Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎519r] (162/238)

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Proceedings of the East India Association.
be remembered that even the municipalities themselves sometimes give the
officials a great deal of work. Where things are not going smoothly, and
charges and countercharges are freely bought by excited partisans, the official
*is expected to go down and do justice between the parties. It is very much
less troublesome for an official chairman by a phrase or two to stop
a dispute orally than to inquire into and adjudicate on it when it has occurred.
This is certainly a case in which it is easier to prevent than to cure.
Under any circumstances, a considerable load of responsibility and labour
rests on those who have to watch, and sometimes to control, municipalities.
The vote of thanks to Mr. Rogers was then put to the meeting, and
carried by acclamation.
A vote of thanks to the Chairman for presiding was put by Mr. Penning
ton, and carried, and the proceedings then terminated.
At another meeting held at Westminster Palace Hotel, on Monday,
February 10, 1902, a paper was read by J. B. Pennington, Esq., b.l.
(Madras Civil Service, retired), on “The Indian Civil Service, and the
Further Admission of Natives of India,” the Hon. Percy Wyndham in the
chair. The following, among others, were present: Sir William tedder-
burn, Bart., Sir Lepel Griffin, k.c.s.l, the Hon. Mrs. Mure, Mr. J. D. Rees,
c.i.e., Mr. J. Sturrock, C.I.E., Mr. F. Loraine Petre, Colonel Hutchins,
Mr. A. K. Connell, m.a., Mr. W. Coldstream, Surgeon Lieut.-Colonel
Ince, m.d., Mr. J. F. and Mrs. Pennington, Mrs. Arathoon, Mr. Nilkant
B. Wagle, Mr. Drury Pennington, Mr. V. M. Samarth, Mr. H. R. Cook,
Mr. Allbless, Mr. and Mrs. J. A. R. Clark, Mr. Nanabhai D. Daru,
Mr. E. le B. Martin, Mr. R. D. Perestman, Mr. J. O. Millar, Mr. P. C.
Lobo, Mr. J. F. Brown, Mr. J. E. Champney, Mr. Jayer Rao, Mr. W.
Martin Wood, and Mr. C. W. Arathoon, Hon. Sec.
The Chairman having briefly introduced Mr. Pennington, the paper
was read.*
Sir Lepel Griffin, after the paper was read, said it seemed to him less
alarming than he had imagined it might be, and he did not find very much
to which he could take objection. It seemed to resolve itself into a mere
question of political economy, of expediency, and the question of fact
namely, what is the number of English Civil Servants necessary to rightly
and securely carry on the Administration of India ? He had lately read
several books which endeavoured to make out that British government was
a failure, that India was being exploited for the sole benefit of England,
and that their whole administration was a calamitous mistake. Any Indian
gentleman would know that those books were founded on exaggeration
grotesque exaggeration ; and he thought that everyone who had lived in
India must admit that the intentions of the Government towards our Indian
fellow-subjects were both liberal and beneficent. (Hear, hear.) He di
not disagree with Mr. Pennington when he said that they should open in
every legitimate way the doors of the Services to all their deserving fellow
subjects in India. He himself desired that, as heartily as any Indian
* See the paper elsewhere in this Review.