Sir: Tunku Varadarajan's article would have come as no surprise
to the hierarchy of the Victorian Indian Empire. That dis- tinguished warrior General Sir John Jacob (1812-58), after whom Jacobabad is named, laid it down as a guiding rule for the Indian army that 'natives should never be associated with any English but gentle- men'. No doubt he would have said the same for the Civil Service if he had had authority to do so. Snobbery didn't come into it — practical policy ruled: he knew that India could only be held by 'moral force' and 'not by English bone and muscle, but by mind ... a moderate number of cul- tivated English gentlemen rather than a multitude of rude soldiers'. Jacob knew the 'natives' very well. The trouble was that after the Mutiny large numbers of the British army had to be stationed in India, so one could say that the Indians brought down the 'multitude of rude soldiers' on their own heads. Also, as the Empire expanded, the gentlemen were probably in short supply.
C.A. Latimer
3 The Street, Melton, Woodbridge, Suffolk
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