Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎473r] (70/238)

Indian Civil Service and the Admission of Natives. 283
them and, secondly, on the ruinous expense of the present
system ; his theory being that we must substitute native for
European labour from one end of the service to the other
if we are to avoid ruining the country altogether by
the so-called “tribute” or “drain.” Needless to say,
Mr. Dadabhai does not emphasize those words in the
proclamations to which I would invite particular attention.
As far as I can see, a great deal too much has been
made of these proclamations. They were, no doubt, as
Lord Lytton observed, couched in language only too well
calculated to excite the unreasonable expectations of the
natives; but, fairly considered, they were evidently never
intended to go further than to say that all appointments
should be open to all British subjects “ so far as may be
consistent with the safety and security of our dominions,
as Sir Robert Peel himself said. And if the Government
of India is still of opinion that the proportion of Europeans
in the Civil Service is incapable of reduction with due
regard to the safety of the whole country for which they,
and they alone, are responsible—I for one should not
question their decision, even though the majority of the
witnesses examined by the Commission in 1886-88 decided
otherwise ; but, judging by Madras alone, the only province
I know, I should still be of opinion that more appointments,
especially in the Judicial, Engineering, and Educational
Departments, might safely and advantageously be filled by
natives. I must admit, however, that every speaker at
Mr. Connell’s meeting who showed any sense of responsi
bility for what he said seemed to agree with the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. of
the paper that the time had not then come for any great
reduction in the number of Europeans in the Civil Service.
Mr. Dadabhai thinks otherwise; but it is difficult to argue
with him, as he always declines to consider objections on
their merits, and is satisfied to dispose of them all by the
mere assertion that they are all “insincere.” I, of course,
cannot believe any such thing of the many reasonable men
who spoke on that occasion, and showed themselves, like