Personal. Lord Meston PERSONAL H. M. the King has been pleased to approve of the appointment of Mr. William Malcolm Hailey, C.S.I., C.I.E., I.C.S., Chief Commissioner of Delhi, to be an ordinary Member of the Executive Council of the Governor-General of India, in succession to Sir James Meston, K.C.S.I., I.C.S, who has felt obliged, on medical advice, to resign his position as Finance Member of the Council, with effect from the 1st November, as the state of his eye sight will not permit him to return to India to complete his term of office, The Secretary of State and H. E. the Viceroy have accepted, with the greatest regret, Sir James Meston's enforced resignation of the office he has held with conspicuous success since the early part of 1918. They have expressed to him their high appreciation of the eminent services which he has rendered to India in the course of a career extending over 34 years, and they sympathise with him in its premature ending. H. M. The King has been graciously pleased to confer the dignity of a Barony of the United Kingdom upon Sir James Meston on the resignation of his appointment. Mr. Lloyd George Mr. H. W. Massingham, in the Nation, likens Mr. George to Billy Sunday. He writes: "Mr. George's mind, bare of the constructive and imaginative faculty, does not rise to the conception of the Democratic State, and if he smashes the present state of things, it will be in pure inadvertence. Hence he has no party and returns from Paris one of the loneliest men in England. To whom can he resort? Labour and Liberalism will have none of him, and are renewing their organisations and framing their programmes in complete independence. Toryism chafes him, and in its turn fears lest its Little Wonder should, after all, prove a bit of a Bolshevik. For 'sweating,' 'unemployment,' ' slums' and 'entrenched selfishness,' do, in the last resort, analyse down into landlords, capitalists, protectionists and profiteers, and these again into Tory England. For the moment Mr. George takes hand in 'shoring' it all up; but then there is no telling when he might let it all down. a So though the Prime Minister keeps a gay booth in Vanity Fair, he lives little a [NOVEMBER 1919 dangerously, for himself and for others. His Press falls from him, and so we have this funny little broadsheet, paid for and circulated, not indeed with public money, but out of a kind of Prime Minister's fund. (See the Literary Section). From Jocobinism to Directorate, from Directorate to what? As the pace of his career increases, the list of its victims multiplies-it stretches from Mr. Asquith to Mr. Henderson, from Mr. Keynes to Mr. Bullitt." "The less Mr. Lloyd George talks about the 'new order,' until he has produced some at least of his plans for its construction, the better for his position in the country," says the New Statesman. "As things stand all his brotherly ideals count for nothing beside the fact that there is hardly a single aspect of policy in which the record of his government is not one of shortsightedness, insincerity and failure." A man he seemed cheerful of yesterdays "If we were asked to indicate the source of Mr. Lloyd George's strength in public affairs, it would be contained in the now popular slang word: Cheerio,'" says the Star. He is what the Americans call a jollyer.' He is always confident of the future and plausible as to the past. If the Government of which he was the master spirit has made a colossal series of blunders, it was not his fault. He will sacrifice anybody you please, from Mr. Bonar Law down to the Third Gravedigger at the Ministry of Munitions, but the first necessity for a democratic dictatorship is that "The P. M. can do no wrong." Swami Dayanand Saraswati Mr. C. F. Andrews thus sums up Swami Dayanand's character in an article in the Tribune: the "The outstanding feature of Swami Dayanand's character, was his fearless love of truth, as he knew it by the light of his own conscience. I mentioned the wonderful truth-perception' of the young lad, when he renounced idolatry once and for ever, after seeing the mice eat up food which the priests had told him was consumed by the idol each night. With this fearless passion for truth was combined a most striking moral courage, which made him not only face dangers, but face them actually with joy and delight. And last I referred to his great work as a reformer, proceeding step by step from religion to social reform and founding his Society to carry on his work of reformation." Political Home Rule for Mauritius The Dundee Advertiser has the following observations on the demand for Home Rule in Mauritius. A petition, we read, has just been presented from inhabitants of the British colony of Mauritius to the Prime Ministers of Britain and France at the Peace Conference asking for the transfer of the island to France. Our enthusiasm for selfdetermination must not in this case make us indifferent to inquiry. Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, with an area of 705 square miles, is one of our spoils in the last great war, for it was taken from the French in 1810. The French at home still speak and think of it as a colony of French people. But though there are still many persons of French race and speech in it, there have been great changes since 1810. Mauritius has proved remarkably attractive to the inhabitants of British India, and more than 200,000 of its 380,000 inhabitants are Hindus. There are also thousands of Chinese, Singhalese, Malays, and Negroes. The Indians have prospered greatly, and to-day own a considerable part of the land, including the greater part of the capital, Port Louis. This country is not in the habit of parting freely with islands. Before Mauritius is given up we must at least know the wishes of our black and yellow brothers. Gujarat Political Conference Rao Bahadur K. G. Desai, Chairman, Reception Committee of the Third Gujarat Political Conference at Surat, in the course of his welcome address, said that the orderly management in Bombay and the extreme disorder in the Punjab during April last afforded testimony of the wise statesmanship of Sir George Lloyd on the one hand and of the rash and repressive policy of Sir Michael O'Dwyer on the other hand. The treatment accorded to the leaders in the Punjab, he said, was extremely humiliating, and that, until reparation and justice was done to the Punjab leaders, India cannot exult over the reforms. The Rowlatt Act was born out of distrust of the people, and must be repealed in the interests of good Government. He then dwelt on the Khilafat question, the position of Indians in SouthAfrica and Fiji, and regretted the angle of vision. The West remained as before the war, and has failed to benefit by the lessons of war, in spite of the enormous sacrifice incurred by it, The Hon. Mr. G. K. Parekh, in his presidential address, dwelt, at length on the history of constitutional progress in India from 1834 up to Mr. Montagu's announcement, and said that the Reform Bill contained many shortcomings which would impair its usefulness considerably. In the interests of the welfare of the country changes in the present constitution of the Government were absolutely necessary, and he urged the country to utilise fully the Reform Scheme and use it to further the advance of the country towards its goal. He laid stress on the agitation in the public mind by the Rowlatt Act and the Punjab affairs, and thought a Royal Commission of Enquiry would have been more appropriate than the present Committee. In connection with the Khilafat question, Mr. Parekh said that all political considerations should be set aside, and the question should be solved in accordance with the wishes of the Muslim world. Declaration of Rights Even some prominent Moderates are beginning to feel whether after all, a declaration of rights such as that suggested by the National Congress should not be embodied in the Reform Bill. So long as the Government of India can by merely pleading an emergency get the official majority in the Legislature to give them unlimited powers of restricting the liberty of the subject, so long, it is being generally felt, it is idle to expect them to choose the less facile methods of statesmanship. In many countries, constitutional reforms have been inaugurated by guarantees of the liberty of the subject and it is useless to pretend, after what has happened, that they are not needed in this country. At the same time, we would strongly deprecate the conclusion that Mr. Montagu's stewardship has been a failure. That he does not enjoy in British public life the authority and prestige of Lord Morley is true; but, in this respect, Mr. Montagu is in the same case as most other English public men. Sir Bampfylde Fuller had to resign in consequence of the Government of India, with the support of the Secretary of State, refusing sanction to a very much less violent species of statesmanship than Sir Michael O'Dwyer, with the full support of Lord Chelmsford's Government, was able to exhibit. The late Lord Minto did not think he would be discharging his duty by supporting Provincial Governments in whatever they wanted to do.-The Indian Social Reformer. General Punjab Jagirs GENERAL In April 1917, the Punjab Government announced the approval of the Secretary of State for India to proposals emanating from the former for the gradual creation of a number of new Jagirs, to each of which is attached a definite condition of "continued good conduct and steadfast loyalty to His Majesty the King-Emperor and active good service to the public or to the Government established by law in British India, rendered to the best of the Jagirdar's ability and power." Each such Jagir is granted for the life of the original holder, half the sum assigned being continued for the next generation. The Punjab Government was empowered to sanction such grants up to a maximum of Rs 10,000 in the first year in which the scheme came into operation, and up to Rs. 5,000 in any subsequent year. Grants aggregating Rs. 15,000 have already been made. For the financial year 1919-20, a further grant of Rs. 5,000 has just been sanctioned. The recipients of these grants it is said, rendered service in obtaining recruits and otherwise rendered aid to the administration. Advice to Japanese School boys The late General Count Nogi, issued a note of disciplinary instructions for the pupils of the grammar grade of the Peer School, the gist of which is as follows: 1. Keep your mouth closed. He who has always his mouth open shows that his mind is blank. 2. Mind what you are looking at. One whose eye is always wandering tells that his mind is also wandering. 3. When paying your respects, look at the person whom you are saluting. 4. Do not forget your coat-of-arms, family standing, and ancestors. Due respect to your ancestors is important. 5. A boy should act like a boy. Avoid becoming effeminate. 6. Never indulge in luxury. There is nothing that makes a fool of a man like luxury. 7. Ride in rikshaws as little as possible. Even if a rikshaw is sent for you, try to walk home. 8. How many of wash you water in the winter? You should not use warm face with cold your water, NOVEMBER 1919 9. When it is cold, think it is hot; and when it is hot, think it is cold. 10. It is a shame to wear torn clothes without mending them. But to wear torn part patched is nothing to be ashamed of. 11. Know what is shame. He who does not know what is shame is inferior to dumb animals, 12. While in good health train yourself so as to endure physical labour. When you are ill, however, obey your physician's instructions. 13. Make your clothes and shoes bigger. Never mind the style or shape. 14. Become a man useful to your country. Whoever cannot be so is better dead. Ex-Crown Prince's Hopes The Berlin papers publish a letter dated May 1, from the ex-Crown Prince to a Captain Anker who was his officer for information during the The ex-Crown Prince says: war. "Personally I do not at all feel myself in a situation of the most profound despair or callous apathy. Far rather do I seek to observe things sine ira et studio and to reflect upon them. I desire in the entirely changed conditions to create for myself and my family a new life. Still more longingly, however, do I wait for the moment which will again open up for me in Germany a small place-be it ever so modestin which with my whole-strength I can co-operate in the building up again of our beloved Father land." |