Excise and Customs

Excise revenue

Exercise advantage by training

Exiled men and women, indefatigable work

Expenditure and surplus

Expenditure on durbar

Exports of Indian articles ...

Expression of public opinion

Extermination of rats and fleas

Extra-territorial patriotism

Facilities for examining tickets

Facilities for passengers ...

Pacts notified by warning to members of the force

Facts and figures. Reminding of

Fail to prove funds

Fall in prices, importance of

False hopes

Financial position of India, The

Financial position. The ...

Financial position of India

Financial strength

Finding the money

Fluctuating source of income

Food grains, increase in price of

Foreign Relations, Control over

Free compulsory primary education

French dirigible balloon ...

428

INDEX.

Freer recourse
Furtherance of policy
Future, The

Page.

. 294

154

Games and amusements

Garden party

General trend of the prices

General expansion of Indian trade

George, The Rt. Hon. Mr. Lloyd

Governor-General's power to appoint a chief commissioner.

Gratitude-Debt of

Grave and weighty criticisms

Great development in irrigation

Growing prosperity

Growth of expenditure

Growth of irrigation system

Hardinge, Lord

Havoc brought by morphia and Cocaine ...
Heavy expenditure for buildings
Helping to bring reform
Higher education
Higher level of education ...
Higher standard of living ...
High Court at Calcutta — Jurisdiction of and its extension

limits
Home Charges
Honorary titles, Bestowal of

Ignorance of personal hygiene
Illegitimate manifestations of unrest
Illuminating exposition
Import of petroleum, increase in

429

149

vii

316

275

303

220

259

.. 353

180

.. 206

,. 181

95, 108

315
273

288

112
33

275
20

INDEX.

Improving the police
Importance of economy in India
Importance of higher education
Important feature of economy-
Improvement of education in practical pursuits
Inadequate knowledge
Incessant misrepresentation
Increased protection to worker
Increase in Legislative Councils
Increase in primary schools
Increase of wealth
Increasing difficulty task of
Independence, Spirit of,
India abhors the crime
India, Agricultural prosperity of
India, Awakening of
India. Moral welfare of
India Office and the Civil Service
Indian High Courts Bill ...
Indian opinion, approval of
India part and parcel of a nation
Indian Budget
Indian Councils Act
Indian Police, The
Indian students in England
Indian students in London
India, Turn of

Indian ways compared with the Westerner
Industrial progress of India
Inevitable features
Inflammatory doctrine
Inoculation, advantages of
Inquiries, genuineness of
Inquiry into conduct of look
8 ion

ups to obtain proper supervi-

430

Page.

. 231

. 181

70
. 233
. 126

37
. 117

179

. 106

. 354

56
. 241

. 280

. 274

277

. 282

41
. 126

53
. 287

162

. 298

253

96
274

139

. 294

. 292

INDEX.

PAGE.

In-ternal development ... ... ... 271

Interpolation of questions as to Indian affairs ... 250

Intolerable industry ... ... ... 84

Ireland, ambition[of ... ... ... 312

Irrigation grants ... ... ... 258

Irresponsible agitators ... ... ... 342

Irresponsible clamour ... ... ... 342

Isolated grumblers ... ... ... 352

Investments in private concerns ... ... 272

Judgment, Suspension of ... ... ... 287

King George, Personality of ... ... 299

Knife,relentless application of ... ... 276

Land Problem in India and England ... ... 358

Law and order, maintenance of ... ... 222

Labour conditions improved ... ... 117

Lawabiding citizens, protection of ... ... 236

Lack in Sympathy ... ... ... 60

Land reclamation ... ... ... Ill

Land Settlement system ... ... ... 230

Legal Machinery, Improvement of ... ... 286

Little children. Hordes of ... ... ... 369

Local Self. Government and sanitation ... ... 115

Logical exposition ... .. ... 309

Lord Curzon, attitude of ... ... ... 301

Lord Morley, administration of ... ... 269

Low-living, Consequences of ... ... 109

Magistrates and confessions ... ... 291

Mahomedan education, necessity for ... ... 225

Making primary education free ... ... 177

431

INDEX,

Malaria a dangerous and malignant oalumnf

Malaria's importance to the population of India

Malignant growth

Manganese a new industry

Manifestations of political unrest

Markets, establishment of...

Marvellous work done by missionaries

Measures to deal with daooity

Mesopotamian Commission, Report of

Mesopotamia Failure

Minimum security to newspapers in obedience to law

Minor raids, no intermission of

Modern industrial progress

Morly, Lord

Morphia & Cocaine, export of

Mr. Ellis-interest in Indian affairs

Mr. Butler, approval of ...

Mr. Clark, appointment of

Mr. Mallet, appointment of

Necessary supplies. Shortages of
Necessity of services
Necessity to increase funds
New agricultural world
New Chief Court, Establishing of
New taxation, Necessity for
Nicholson Committee
Normal routine, Matters of

Objections to the new duties on tobaoco ...

Obtain support from the Press

Obvious disadvantages

Occasional outrages

Offering Mussulman university education ...

432

PAGE.

... 276
...' 99
32
... 375.
... 228.
... 232
... 397
... vii, ix

... 217

119

ii, iii, iv, v

53-
... 16&

... 400
... 250

... 101

284

19^
... 215
... 28&

I
21

... 166

89-

... 22T

INDEX.

Old habit, getting rid of

Opium and the Chinese Government

Opium grown by farmers with impunity ...

Opium revenue

Opportunity for Indians ...

Opposition, Policy of

Oppression of Working Classes

Ordinary debt

Organise industrial population

Organisation at the India ofl&ce

Organisation of industrial and agricultural life

Oriental languages, Study of

Other countries, wider knowledge of

Outcome of political institutions

Owner of the land, ignorance of

Overstocked profession of Bar

Overstocking the Bench

Paper documents

Parliament and India

Partition — a settled fact ...

Partition of Bengal, Reversal of

Party embarrassments, avoidance of

Passing competitive examinations

Patriotic Societies

Pensionary and furlough payments

Perfect freedom between the component parts

Pessimist, word to

Petroleum, development of

Plague and malaria

Plague, its remedies

Police, efficiency of

Police, marked improvement of

Political condition of India

433

INDEX.

Page.

Political oondition of the Empire ... ... 9S

Political crime . ... ... ... 82

Political deportees, mention of ... ... 140

Political development of India ... ... 93

Political future ... ... ... 94

Political organisation ... ... ... 92

Political outrages ... ... ... 269

Political position of India ... ... 161

Political unrest, Action of... ... ... 30

Poorer cultivators. Weakening of ... ... 376

Position of British official in India ... ... 132

Positions of Indians in the Services ... ... 192

Powder and Jam policy ... ... ... 277

Power of conferring degrees ... ... 186

Power to criticise and control Government ... 131

PostiDg men to garrison roofs ... .^ 241

Possibilities of wealth ... ... ... 98

Practical training, importanoeof ... ... 170

Preceding rulers, protection of ... ... 377

Pregnant arguments ... ... ... ,275

Premier partner, position of ... ... 875

Preserving peaceful relations with neighbouring states ... 2l8

Press Laws ... ... ... 34

Prestige, theory of govt, by ... ... 128

Prestige theory pressed to logical conclusion ... 129

Preventing political murder ... ... 240

Primitive measures ... ... , ... 62

Private enterprise ... ... ... Ill

Production of native opium ... ... 84

Profit and loss ... ... .•• 71

Profits of agriculture ... ... ..- 109

Progressive moderation — the Keynote of the Policy cf

Government ... ... ••• 363

Progress, striving after ... ... ••• 199

Proper hostel accommodation ... ••• 184

434

INDEX.

Prospective deficit in current revenue
Prospects of the harvests
Prosperity and Poverty
Protectionist tarifi, advantage of
Provide trade facilities
Protection, Special measures of
Public decapitation
Public office, Knowledge of
Public service through Universities
Public Services Gommissiou
Purchase of railways

Questions of general administration
Question of inadequate buildings

Railway contracts

Railway profits

Railway service

Railway and Salt Revenue

Railways, Comparison of

Railways in India

Railways and Irrigation Leans Bill, Indian

Raising of the maximum number of judges

Rao, Mr. K. Vyasa

Ravages of plague

Ready co-operation from the Government

Real sentiment of Nationalism

Re-arrangement of platforms

Re-arrangement of waiting halls

Ee-capitulation of important facts

Reason to suspect ill-treatment

Recent events, Knowledge of

Receptions in the India office

Record of five years

435

INDEX.

Page.

Recruiting sergeant hampered by civil reports ... 245

Reducing twelve years to seven years ... ... 207

Reduction of military expenditure ... ... 86

Reduction of taxation ... ... ... 155

Relentless machine ... ... ... 279

Relying upon obsolete practice ... ... 313

Relentless efforts ... ... ... 230

Relief vyorks in famine districts ... ... 148

Religious objection to inoculation ... ... 115

Remand should be short ... ... ... 237

Remand to make a confession ... ... 238

Remission of taxation ... ... ... 159

'Remission refused ... ... ... 158

Removal of potential cause ... ... 255

Reorganisation of village chaukidars ... ... 233

(Reply to the debate ... ... 134,200

Repression and concession... ... ... 276

Representative Government, granting of ... ... 317

Representation to Secretary of State ... ... 17

Repression of sedition ... ... ... 42

Responsibility of officers makes the task less agreeable ... 248

Restriction of supply ... ... ... 74

Revenue and trade, expansion of ... ... 197

Revival of old village communities ... ... 106

Revolt against authority ... ... ... 26

Revolution of the globe ... ... ... 133

Rice — the staple article of food ... ... 4

River petrols, establishment of ... ... 233

Roberts, Mr. Charles ... ... ... vi

Salient features of the budget ... ... 209

Sanitation... ... ... ... 213

Sanitation, spread of ... ... ... 210

Satisfaction of autumn rains ... ... 4

^Satisfactory organisation to look after Indian students ... 168

436

INDEX.

Page.

Satisfactory regulations for Indian students ... 169

Bohoole, multiplication of ... ... ... 176

fichools under private management ... ... 174

Scotland and England compared ... ... 79

Boottish village school in the 18th century... ... 173

Secretary of State and his povyers ... ... 63

Sentimental grievance ... ... ... 326

Separate naval force ... ... ... 142

Separation of legitimate from illegitimate unrest ... 33

Serious labour troubles in England ... ... 287

Serious rioting threatened ... ... gg

Service fills the higher subordinate appointments ... 193

Service, Record of ... ... ... 288

Shadow of foundation ... ... ... 337

Significant figures ... ... ... 98

Signs of movement among leaders of Hinduism ... 120

Slowness of promotion ... ... ... 247

Social club ... ... ... 60

Social conditions of the country ... ... 161

Social Reforms, work of ... ... ... 28

Soil and position, advantages of ... ... 371

Steps to control the expenditure of money ... 52

Strengthening the teaching staff ... ... 212

Sudden demand for business ... ... 101

Suggestion about bomb ... ... ... 287

Supply of better equipped teachers ... ... 180

Supreme need ... ... ... lOO

Survey, principles of ... ... ... 373

Surveillance, net work of ... ... ... 239

System to co-opt ... ... ... 201

Tack displayed highly appreciated ... ... 219

teachers, scarcity of ... ... ... 173

Technical education development of ... ... 187

Technical instruction ... ... ... 108

437

INDEX.

Page.

Tamper of the House to Indian matters ... ... 204

Temporary conciliations ... ... ... 35^

Temporary Judges — Appointment of ... ... 285

Tenants, Protection of ... ... ... 381

To impede the fulfilment ... ... ... 160

Town life, evils of ... ... ... HQ

Trade, facilitating of ... ... ... 203

Trade in cattle ... ... ... 106

Tribute to the Government ... ... 346

Tribute to the Force ... ... ... 289

True Empire — Building ... ... ... 29S

Turkey Strut in pompous celebration ... ... 296

Unavoidable absence ... ... ... 345

Unfaltering confidence ... ... ... 356

Union bet. the English and the Irish people * ... 311

Unrest, talk of ... ... ... 24

Unrest — Spirit of ... ... ... 274

Unsparing service ... ... ... 255

Unswerving courage ... ... ... 270

Unsympathetic methods ... ... ... 276

Use of mechanical power ... ... ... 97

Village maps, accuracy of ... ... 369

Village communities, Isolation of ... ... 97

Visit to India ... ... ... 204

Want of pay ... ... ... 247

Warren of passes and staircases ... ... 241

Welcome and help-co-operation ... ... 124

Wellesley, The Marquess of ... ... vi

White paper and Blue Book ... ... 305

Yaoman farmers ... ... ... 363-

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are of importance to India. The book is sure to be of
special interest to readers as it opens with a valuable intro-
duction writteyi by our veteran leader Sir S. Subramanya
Aiyar and contains the portraits of Mr. Montagu and Sir
S. Aiyar together laith an index.

CONTENTS : Budget speeches for 1910, 1911, 1912
and 1913, Indian Railways and Irrigation. The Condition
of India. The Indian Police, Liberalism and India. The
Government of India Biil. The Indian High Courts Bill,
Opium Traffic, India and Protection. The Land Problem
and India. His Visit to India. Keply to Lord Curzon on
the India Council Bill. Tribute to Sir K.G. Gupta, Mesopo-
tamian Commission and Indian Administration, and His
Future Policy.

Price Re. 1-8-0. Over 450 Pages. D. C. 16 M. 0.
Ganesh & Co., Publishers, 39. Thambu Chetty St., Madras.

SWAMI DAYANAND SARASWATI

HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS.

SIVANANDAN PRASAD KULYAR,
Price Re. 1.

"Among the makers of Modern India, Swami Dayanand Saraswati will
fee remembered not only for the boldness and originality of his teachings ;
but also for the supreme halo that surrounds the actual life of the sage who
practised what he preached. He thus takes raak with the great men of all
times. As such the Life and Teachings of the founder of the Arya Samaj,
just published by Messrs. Ganesh & Co., is an adequate tribute to the genius
and character of the great social, and educational reformer who flourished
at a mnat critical juncture in Moderu Indian history and whose infiuenoe
can only be said to be increasing in the years that lie before u«. Prof. Rama
Deva's foreword is a fairly exhaustive appreciation of the life and services
of the great sage and the author's treatment of the career and teachings of
the Swami is at once critical and profound."

Sir Rabindranath Tagore

A STUDY

K. S. RAMASWAMI SASTRI, b.a., b.l.,

Price As. 4.

THE

Present crisis in Hindu Society

K. S. RAMASWAMI SASTRI, b.a., b.l.,

Price As. 6.

Ganesh & Co., Publishers, 39. Thambu Chetty St. Madras.

INDIA'S CLAIM FOR HOME RULE

A comprehensive collection of the speeches

and writings of eminent English men and women

and representatives of the princess and the peoples

of India.

A Telling Case for Grant of Home Rule

for India.

OUR SPOKESMEN.

1 Dadabai Naoroji.

2 Surendrauaiih Banerjee.

3 Lord Bishop of Madras.

4 Mrs. Annie Besant.

5 Hon. Mr. Ibrahim Rahim-

tulla.

6 L.A. Govindaragava Iyer.

7 Mrs. Sarojini Naidu.

8 R.N. Mudholkac.

9 Pandib Jugat Narain.

10 Ambikacharan Muzamdar.
ai Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

12 Hon. Mr. Muzrul Haque.

13 Sir Dinshaw Petit.

14 Babu Bepin Chandra Pal.

15 Joseph Baptista.

16 Dr. Tej Bahadur Sapru.

17 Jehangir Petit.

18 Hon, Mr. B.N. Sarma.

19 Hon. Mr. Abdul Rasal.

20 Sir Rabindranath Tagore.

21 H.H. Maharaja of Alwar.

22 H.H. Maharaja of Bikanir.

23 Hon. Pandit M.M. Malaviya.

24 Hon. Mr. Nabiulla.

25 Hon. Mr. M.A. Jinnah.

26 Lord Bishop of Calcutta.

27 Hon. Rajnh IMahnmudabad.

28 Mr, Mahomed Ali.

29 Mr. Syed Wazir Hasan,

30 Lvla Lajpat; Rai.

31 Mr. Hasan Imam,

32 Sir S.P. Siiiba.

33 Babu Arabinda Ghose.

34 Sir Krishna Gupta.

35 Lord Hp.vdinge.

36 Mr. J.S. Cotton.

37 Sir William Wedderburn.

38 The Rt. Hon. Mr. E.S, Mon-

tagu.

39 Commander Wedgewood,

40 Dr. John Pollen,

41 Dr. Rutherford.

42 Mr. Webb,

43 Mrs. Webb.

44 Mr. S.H. Swinny.

45 Mr, Herbert Burrows,

46 Dr. SirS. SubramanyaAiyar,

The Publishers hope that the historic Introduction with which
the volume opens and the Appendix at the end of the book
containing the memorable documents mentioned below wi"!! be of
-special interest,

1. The Memorandum of the Nineteen.

2. The Scheme of the Congress and Moslem League.

3. The Programme of the I3ritish Congress Committee.

4. The Aims of the Indian National Congress as expressed by
"the 31 Presidents of the Indian National Congress.

5. Representative viHwa of several Englishmen and Indians
•of all shades of opinion on Rrjlf-Government for India.

Price Rs. 2.

Oanesh& Co., Publishers, 39,Thuinbu Chetty St., Madras.

10
2nd Edition Just Published.

Select Essays of Sister Nivedita

With an Introduction by Mr. A. J. F. Blair,

Editor, " Empire," Calcutta.

This is a comperhensive collection of the select essays of the late Sister
Nivedita, who was devoting her life to the cause of India. The publishers hope
that a perusal of the book will amply repay the readers. The book opens
with an introduction by Mr. A. J, F. Blair, Editor, "Empire, " Calcutta, and
is illustrated with four half-tone pictures. There is an appendix to the book
containing some tributes paid to the memory of the late Sister by well-known
personages such as Mrs. J. C. Bose, P. J. Alexander, S. K. Batclifie, A. J.
P. Blair and others. Price Rs, 1-8-0.

Art and Swadeshi

Dr. A. K. ' COOMARASWAMY, D So.

Contains Essays on Indian Art and Swadeshi. Profusely illustrated
with eighteen rare and original pictures and handsomely bound. Price Re. 1.

The Tribune writes : — Both the author and publishers of Art &
Swadeshi need no introduction to the Indian Public. A K. Coomaraswamy,
the author, has already gained a wide reputation as one of the most able
interpreters of Indian Art and Messrs. Ganesh & Co., the publishers, are
well-known for bringing out cheap and useful editions of works greatly ap-
preciated by the reading public. The present volume is a compilation with
illustrations of a few addresses and essays of Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy
mainly dealing with the ideals and prospects of Indian Art on the Indian
Katioa.

The Message of the East.

By Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.

Price As. 4.

Ganesh & Co., Publishers, 39. Thambu Chetty St.. Madras.

11
THE INDIAN NATION BUILDERS.

This is the ouly Publication which gives the biographies and speeches -
of thirty-six eminent Indians, vrith their portraits in three comprehensive
volumes' at such a cheap cost of Rs. 4-8-0 (Volume I, Re. 1-8-0 Vol. II,
Es, 1-8-0; Vol. Ill, Rs. 1-8-0).
Yolume I. FIFTH EDITION

1. Mahadev Govind Ranade <d <o

2. Ananda Mohan Boss cs "5

3. Babu Surendra Nath Banerjee o "g

4. Sir P. M. Mehta -f

5. Hon. G. K. Gokhale _ |

6. Mr. G. Subramania Aiyar Is •«

7. Dr. Rash Behari Ghose >, g

8. H. H. The Gaekwar of Baroda "^ •;2

9. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya 2 a,

10. Lala Lajpat Rai ° -^

11. Babu Bepin Chandra Pal "o o

12. Mr. Abdul Rasul -S "^

Yolume II. ;5 .2

13. Dadabhai Naoroji -g ^

14. W. C. Bonnerii _ S

15. Justice B. Tyabji c a

16. Bal Gangadhar Tilak ■ o i S

17. Dinshaw Edulji Wacha * § *" -.2.

18. Lai Mohan Ghose O ^ : -^

19. Romesh Chunder Dutt S ;=: • "a

20. Swami Vivekananda ^ % '• a

21. Lala Hans Raj O ^ ia

22. Raja Sir T. Madhava Rao S £ §

23. Rao Bahadur R. N. Mudholkar i^ °

24. H.H. The Maharajah of Mysore o*f

> -?

Yolume III. -i S a

.a ^5 oi

25. Sir Gurudas Banerjee ^^

2G. Sir Syed Ahmed Tvhan i f^pj

27. Pandit Ajudianath '^ r^ -

28. K. T. Telang «.2 I §'

29. H.H. The Late Nizam of Hyderabad . I c 2 ^

30. M. K. Gandhi . -^'-^'§.2

31. Babu Arabinda Ghose ^-^a

32. Babu Aswani Kumar Dutt . ?. ^

33. Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy _ -

34. Sir Rabicdranath Tagore t^ £ Eh

35. Sir K. Seshadri Aiyar -g "g

36. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee — ^
The three volumes, if purchased at a time, will he given for Rs. 4-0-0.

Ganesh & Co., Publishers, 39. Thambu Chetty St.. Madras.

12
NEW EDITIONS JUST PUBLISHED

Speeches of Babu Surendranath

Banerjee.

3rd EDITION.

This is an exhaustive collection of all the speeches of Babu Surendra-
nath Banerjee delivered in Eagland during his visit Co attend the Imperial
Press Conference. Mr. Banerjee deals in his speeches which embody the
book, with the burning questions of the day such as Indian Loyalty, Self-
Government, the Congress, the tyranny of the settled fact, the distempered
official mind, the deportations, the bureaucracy, anarchism, the Reform
Scheme and the Indian unrest in an effective and impressive manner, which
is sure to convince the British public and lead the way to the emancipation
of India. The book also contains the no^iable spaeches of Lord Morley on
.Literature and Journalism and the attack of Lord Cromer on the Indian
Press with the portraits of Lord Morley and Mr. Banerjee. Price As. 8.

THE HON. PANDIT MADAN MOHAN MALAVIYA.

His Life and Speeches.

2nd EDITION. (REVISED AND ENLARGED).

The speeches which are embodied in this volume are not mere speeches
but they are the fruit and flower of a soul deeply rooted in a sense of the
eternal verities of life, of a character distinguished by simplicity and self-
control, of an intellect given to an honest study of facts and an impartial
and fair-minded presentation of them. The publishers are convinced that
they are supplying the Indian reading public with a record of activity exeroi-
aed on behalf of the country which will serve to infuse moral seriousness,
honest study, and strenuous endeavour into the life both private and public,
ot all who seek to take part in India's public life. Price Rs. 2-8-0.

Ganesh & Co., Publishers, 39. Thambu Chetty St., Madras.

,S!^™,'^f GIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

A A 000 188 863

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