Sir George Campbell comes out of these early papers well,
but there was something wanting in him. He thoroughly foresaw the calamity, and on November 10 declared "the most pressing measure was the scattering broadcast of relief houses, so as to have one for every group of villages within reach of every one's home, and the purchase, transport, and storing of grain in the places in which it was most likely to be wanted for purposes of relief ; that he should like to buy grain wherever it was to be had, to procure and use every possible means of transport, and pre- pare food depots in almost every part of the Patna, Bhaugulpore, and Bajshahye Divisions, and perhaps in a great part of Burdwan. He, therefore, required a definite intimation of the amount which he might spend for the purposes thus indicated." Next day he defined his want as £500,000, but on this being re- fused, he should, with his profound impression of the danger, have compelled the Viceroy, by resigning and appealing to Par- liament, to take the responsibility on his own shoulders. He seems to have held it a braver thing to hold on and make weekly or fortnightly representations, and to have felt it impossible to move his superior from his decisions, decisions which, as the re- sult has proved, were, except in the matter of buying food, much too tardy. Sir G. Campbell was also obstinately set upon pro- hibition of exports.
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