GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 5 June 1925, Page 5

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

NOT A PASTIME, BUT AN ORDEAL

SOME POIGNANT PASSAGES. LATE LORD CURZON’S BOOK. BY CABLE-PRESS ASSOCJ ATION— COPYRIGHT. LONDON, June 3. Some interesting disclosures and poignant passages are contained in the late Lord Curzon’s “British Government in India,” just published by Cassells. Lord Curzon, discussing Kitchener’s supreme ambition to become Viceroy, says that Lord Morley refused on the grounds of political exepdiency- to give him the post, because he was a soldier. It is elsewhere mentioned that Lord Rosebeay wishes the Earl of Cromer to he Viceroy, but the latter declined five years of exile.” V

• In this connection Lord Curzon refers to sacrifices Viceroys make. Many lost their wives as the result o,f the climate. “Over the vice-regal throne hangs, not only a canopy of broidered gold, but a mist of human tears.’’ In this there is perhaps a reference' to Lord Curzon’s loss of liis own wife. “I think the majority of those who suffered thought the price worth while: but let my countrymen realise that they paid it, and remember that the foundation stones of the Entire, which they vaunt as being solid, nave not merely been laid in pride apd glory, but are cemented with the heart’s blood of stricken men and women . Equally would I say to the Ministers who sit in state in Downing Street, to the officials who rule and overrule from Whitehall and legislate at Westminster, who are most ready with criticism and most glib with censure, that they might derive profitable lessons from history and learn that the Government of India is not a pastime, but an ordeak not a pageant alone, hut as often a pain.”—A. and N.Z. Assn.