BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
[To Tos Eorroa or THE "Sescriros."1
Sru,—A propos of your leading article on India (July 23rd) the following may be of interest, as it tends to confirm the view you there took of the attitude of the villagers (who, after all, form ninety-five per cent. of the population) to our Govern- , ment. I was in a somewhat quizzical mood trying to bring ' home to.the headman of a village in the Punjab what is the meaning of the stva ref/ (self-government) which the Bengalis are aiming to achieve. It took some time to get it into his mind ; but as soon as he realised it meant our " clearing out " to make room - for a strictly "native " rule, he clasped his two hands together - and said : "Turn out, if you please, our Taltsildcirs and our Naib-Tahaildars, and, above all, turn out our Po.tusiris" (the - three classes of native revenue officers in descending scale), "but don't you go." That I believe to be wholly typicaL These three grades of officers, and especially the last, are pre- - cisely those who in the main (for there are honourable excep- t tions) bleed the villagers, and instinct tells them that if we were to go, things, bad as they may seem to be for them, - would not improve, but rather grow indefinitely worse.—I am, - Sir, &c.,
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