[To the Editor of TEE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Mr. Cedric Dover has
raised a " demographic issue " which I cannot dispute. I gave only one general figure for the Anglo-India population in India, which was " about one hundred thousand." Mr. Dover gives three likely esti- mates-138,395 less 19,200 ; 168,400 ; and 200,000. Where he finds safety in numbers I shall find it in exodus, I did not write my article without first re-reading the relevant passages of the Simon Report. I should have remembered that the Simon Report is a tainted and prejudiced document.
The taking of an Indian Census is no easy affair. In a certain district where a pious Scot was the Collector, a number of Indian residents were induced to declare that their religion was Presbyterian. No doubt each of these mistaken Hindus and Tilahommedans became automatically an European or an Anglo-Indian. Some years ago I was invited to meet a namesake, Mr. A— C-- Bolton. Thinking that a col- lateral ancestor might have married into the people of the country—and why not ?—I looked forward to the encounter. Mr. Bolton was, however, a Parsec of apparently unblemished antecedents. Loyalty to my engaging namesake almost compels me to leave the " demographic issue " alone.
It is not for me to oppose Mr. Dover's worthy aspirations : courage alone will save the Anglo-Indian community from moral disintegration. But I am sorry to hear that in the new India neither I " nor any other representative of Lord Rothermere's islanders will be there to help." Believe me, many Englishmen will prefer the new India to the old. The old India endured us as members of an alien governing class. The new India gives us a chance--a chance which we may share with members of Mr. Dover's community—to govern by right of personal merit. So Mr. Dover and I may yet meet in Bombay. Or will Mr. Dover continue to reside in England ?
—Yours faithfully, J. R. GLORNEY BOLTON,
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