Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎474r] (72/238)

Indian Civil Service and the Admission of JSiatwes. 285
generous words of the Chairman of this Association on a
recent occasion, and say that when / “ look back on my life
in India and the many good friends I had there among all
classes of the native community, when I remember those
honourable, industrious, law-abiding, sober, manly men, I
doubt if we have a greater choice of excellent officials even
in this country. But for the madness of mere racial prejudice
in India, I see no reason at all why one of our Chairmans
many friends should not conduct the business of one of our
provinces quite as successfully as, I suppose, Ranjitsinjhi
manages the Sussex Eleven. Let us not be generous in
words only, but rest assured that we may safely employ
many more of such men as were described so sympatheti
cally by Sir Lepel Griffin.
As I said in my opening remarks, my only object in
writing this short and very imperfect paper is simply to
elicit opinions more valuable than my own ; but as I
suppose I must offer some actual concrete suggestions for
criticism, I would say that the irreducible minimum of
Europeans required should be carefully determined every
year, with a bond fide intention of keeping the number as
low as may be compatible with safety, and that for the
remaining vacancies a sufficient number of the best natives
to fill them all should be selected in Bombay by some
simple but searching examination, and that the successful
candidates should be sent over to England at Government
expense to compete again on equal terms/hr all the services,
Home and Colonial, as well as Indian; and I think it
quite likely that a native of India, who was enterprising
enough to enter for the Home Civil Service, might be even
more useful as a public servant here than in India. He
would, at any rate, be free from the pernicious influence of
innumerable needy relations, one of the great advantages a
foreigner possesses in any country.
I ought, perhaps, to note here that, in addition to those
selected and sent to England at the expense of the Indian
Government to compete for the vacancies in that service,