THE TRAINING OF BRITISH OFFICERS FOR INDIA.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—No one who has had practical experience, here or in India, of the training of officials can fail to appreciate the large and generous spirit which prompts Sir Bampfylde Fuller's suggestions, or to agree with you in thinking that " one year at Oxford or Cambridge, and a year at an Indian
Training College, should be the rule for all British administrators" (Spectator, April 23rd). But we must not forget that the candidates for the various Indian Services are men of very varied capacities, talents, and educa- tion. Those who are selected for the Civil Service are some- what distinguished graduates, men who would probably do well in the professions if they had not chosen an Indian career. They have not much time to waste. The rules of their service compel them to retire at the age of fifty-five. They are naturally anxious to get to work, and would, I am sure, resent an addition to the year of probation now imposed upon them, and spent at one or other of the Universities (not necessarily Oxford or Cambridge). This year is by no means wasted. The probationers have to master (1) Indian criminal law and the law of evidence; (2) Indian history and geography ; (3) the vernacular of their province. Besides those compulsory subjects, they can take np either Hindu and Mohammedan law, or one of the three classical languages of India. At Oxford and Cambridge (possibly at London also) they get much other useful training in the way of occasional lectures from past or present members of the Service. At Cambridge, for instance, Sir Bampfylde Fuller himself gave the proba- tioners not long ago an admirable address on settlements of land revenue in India and Egypt, a subject on which he is the unquestioned chief of living authorities. If we are to follow French precedents, and put our men through some- thing resembling the Ecole des Sciences Politiques, shall we not be driven to choose them at an earlier age P That would involve a change more momentous than any mere alteration in the method of training. Much the same considerations apply in the case of men in the superior Educational Service. No doubt some special Indian training would do them no harm. But their chief function is to carry the latest European ideas on educational matters to India, as may be inferred from the fact that this Service alone is closed to Indian graduates. As for the minor Services, the Police, Forests, &c., these are recruited from younger candidates of a somewhat different intellectual type. There already exist a Police school and a Forest school in India. No doubt the system of training at these might be improved. In the ease of Forest officers, the usual complaint is that India turns out excellent administrative foresters, but very few men of scientific eminence. In this connexion, it is perhaps a matter for regret that all Forest Service pro- bationers are at present compelled to go to Oxford, and cannot utilise the admirable training afforded by Dr. Henry's course at Cambridge. This, as most who are interested in the subject know, is thoroughly up to date, practically and scientifically, and is in touch with the latest scientific develop- ments of forestry ,in France and Germany. In short, there are several minor improvements in the existing methods which might be tried, even if the anthorit:e3 do not see their way to reviving Haileybury and the College of Fort William.
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