Letters to the Editor
GREAT BRITAIN AND INDIA
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The daily papers tell us that several political leaders are attacking Lord Irwin and his advisers and are endeavouring to discredit him and his well-informed Council in the difficult and responsible task entrusted to them by H.M. Government. I ask, Is this loyal ? Is this right ? It is possible that Lord Irwin's critics may be well informed. I don't know, but they cannot be so well informed as the Viceroy and the able and experienced men who form his Council. So far as I am aware the British Empire claims to be based on the willing consent of the peoples who are united for the defence of common rights and the promotion of common interests and any idea of an- Empire based on military force has long since been repudiated, that is if it ever existed in the minds of intelligent men. For it needs very little intelligence to be aware that an Empire held together by force is a source of weakness, not of strength.
But all officers who have served abroad must have witnessed the embarrassment caused to the responsible man on the spot by uninstructed criticism and fault finding at home. The various biographies published since the War tell us how the British Commander-in-Chief had to fight on two fronts. He was attacked by the Germans in front and by newspapers and politicians at- home, some of them indeed members of the Government, whose first duty was to give him a loyal support. Is this disloyalty to be repeated at a time when the British Raj is passing through a critical time in India ? I hope not, but in any case it behoves all loyal officers to dissociate themselves from such conduct.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Studwell Lodge, Droaford, Hants. GRAHAM BOWER.
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