FORCING THE PACE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 54, 5 March 1923, Page 6

FORCING THE PACE

Special importance attaches to tin* decision ojt the Indian Uouncil of State that Indians snail be attached to the secretarial of each Department to enable them do gain an insight into tne greater problems ot administration. By this decision the non-oihcial members of the Council are forcing tne pace of Indianisation. This subject of Indianisation has become recently a burning topic. Mr. Sastri, who claimed to speak for the more moderate section of educated Indians, stated on several occasions during his Empire tour that ■ the British proposals for self-government were all that India desirad, but ' that there was impatience at the slow progress made in giving effect to these proposals. This impatience was turned to violent disapproval only last year, when Mr. Lloyd George, in announcing the Government's intention to support the Indian Civil Service, made it appear that the/ self-government formerly promised ■ was to be limited by the retention of the British administrators. In an article which we print to-day, the Bight Hon. E. S. Montagu (formerly Secretary of State for India) states that the ex-Prime Minister was not announcing a change of policy, but merely going beyond his brief. At the same time Mr. Montagu admits the difficulties that mu6t be faced in a transitional period. A Service which has governed India for generations cannot be replaced in a few years; and the mere knowledge that it is ultimately to be replaced makes its maintenance doubly difficult. Men of the high standing required for the Indian Civil Service cannot be induced, to enter upon a career which may suddenly be cut short. The Government of India then-must seek so to regulate the pace of Indianisation that the efficiency of the Service may not suffer. That this pace will not be fast enough for the Indians who crave office and power is the daoger that threatens the Indian Empire today.