Minto's administration, owing, doubtless, to the absorbing claims
of the political situation and of political reforms.

In speaking in the Calcutta Council on a resolution for the
establishment of a great Polytechnic College, the Home Member was able
to point to a fairly long list of measures taken at no small cost by the
State to promote technical education in all parts of India, and he
rightly urged that there would be little use in creating a sort of
technical University until a larger proportion of students had qualified
for it by taking advantage of the more elementary courses already
provided for them. His answer would, however, have been more convincing
could he have shown that existing institutions are always adequately
equipped and that considered schemes which have the support of the best
Indian as well as of the best official opinion are not subjected to
merely dilatory objections at headquarters. Three years ago, after the
Naini Tal Industrial Conference, the most representative ever perhaps
held in India, Sir John Hewett, who had been made Lieutenant-Governor of
the United Provinces after having been the first to hold the new
portfolio of Commerce and Industry, developed a scheme for the creation
of a Technological College at Cawnpore, which met with unanimous
approval. Nothing has yet been done to give effect to it, and it was not
only the Indian but many of the European members, official as well as
unofficial, of the Viceroy's Legislative Council who sympathized with
Mr. Mudholkar's protest when he asked with some bitterness what must be
the impression produced in India by the shelving of a scheme that was
supported by men of local experiences by the head of the Provincial
Government, and by the Government of India, because people living 6,000
miles away did not consider it to be absolutely flawless.

In one direction at any rate, India can rightly demand that Government
should be left an entirely free hand--namely, in regard to the very
large orders which have to be placed every year by the great spending
departments. It has now been laid down by the Secretary of State that
Indian industry should supply the needs of Government in respect of all
articles that are, in whole or in part, locally manufactured. But Indian
industry would be able to supply much more if the Government of India
were in a position to give it more assured support. The case of the
Bengal Iron and Steel Company has been quoted to me,