of the emergency powers still vested in them in opposition to
the policy and wishes of the Indian representative assemblies. "For,
above all things," His Majesty concluded, "it is Our will and pleasure
that the plans laid by Our Parliament for the progressive realisation of
responsible government in British India may come to fruition, to the end
that British India may attain its due place among Our Dominions."

That in carrying out those instructions Lord Reading will be able to
rely on the full support of the British members of his own Executive
Council and of the Provincial Governments the most practical proof has
been already given in the wise and conciliatory attitude displayed by
them during the first session of the new Legislatures in Delhi and in
the Provinces, in marked contrast to the sense of impregnable authority
too often made manifest when autocratic power was still entrenched
behind official majorities voting to order. To the credit of the public
services, and not least of the Indian Civil Service, I should add that,
if I may venture to judge by the great majority of those I know best,
there is now a genuine desire to make the reforms a success, however
apprehensive some of them may have formerly been. The change
unquestionably often involves considerable sacrifices of power, and even
sometimes power for good, as well as of old traditions and prejudices,
and such sacrifices come hardest to those whose habits of life and mind
are already set, but they are worth making. It is far easier for the
younger men who have more recently joined to realise that their
opportunities of service to India and to the Empire will, if anything,
be greater than before, though they will call for somewhat different
qualities, as their influence will now depend more upon capacity to
persuade than to give orders. To the non-official British communities
the European-elected members of the new Assemblies have already given an
admirable lead by the cordiality of their personal relations with their
Indian colleagues, as well as by such public manifestations of goodwill
and sound judgment as their unanimous vote in support of the Indian
resolution on Amritsar in the Legislative Assembly. One of the greatest
obstacles to fruitful co-operation is racial aloofness, even amongst the
best-disposed Indians and Europeans, and every Englishman can on his own
account and within his own sphere do something to overcome it.

The visit of the Duke