BRITAIN’S WORK IN INDIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7019, 6 January 1910, Page 9

BRITAIN’S WORK IN INDIA.

.In a recent address at Glasgow the Master of Elibank, Under Secretary for India, referred to th© difficulties of govenriug native races, and, to * the results achieved in -mitigatiiug the severity of famines. “It was not infrequently sUid," h© pointed out, “by ignorant people, and even by some who ought to know better, that the famine was an introduction ol British rule,. and that Britain had so impoverished India that she could not withstand „their attacks. All that, of course, was the reverse of the truth. I'Umdne, in tho olden days led to hideous devastation. The preventive measures of the British had rendered, and wor© continuing to render, ithis inevitable enemy of an agricultural country less and less formidable. Scanty records existed of the famines of olden days, but such, records as wo had were suggestive enough. Of one famine we read: —“'Such was the genc-Pal apathy that bodies were not removed from the spot where they lay. Even in towns and villages no relief was held out to the sick and dying. Every man's hand was against his neighbour, and the strong ruthlessly seized the portion of the weak.' That was what the famine meant in the -eighteenth century. What hud we done for India in this respect? The causation of famines, that was to say, the shortage of crops, was not within the power of a Government to check. The agricultural population was dependent on an adequate rain supply, Und wuen, that failed distress must ensue. . , But we had done much both to make the people less wholly dependent onj the rains, and to alleviate the distress when it came, so that any disaster such as has happened in the past .was utterly inconceivable under present conditions. ‘ "In-* the first piuce, w© had developed two preventive measures—irrigation and railways. The dream of the Indian irrigation! officer was to render India 'independent of the caprices of the sky. Ho could not wholly succeed, but he had don© much, and would do more. Vast expanses of desert had been converted into fertile lands, Und. groat as were our engineering feats that had produced the result, there wetr© projects of equal magnitude in contemplation only second to irrigation in importance. In this connection wore the railways with which w© had laced India. It had been igorantly said thut railways were a contributing cau&e to distress because they took away for export the grain that would feed the starving population. It was, of course, tho case that when harvests were good grain was exported. Tills was Us it should be; it gave the Indian cultivator a large and assured market, and, therefore, stimulated production and increased the grain supply. When harvests were bad the price automatically rose, Und the export automatically stopped. Then the railways enabled the grain from the more fortunate districts to be conveyed to the district of scarcity, for droughts were always local in. India. In old days this was of no avail, as each district was land-locked; hence the terrible - mortality. Nowadays the improvements in communications had taken the edge off famines, and reduced them from calamities to periods of arrested production. In the -second place, we had by long experience evolved a famine code under which a systematic relief was given in distressed districts. At the first sign of scarcity preparations were begun Many advances wore imUde to agriculturists to help them to tide over the bad times. Then, if need arose, devoted officers laboured night and day organising relief works for the able-bodied, and distributing gratuitous relief to women and children ard th© infirm until the period of stress was -tided over. At such a time the Government poured out money. like wuter for the sake of the people, and its officers'gave their energies, and sometimes thedr lives."