Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎523r] (170/238)

Proceedings of the East India Association. 383
Another meeting of the Association was held on Wednesday, February 26,
at the Westminster Palace Hotel, at which Sir George Birdwood, k.c.i.e.,’
LL.D., took the chair. There were present amongst others : Sir William
Wedderburn, Bart., Sir Charles Stevens, k.c.s.i., Lieut.-Colonel H. Wilson,
Colonel A. T. Frazer, Dr. David Duncan, Mr. S. S. Thorburn, Mr. J. d!
Rees, c.i.e., Mr. William Digby, c.i.e., Mr. Loraine Petre, Mr. W. Cold
stream, Mr. Shepherd, Mr. J. Sturrock, c.i.e., Mr. J. B. Pennington,
Dr. Bhaba, Mrs. Arathoon, Mrs. Hoppey, Miss Teschemacher, Miss G. F.
Pearse, Mr. Alexander Rogers, Mr. J. W. Walker, Mr. Hasted Thorn,
Mr. Wagle, Mr. Kehr Singh, Mr. Mahomed Ismail, Mr. N. P. Daru,
Mr. Kinloch, Mr. P. P. Pillai, Mr. F. C. Hodgson, Mr. H. R. Cook,'
Mr. H. Mussenden, Mr. F. H. Brown, Mr. Martin Wood, and Mr. C. W.
Arathoon, Hon. Secretary.
Sir Roland Wilson, Bart., read the following paper* entitled “Is
State-aided Education in any Shape suitable to the Present Circumstances
of India ?”
The Chairman, in inviting discussion, said he had been quite unprepared
for two digressions in the paper—the first, the attack on Sir William
Lee-Warner’s “ Citizen of India,” a truly admirable book on its subject,
and which seemed to him a most desirable one to prescribe for the use of the
Government schools in India; and the second, the reference in the intro
ductory portion to the controversial question of “the poverty of India.”
But they all seemed to have Mr. William Digby on the brain just now,
and his name having been introduced into the paper, he thought the best
course to pursue would be to call on their friend Mr. William Digby to
open the discussion.
Mr. William Digby, c.i.e., said he could not help feeling, as he listened
to his somewhat mild and pleasant way of putting facts, that the learned
author of the paper must have been endeavouring to emulate Mr. James
McNeill Whistler when that gentleman wrote his pamphlet called “The
Gentle Art of making Enemies,” for he could not conceive any paper that
could be read before the East India Association that was so likely when
brought before the people of India, to make them enemies, not of one so
amiable as Sir Roland Wilson, but of the proposals which he had put
forward. He ventured to think it was a great pity that on the plea of the
poverty of India such a proposal as that contained in the paper should
have been made. Sir Roland Wilson had very properly taken Lord
Curzon as his authority, wishing to rely upon the most optimistic
statement he could. His (Mr. Digby’s) figures of estimated income were
set aside for the Viceroy’s, the latter being more favourable. He should
like to say that when they regarded the figures closely it would be found
there was very little difference between the estimate he felt himself
compelled to put forward and that of Lord Curzon’s. Lord Curzon
calculated that for the agricultural population, which was three-fourths of
the population of India, their average income was Rs. 20 per annum,
while his (Mr. Digby’s) came to Rs. 17, or three farthings per head.
Worked out in detail, Lord Curzon’s estimate was seven-eighths of one
* See paper elsewhere in this Review.