[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Writing to the Manchester
Guardian, Professor Gilbert Slater suggests that if the right of India to secede is recognized and an Indian appointed the next Viceroy, there will be no more grounds for complaint that the administration is still alien and British. But one must not forget that the spirit of the administration is more important than its personnel. Rightly or wrongly, we think that Lord Irwin is the most sincere and the most fair-minded Viceroy that India has had since Lord Ripon. But has he been able to meet any of our principal grievances ? Are not opium and liquors still sold in India against the demand of a united country ? Take another instance. In 1911 the Government turned down Gokhales most modest Primary Education Bill on the ostensible ground of "no funds," although the elected Indian members had offered solidly to support a Primary Education tax. Naturally everybody thought the reasons were political. Funds were, of course, forthcoming for the enhanced salaries and allowances recommended by the Lee Commission.
The growing discontent in India is not due to any differ- ences of opinion between the Government and the governed on matters of administration. It is chiefly due to the fact that the people have come to believe that the true reasons for such differences are other than those officially given by the Govern- ment. You cannot possibly inspire either confidence or respect (for which latter Mr. Churchill is so anxious) unless you can convince those whose trustees you claim to be that you are straightforward. It is this inherent weakness in the system itself, which makes such things possible, and not the Nationalists, that is undermining the moral foundations of British rule in India. For the sake of both countries a wholesale change in the system is necessary, and this is Impossible without what Gandhi calls "a change of heart."
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