ENGLISH IN INDIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 September 1918, Page 7

ENGLISH IN INDIA.

HOW THEY RULE, j BENEVOLENT DESPOTISM IN OPERATION. It was a great statesman, but not a Britisher, who recently, after lie had travelled round the world, exclaimed that the Government of India, was one of the wonders of the ages. As he tersely put "Here is a continent half as large as Europe and with a population of three hundred millions, governed by twelve hundred Englishmen." The figures were given with sufficient accuracy, fcf the population for British India is somewhat over 300,000,000, whilst the British officials of the Civil Service number from 1200 to 1300. In contrast with this it may be remembered that in & German colony before the war, from 30 to 33 per cent of the inhabitants were officials. It is therefore of some general interest to inquire how this phenomenal result has been obtained by the British.

To go back to the first causes, it is the result of several centuries of experience in dealing with Asiatic nations. By experience the English have learnt that absolute honesty, and unwavering justice, are the best tools to work with. It was not always so, for when the English first came as mere traders to India nearly three centuries ago, they undoubtedly combined military with commercial penetration. But even then behind the outer wall of British bayonets, peace and commercial security formerly undreamt of, reigned within. In those days when the Government was in its infancy, an English official would receive pay only at the rate of £5 a month but was allowed to trade and make what money he could in other ways. This led to many abuses, so that the English learnt that the first step towards a clean government was to pay their officials sufficiently well to remove them from all temptation to make money in illicit ways. It was also strictly enjoined that no Englishman should take a present, in money or in kind, from an Indian; nor was he allowed to trade, or invest in land; nor in any way to enter into business transactions with Indians officially under his control. And these rules are rigidly observed to this day

Out of these statemanlike reforms has been developed the class of Englishman now governing India. This individual does not lay himself out to be popular, in the way popularity may easily be gained; nevertheless he is as a class, undoubWly popular with the Indians as well as honored and respected. His, assets are integrity, uprightness of character, and personal courage; and his word is unfailingly accepted by the Indians. This faith extends even to courts of justice, for if an Indian is engaged in a lawsuit in which his case is just, he will invariably endeavor to have it tried by an English judge. In an Indian regiment the most popular and influential person is the British officer, not because he lays himself out to gain popularity in the easy way—that is, by being slack with the men and allowing them to do what they .like —hut by being perfectly just and honest in all his dealings, and by showing himself on all occasions the bravest man amongst them. THE SO-CALLED UNREST. Much is made from time to time by the enemies of England of what is called "Unrest in India." This is a class of unrest which would never be heard of, if it occurred in a German colony, and onlysees the light of day owing to the extraordinary liberty enjoyed by the Indian press. The so-called unrest in India is engineered by a few hundred unimportant people, who can write and talk with great fluency. They are not infrequently Indians who have been to England and become lawyers, and on return to India in default of a remunerative practice, turn their activities and education towards the hostile press and platform attacks on the British Government. In the course of their studies they have acquired a superficial knowledge of the writing's of political reformers; and with a great flow of words proclaim that these reforms are the birth-, right of India. "India for the Indians" is their battle cry.

That may be very well as a political battle cry, but the question is what would happen if the British were to hand over the country to the Indians and leave it? The reply may be summed up in one word, "Anarchy." An anarchy far worse than that which exists in Russia at this day, and which would set India back to the state it developed from three centuries ago, SECRET OF SUCCESS. One of the great secrets of the success of British rule in India is that it is governed entirely in the interests and for the prosperity of that country. People unacquainted with the subject, as well as those hostile in England, imagine that the British government makes a vast yearly fortune out of India. Nothing could be more falacious; every single rupee of revenue raised in India is spent on India. Indeed, contrary is the ease more often than not, and England has sometimes to spend money on India in excess of the revenue received. At the present moment, and during the war, England spends many millions a year which go directly to swell the Indian Exchequer. Indeed, the Minister for Finance in India during the war, in one of his yearly budgets, showed a considerable reduction in the military budget, owing to the large contribution made by England to the Indian Exchequer,

The Government of India, comprising men whose duty it is to see that the revenue of India is spent only on India, dra .- the purse-strings very tightly. It is these purse-strings which a more or less organised band of Indian agitators want to get into their own hands, and it does not need much knowledge of the East to realise how it would be squanThe revenue and guidance spent on India, the well-being and prosperity of that country have developed in a surprising degree, especially during the past fifty years. At first metalled roads were made throughout the length and bredth of the land, not mere tracks, but broad macadamised roads, always kept in admirable repair. One of these running from Calcutta to Peshawur, known as the Srand Trunk road, is 1500 miles in length, and has an avenue of trees planted along both sides of it the whole way. Each one of those trees was planted and watered by the English till it grew to maturity. IRRIGATION SCHEMES. Immense sums have also been spent on irrigation canals, and these are ail paying concerns, bringing in at least ten per interest to the Indian Government; thus providing further resources for canal extensions. Some of these canals are wonderful pieces of engineering, and ' some carry as much water as the Thames %i Westminister. Hundreds of thousand*

of square miles of desert have thus been brought under cultivation, and where sandy desolation once reigned is now a sea of green crops. Nor is this work by any means finished; year by year fresh canals are commenced, or old one enlarged and extended. One of the most wonderful-irrigation feats accomplished by the British now just completed is the Punjab Triple Canal scheme. In the Southern Punjab were very large tracts of land which lay so much above the local river banks as to make irrigation impracticable. Undismayed by this difficulty, the engineers decided to tap another river .several hundred miles distant and bring the water from there. To do this they had to cross two of the I great rivers of the Punjab, streams of 1 no mean size. The first of these river I obstacles they negotiated by means of ! a huge aqueduct, the second by means of an equally huge syphon. Having got the water so far, a barrage was formed in the third river, so that it held up the inducted water till the levels were raised high enough to irrigate the whole of the hitherto inaccessible high land. After the- invention of the steam engine a great system of railways was begun in India, and year by year, as revenue is available, these lines continued to be extended and improved. To protect the Indian from exploitation by speculators, all canals, and all railways under certain conditions, are Government property. Canals are built purely out of . revenue, but railways are generally built with money borrowed from the British public at the guaranteed rate of 4% per cent. These debentures are in due course paid off, and the railway becomes the absolute property of the State. SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. The British system of. Government in India is to divide the whole country up into provinces and districts. The provinces are generally the whole geograp'hical divisions, and each of these is divided into districts, according to size and population. Governing each province are a body of high-experienced English officials, assisted by Indians. The" districts in the same way have a staff of Englishmen in supreme control, largely assisted by Indians of the requisite status and, ;', education. Some of these provinces are larger than France or Spain; and some . of t'lie districts.are half as big as England. The Indian much prefers, the patriarchal form, of rule; that is justice dispensed by a single Englisman stand- . ing under the village tree, without lawycrs or legal proceedings. But once ns 4 takes to the law court he becomes.! % | most inveterate litigant. He will spei|«J I the whole of his fortune, and borrtfyv. | more, to appeal, and counter-appeal in a '? case which his own Sahib would have settled in half an hour, at no cost. The habit once acquired, he is as much- a slave to it as an inveterate gambler, to '5 his cards, and from much the same . cause. . ■'(,,■: To keep order- in India and to defend it against the savage attacks of the wild neighbours on its borders, the Govern* .: ment maintain a small standing army, -i one-third composed af British soldiers, and two-thirds of Indians. Before the war, the total strength of this army was 200,000,. These troops are located all over the Indian peninsula at convenient stations. To assist the Government in the maintenance of law and order, there exists besides the military, a sufficient number of Indian police, with a sprinkling •of British officers. These are divided into Tural and urban police duties of all well-governed countries. ' British rule in India has been described as a "benevolent despotism." Benevo- ■ lent, it certainly is, but the despotism . takes more the form of control exercised j by a strict bjut kindly father over a i family of growing children.—Major-Gen- ' eral Sir George Younghusband. ,