22 JULY 1943, Page 13

ANGLI IN ORIENTE

Sin,—I would urge that the Secretaries of State for the Colonies and for India will see to it that the widest possible circulation is given to Major Collard's article. Every British official and non-official in India past and present would be benefited and so also would our relationship with the people we " govern." Major Collard's " second-raters " are to be found among both officials and 'non-officials. In the former there has been an improvement in the past thirty years—among the latter a deterioration.

It is the second-raters among non-officials in India who find their newly acquired status—as " sahibs "(?) more attractive in its qualification for society and clubs in India—as well as when on leave at home—than they do Indian polity or languages.

British civilians since the days of open. competition have not India in their bones—or blood—as had Kipling's Anglo-Indian aristocracy, the Rivett Carnes, the Warburtons, Lyalls, Stracheys, &c., &c.

Both British officials and non-officials in the new order of things have already lost the privileged position .they have held in India the past too years—but they need never lose their opportunities nor their izzat- nor the regard of the Indian and other people with whom there will still be scope to work with, for, or even under.—Yours, &c.,