The Government of India appears to be stretching every nerve
to save the people, but the destruction will be awful. The Times, which animadverts on the conduct of Government in not buying grain, misses the true point, which is not deficiency in supply, but a total impossibility of distributing it. There are no dis- tributing railways, though there is one main lino ; there are not sufficient cattle, and men cannot haul for hundreds of miles without eating more than they can pull. There is nothing for it but to march the people to the neighbourhood of the great lines, and risk the diseases which follow. Even then it is more than doubtful if food can be urged forward quickly enough. Imagine, for that is the truth, all France without food, and only one railway, carry. ing at its utmost working power enough grain to keep Paris and Lyons healthy ! The edible roots, the grass, the very thatch of the huts, all are gone, and after a hundred years of secure rule, we al e paralysed by want of locomotive power. A telegram, which is, we trust, exaggerated, says the condition of Guzerat also is hopeless, that is, the thickest population in the richest native State of Western India must perish. One-third of all the misery in the south is directly traceable to the cynical idiots who abused Lord Salisbury, Sir Richard Temple, and the Spectator for urging even extravagant measures of relief in Behar. They frightened the officials into a parsimony which has prevented reasonable measures of precaution.
