John Morley

There need be no surprise in the fact that they want a share in political influence, and want a share in the emoluments of administration.

Their means--many of them--are scanty; they have little to lose and much to gain from far-reaching changes.

They see that the British hand works the State machine surely and smoothly, and they think, having no fear of race animosities, that their hand could work the machine as surely and as smoothly as the British hand.

They held that, to draw back on account of local and sporadic disturbances, however serious, anxious, and troublesome they might be, would have been a really grave humiliation.

To hesitate to make a beginning with our own policy of improving the administrative machinery of the Indian Government, would have been taken as a sign of nervousness, trepidation, and fear; and fear, that is always unworthy in any…

I think that the time has now come when the Secretary of State may safely, wisely, and justly recommend at any rate one Indian member.

I may have to argue it in Parliament at a later stage, but I think it is right to say what is my intention, realising as we all do how few opportunities the governing bodies have of hearing the voice of Indians.

I believe I have defended myself from ignoring the principle that there is a difference between the Western European and the Indian Asiatic.

There is vital difference, and it is infatuation to ignore it.

But there is another vital fact--namely, that the Indian Asiatic is a man with very vivid susceptibilities of all kinds, and with living traditions of a civilisation of his own; and we are bound to treat him with the same kind of respect…

To govern men, there is but one way, and it is eternal truth.

That is not only a great ethical, but a great political law, and we shall reap a sour and sorry harvest if it is forgotten.

Anybody who pictures to himself the anarchy, the bloody chaos, that would follow from any such deplorable step, must shrink from that sinister decision.

We know that we are not doing it for our own interest alone, or our own fame in the history of the civilised world alone, but for the interest of the millions committed to us.

We ought to face it with sympathy, with kindness, with firmness, with a love of justice, and, whether the weather be fair or foul, in a valiant and manful spirit.

Now I think a public man who spends overmuch time in vindicating his consistency, makes a mistake.

I will confess to you in friendly confidence, that I have winced when I read of lifelong friends of mine saying that I have, in certain Indian transactions, shelved the principles of a lifetime.

Well, well, the ship (speaking of me) swings on the tide, but the anchor holds." Yes, gentlemen, I am no Pharisee, but I do believe that my anchor holds, and your cheers show that you believe it too.

How should we bear the smarting stings of our own consciences, when, as assuredly we should, we heard through the dark distances the roar and scream of confusion and carnage in India?

In the interests of India, to say nothing of our own national honour, in the name of duty and of common sense, our first and commanding task is to keep order and to quell violences among race and creed; sternly to insist on the impartial…

We have got somehow or other, whatever the details of policy and executive act may be, we are bound by the first law of human things to maintain order.

I assure you that a mirror of that kind does not give you a more grotesque reproduction of the human physiognomy, than some of these tremendous telegrams give you as to what is happening in India.

Another point is that the Press is very often flooded with letters from Indians or ex-Indians--from Indicus olim, and others--too oftened coloured with personal partisanship and deep-dyed prepossessions.

Still, when all such difficulties are measured and taken account of, it is impossible to overrate the courage, the patience and fidelity, with which the present House of Commons faces what is not at all an easy moment in Indian Government.

I would use my best endeavours to make these States independent in matters of administration.