A GREAT ADMINISTRATOR

Evening Star, Issue 18262, 30 April 1923, Page 4

A GREAT ADMINISTRATOR

SIR HAROLD STUART’S CAREER,

feir Harold Arthur Stuart, G.C.M.G., K.C.5.1., K.0.V.0., whoso death was anounced recently, was one of the ablest and most resourceful Indian administators of his day, and rounded off his years of devotion to the Public Service as British High Commissioner on tho Rhineland, and subsequently jn Silesia, He came homo from the Continent in poor health last summer, and never recovered his old vigour. n „ n Sir Harold Stuart was born In 1860, and, passing tho Indian Civil Service examination, ho was posted to Madras. His next post, that of InspectorGeneral of Police, Madras, was the stepping-stone to an important part in tho development and _ improvement of tho Indian Police Service. Lord Curzon, ever on the look-out for capable men, chose him as secretary of the Police Commission which toured the country in 1902, and .made the first thorough examination of tho problem as a whole. The sotting up of a Criminal Intelligence Department was recommended, and after a period of furlough, Stuart was selected to be tho first director. It was well that its organisation was completed before the emergence of the wave of anarchist crime which followed the partition of Bengal. It fell to Stuart to make all the police arrangements when their Majesties, then Prince and Princess of Wales, visited India in 1905-6. Next he became Homo Secretary to tho Government of India, in which post he had a largo share in framing the regulations under the Minto-Morlcy Reforms. A man of liberal views, he is known to have put forward the first authoritative suggestion for the appointment of an Indian to each of the Executive Councils in India.

One of the least agreeable phases of tho special work so often trusted to him was the position of chief of the British staff of the German _ Crown Prince when lie toured in India in 1910. In later years, when_ diplomatic propriety no longer enjoined reticence, ho had some amusing stories to tell or 11 Little Willie’s ” ways. Returning to Madras early in 1911, ho officiated as Chief Secretary, but in the following year was appointed to act as Member of Government, and was subsequently confirmed in this appointment.

In 1916 Sir Harold Stuart came homo to work in the Ministry of Food. The different appointments in Germany, in which ho showed his usual tact and judgment, followed.—‘ Times.’