THE RISE OF PRICES IN INDIA.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—I have just seen the Spectator of August 17th, and the letter in it signed "D. R." and headed "The Rise of Prices in India," though the bearings of it lie in its particular application to the India Civil Service.
Here are a few more points that aspirants to that service would do well to consider : First, as observed by Sir Valentine Chirol in one of his Times articles on the " Unrest in India," that nowadays there are stations in India in which a white lady cannot obtain medical aid from a doctor of her own colour, and which are not near enough to the headquarters of a European medical man to enable his services to be secured in an emergency or otherwise than at very considerable expense. Second, that there are not a few stations in which the number of bungalows existing is inadequate to the number of officers forming the staffs of such stations. It is not a question of obtaining bad house accommodation at an exorbitant rent, but a question of obtaining a house at all. Third. that a system is growing up of making promotions to the higher and most lucrative posts by what is officially called " selec- tion," and unofficially by a much more disagreeable name. The reasons for such " selection," and its correlative, are not disclosed. No one not " selected" dare appeal, lest he should become (as he certainly would) a " marked man."
These facts, and those alluded to by " D. R.," are not, I believe, indicated in the prospectus of the examinations for the India Civil and other Services. But they are apparently becoming known to those immediately concerned ; or why should an eminent statesman deplore the fact that an increasing number of men prefer to play the part of a "vegetable" in the Home Civil Service rather than take up the role of a " benevolent eagle " in that of India P—I am, Sir, &c., N.
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