Some critics regret that, in several Provinces, Prohibition is being
put in the forefront. Although it is being brought into operation gradually, in a few districts at a time, revenue from liquor is being lost which can ill be spared, and it is thought that evasion is too easy to make the law enforceable. Some think that too many things are being undertaken at once, and in too crude a way, in order to satisfy the impatience of the more extreme supporters of the party in power. There is complaint in some places that local officers of the Congress Party try to exercise authority over the Government officials of the districts. Landed interests are alarmed at the agrarian legislation that is being proposed in some of the Provinces. Nevertheless impartial observers recognise that it must take time for the new system to settle down ; that there are immense arrears needing to be caught up ; that the Ministries must show to their constituents concrete results speedily, and cannot merely point to difficulties and offer excuses ; and that, so far as the landlords are concerned, in many parts of India most of them have been absentees, taking little interest in their estates and seldom bestirring themselves to promote the welfare of the cultivators ; they cannot expect that mediaeval land systems and customs will continue unchanged.
Law and order have been as well maintained as under the former regime. The personal relations between the Governors and their Ministers are excellent. Ministers pay tribute to the help they are receiving from the civil services ; although here and there I heard it said that some of the older officials in the higher grades, and a greater number in the grades below —Indians especially—find it hard to adapt themselves to the new conditions, and to carry out with energy and goodwill policies that seem to them strange.
Governors speak well of their Ministers ; but it seems that in one or two of the small Provinces, and occasionally elsewhere, it has been difficult to find men of the right calibre to fill important offices.
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