Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎519v] (163/238)

276 Proceedings of the East India Association.
gentleman in the room could do. The question of competency for execu
tive, far more than for judicial appointments, must be determined by the
Government of India itself, and by the heads of local governments. They
could not force upon Governors and Lieutenant-Governors feeble, incom-»
petent men for the executive charge of districts, whose conduct on the
Punjab frontier or elsewhere, would be open to a description such as that
given by Mr. Rudyard Kipling in one of his famous stories. The local
governments must decide this question of competency, but subject to that,
he thought every civilian present would most heartily welcome the generous
sentiments of the lecturer, and would desire that, so far as was consistent
with safety, all appointments should be open to Indian gentlemen.
Sir William Wedderburn said that doubtless a certain amount of
European civil agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. in India was necessary, in order to preserve the
British connection. But some good system of recruitment and distribution
should be adopted, so that the agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. should be of the best quality, that
there should not be more of it than absolutely necessary, and that the
Government of India should be able to employ it in those provinces and
departments where it would be most useful. Also it was desirable to pre
vent the unseemly struggle, which so often took place, when a vacancy
occurred for which both Europeans and Indians were candidates. He
thought that the scheme sketched out in the Minority Report of the Royal
Commission on Indian Expenditure would have this effect. The proposed
method was suggested by the existing arrangement for the Royal Engineers,
when serving in the Public Works Department in India. A young man
obtaining his commission in the Royal Engineers occupied a position in a
close seniority service. If he w r ent out to India as a Lieutenant or a
Captain, and was appointed an Executive Engineer, he drew the pay of his
rank, as a personal allowance, plus the pay of an Executive Engineer. An
outsider appointed to a similar post drew only the pay of the appointment
and no personal allowance. Similarly the prize in the open competition
for the Covenanted Civil Service should be simply entry into a close
seniority service, enjoying personal pay according to the number of years
of service. This would represent compensation for exile, and the retaining
fee which bound him to be at the orders of the Government. When he
w r as appointed to any post he would draw the pay of that post plus the pay
of his rank. The result of this arrangement would be that the pay of all
appointments in India could be reduced to the ordinary market value, and
all civil appointments would be held by Indians except those held by the
limited number of Covenanted European civilians who came out every
year. It would be the duty of the Government each year carefully to
consider the smallest number for their requirements, so that no more of
this expensive agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. should be recruited than was absolutely necessary.
Then as regards distribution, the lecturer had pointed out that in the
quieter districts the highest judicial and educational appointments might
be held by Indians, while Sir Lepel Griffin had urged that ih turbulent
frontier districts Europeans were necessary for executive posts. This could
be met by having a maximum budget allotment for European officers, who
might be employed in the provinces and departments as seemed best for