Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎520v] (165/238)

378 Proceedings of the East India Association,
was a man who had never been in England. If this journey were to be
made a test it would rule out the best people in India. It was not neces
sary to know English to administer justice in India. One of the most
serious faults of the Government was that it did not encourage Civil
Servants to learn the languages; a man never got put forward because he
was a linguist. Mr. Pennington had quoted the proclamation to the eftect
that as far as might be the Indians were to be appointed to such posts as
they were fit for, and had emphasized the words “ as far as might be
and he had referred to Lord Lytton, but Lord Lytton read the words “as
far as may be ” to mean that Indians were to be put forward wherever fit.
He thought it would be a very good thing for India if they were put
forward a great deal more frequently for higher offices ; not necessarily in
the same way in all Provinces. India should not be treated for this purpose
as one country any more than Europe should be treated as one country.
In Madras, for instance, they might be put forward much more than on
the Punjab frontier. The proclamation should be given far more effect
to in provinces which were quiet. Mr. Pennington had spoken of the
exaggerations of the writers of recent books. He thought they did very
much exaggerate. Mr. Digby, for instance, when it suited his purpose,
made light of the official statistics, but on other occasions he professed to
refute the Government by means of those same figures. Sir William
Wedderburn had referred to the Engineering Department. He thought
the Indians were less suited for that than for other departments, but he
remembered an Indian engineer of much resource who met a bear in the
hills. He said, “ I immediately calculated my powers of resistance by
Hodgkinson’s tables, and, finding them insufficient, I fled.”
The Chairman read the following remarks by Mr. Thorburn, who was
unable to be present: “ I should have supported you in your object, but
on the ground that the demand of educated India to be tried in more and
higher appointments cannot long be resisted. We turn out 6,000 graduates
annually. I should have suggested Madras as the best field for the experi
ment, as it is most advanced in education, and fewest racial, religious, or
political difficulties are to be found there.”
Mr. Martin Wood desired to recall the historical position of the
question. The special claim of Indians to become members of the Civil
Service was brought up by Henry Fawcett, who strongly urged that there
could be no really open competition as long as the examinations were
entirely carried on in England. He at that time was not able to follow
Mr. Fawcett, because there had been no provision as to residence in this
country, but since then that had been admitted as essential. One of the
speakers had said that natives of India were in some respects much better
for not coming to England. The next step was Victorian Scholarships to
enable natives to come to this country for examinations, and then there was
a system of Statutory Civilians set up, who were to be examined in India.
That, of course, was quite inconsistent with the principle of open competi
tion. As a result of the Provincial Services Commission, the Provincial
Service was established, and that, too, was inconsistent with the principle of
open competition. He thought the time had come for a revision of the