Lord Minto in India
India, Minto and Morley. By Mary, Countess of Minto. (Macmillan. • 21s.) • • .
PHs been book's importance has immediately recognized, and it his played a part, in the Spectacular conversion of Conservatives to the Government propoSals for India. Mr. John Buchan's earlier book on Lard Minto revealed that it was not John Morley, the " Radical," who pressed, nearly thi4y, years ago, for increased representation of Indians in their own GOvernment, but Minto the COnservative ; this has been common knowledge ever since, but only in the 4,IwiOdling en,* of those who find Indian matters interesting. It was this new timely reMindei by Lady Minto that deeply impressed Conservative opinion. Progress in India could not be so terribly " &Ashy " after all, if it had a Conservative to its father I The book, then, was bound to be important, and has been something of a political event.
I have never come to any book with more willingness to be delighted with it. It recovers days that I vividly remember, and ,tells of (not a great Viceroy, by any means, but) a great gentleman, by got on excellently with the Indian aristocracy, and by straightforward fairness did fine work. ." For intractable blindness 'to all the signs of the
wrote Lord Morley to him, " give me a certain sort of Indian high civilian"; and against the opposition of these fearsome wildfowl Lord Minto pressed what they considered his wildly revolutionary proposal of an Indian Member of the Viceroy's Council, where he would see all the " secret " correspondence ! He pressed it until he won acceptance. His personal " decency " caused the " Morley-Minto Reforms " to be received with a welcome infinitely kinder than that accorded to the far fuller Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms. Yet I find myself writing review after review, and discarding them all— I am desperately anxious to bless, all my fellow-prophets have been blessing, loud rejoicing shouts are on the mountains— yet my blessing will not heartily come. I am sorry ; and my disappointment may be because my admiration of Lord Minto was so sincere. The trouble is this : the book ought to have been edited. We cannot afford to broadcast the things we say privately ; no one seems to have noticed how this book is going to embarrass us. For example, a well- known spiritual leader's views are reported thus : " The Aga Khan arrived to stay with us today. He seems to have had a triumphal progress through India amongst the Moslems. He says that the only real way to appeal to the feelings of Natives is by means of the superstitions of their religion, and consequently he has instructed the priests in every mosque to issue a decree that any Mahommedans who incite to rebellion, or go about preaching sedition, will be eternally damned. He suggested that a similar manifesto should be issued by the Hindus, as if doubts were thrown upon their prospects of happiness in a future state it might have a deterring effect ! "
Then there was the notorious visit to Calcutta of Habi- bullah, Amir of Afghanistan. The Times (and in a less degree, the National Review) come in for severe reprobation for tactless references to this ; the Afghan Court, we are told, was very sensitive. I have no doubt The Times made itself a nuisance. But it cannot have been as bad as passage after passage now printed. Are we to suppose that Afghans are now less sensitive, or less in touch with the outside world ? We are also given a great deal (too much) of the not very intelligent opinions of Sir Pertab Singh, that philosopher so quoted by the " die-hard " school of thinkers : his scorn of " damn Bengali babu," and of men " without pedigree," and his bitter grief when he rode through Calcutta with a hog-spear and yet found no excuse to kill even one damn Bengali babu. Lastly, there is this misrepresentation of 'Sir Bampfylde Fuller's retirement :
" The students of the Colleges in Eastern Bengal had, by deli- berately ignoring certain regulations issued by the Government of India, laid themselves open to a severe penalty. Sir Bampfylde Fuller (Lieutenant-Governor) was determined to exact full punish- ment for this offence, but the Viceroy, judging that such drastic action would, at that moment, be certain only further to inflame Indian passions, made insistent recommendations to him to exercise discretion, pending the introduction of new regulations. Unable to acquiesce, and hoping by strategy to gain his own ends, Sir Bampfylde Fuller tendered his resignation to the Government of India. To his surprise the Viceroy accepted it. The official world held up its hands ! A member of their sacred brotherhood was to be thrown to the wolves ! "
I believe I am right in saying that Lord Minto paid only one visit to East Bengal (to shoot rhinoceros in its north- west corner) ; and East Bengal was the storm-centre where the Administration were fighting a terrorist movement at least as strong as that of today. I do not know Sir Bampfylde Fuller, but I do know that this account of his action mis- represents all the facts.
The book contains more errors than are necessary, and additional misinformation is added in footnotes. I have got the impression that Lady Minto was not deeply interested in what she recorded. But it is probably unjust to demand that she should have been. Her work was to preside over the ceremonial and social side of the Government of India, and she performed it with a grace and kindness that have never been forgotten. But, far more than Mr. Lloyd-George's recent volume, this one seems to me to raise the question of what should be published and what should not. Yet while generals and politicians have been infuriated with the former, no one has seen anything amiss with India, Minto and Morley.
EDWARD THOMPSON.
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