Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎471v] (67/238)

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THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE AND
THE FURTHER ADMISSION OF NATIVES
OF INDIA.*
By J. B. Pennington.
Nearly eleven years ago Mr. Connell read a very excellent
and exhaustive paper on the above subject, and came to the
conclusion that we “ could not then foresee the time when
it will cease to be necessary in all the higher branches of
the administration that a large proportion of appointments
should be held by members of the covenanted Civil Service,
or that this corps d dhte should oe mainly European.”
W hat I wish this meeting to consider is, whether we
have now reached that time ; or, at any rate, whether it is
possible to materially decrease the proportion of appoint
ments to be held by members of the Civil Service, and to
decrease the proportion of Europeans in that service.
Before going further, I think it desirable to say that I quite
accept the view expressed by Sir Richard Meade, chairman
of Mr. Connell’s meeting, that “it is the wish at the
present time (1891) of all the best officers in India to do
everything that is possible to advance the natives, and to
give them a fair share in the administration of their country,”
and I am quite satisfied that it is the bond fide policy of the
English people so far as they can be said to have any
policy on the subject—to so educate and train the natives
of India that they may become fit to manage their own
affairs if, like the Romans in Britain, we should at any time
find it convenient to leave. If we are driven out of the
country by superior force, we should naturally have no
responsibility for the consequences; but if at any time the
English democracy should make up its mind to retire
voluntarily, and we had not so prepared the natives that
_ See the Proceedings of the East India Association elsewhere in tl
Review for discussion on this paper.