played (both in their public and private capacities) a most praiseworthy desire to second the efforts of Government, and to aid the people, both by organising relief arrangements and by procuring and administering charitable funds.

In some cases, in the worst districts, the assistant or deputy collectors are in charge of one taluk only; and generally throughout the affected districts, a single officer of the above grade has seldom charge of more than two taluks. This was arranged very early in the campaign.

In every district, too, there is a superintendent, and sometimes an assistant superintendent of police, and the general control of the district rests with the collector, and the head of the chain of local organisation is the revenue commissioner. There are none of these officers in Madras, which is a pity; the want of such an official as a revenue commissioner was greatly felt throughout the whole period of distress.

The Government of India and Sir Richard Temple had not failed to notice how efficiently and successfully the local officers had hitherto performed the difficult and responsible duties that had devolved upon them during the distress, and his Excellency the Governor in Council in a resolution had much gratification in confirming the very favourable view that had been taken by the Government of India of the efforts of these gentlemen. Alluding to them whilst distress was still severe, his Excellency in Council confidently anticipated that success would continue to attend the efforts and precautions which these officers were still taking, on the one hand to guard the interests of the public and prevent waste and imposition, and on the other to protect the people from the distress which no unaided efforts of their own could successfully avert.

VILLAGE ORGANISATION.

353

The resolution continued:-'It will thus be seen that the village organisation is not less complete in this Presidency than it is in Madras, and his Excellency in Council trusts that the precautions which have been taken to prevent the occurrence of unrelieved cases of distress in villages, or away from the relief works, will prove to be as completely efficacious as they are perfectly practicable. In reviewing these arrangements, attention has above been given only to the civil organisation, but his Excellency in Council did not forget that, working side by side with that organisation, and therefore a hardly less important part in the general arrangements, was the Public Works Department, which had been greatly strengthened in all the affected districts, and which provides work for, and supervises by far the larger number of the relief labourers. The Public Works organisation consists of the subordinate officers, the assistants, and executive engineers, and the superintending engineers of the divisions, 'who acted each in his grade and position in concert with the revenue officers. The arrangements made by the officers of the Public Works Department for the organisation and management of relief labour have hitherto been in every way very satisfactory, and have been acknowledged as such; and the manner in which the camps and sanitary arrangements of large bodies of workpeople have been cared for by the supervising officers has more than once attracted the attention and obtained the commendations of the Sanitary Commissioner, whose own energetic and indefatigable services in connection with this subject have not escaped the notice of Government, and call for high commendation.'

A careful study of the foregoing documents will furnish a key to the difference in the results attained in Madras and Bombay, so far as the distress encountered

in each Presidency will bear comparison. The modes. adopted cannot be compared on all points, as the differences in area and extent of distress prevent a close comparison, but more rigorous adherence to the system adopted in Bombay would have prevented much unnecessary expenditure and a great deal of demoralisation, particularly among village officials.

The Government were subjected to much adverse criticism, particularly by those who opposed the 1-lb. ration, because, unlike the authorities in Madras, they did not publish their death-rate at regular intervals, by which an estimate might be formed of the mortality resulting from the famine. It is a pity, in their own interests, that this was not done, as a comparatively small increased death-rate is shown in the figures dealt with by the Governor of Bombay when summing up the general effects of the disaster. The authorities received some compensation for their steadfastness in a letter from the Sarvajanik Sabha, dated May 16. In that document the Committee of the Sabha say they are free to confess that their worst anticipations and fears in regard to the condition of the famine districts during the last three months have not been realised, and that the measures of Government, tested by the standard that they were solely intended to save loss of life, have been more successful than was thought possible at the commencement.' The Sabha say that although they had never been slow to acknowledge the 'unexampled beneficence' of the Government in dealing with the famine, it was true that compared with what the Maharajah Scindia was doing1 over a contracted area the Government standard was low; but at the same

1 Mr. Gibbs says: It is a well-known fact that the princely grants made by Scindia and other native chiefs were distributed almost solely to idle Brahmans and professional beggars, and that the poor starving labourers and artisans got no benefit therefrom.'

GOVERNMENT POLICY EMINENTLY SUCCESSFUL. 355

time they admitted that when the area affected is so extensive, and the population to be fed is counted by millions, it is impossible to exercise indiscriminate benevolence and relieve all sufferings.' In the objects which the Government had set before them it was conceded the policy has been eminently successful.' But it is added: This success has not been attained without some attendant risks, and Government has confessed its inability to insure against all loss of life. In the absence of any accurate information it is impossible to make any estimate of the number of people who have succumbed to the famine from starvation, cholera, small-pox, and other disorders. Though the death reports and registers do not represent fully the loss of life that has taken place, they still show a total of about 20,000 deaths. Even starvation deaths have not been so rare as the relief officers have officially represented to Government. But, with all drawbacks, the famine relief organisation has worked most beneficially, and judged by the standard set up, its success has been great beyond anticipation.' The third paragraph of the Sabha's letter under notice deserves quotation in full.

'The Sabha humbly submits,' it is remarked, 'that no small portion of the success is due to the attitude of complaint and watchfulness taken up by the native and European press, and native representative associations, and the Sabha takes this opportunity of acknowledging gratefully the kind condescension of Government in drawing the attention of the relief officers to the representations submitted by the Sabha from time to time. In the absence of any constitutional machinery by which the people most intimately affected by the measures of Government can make themselves heard so as to influence the counsels of Government, all independent public bodies have to work under more

or less partial ignorance of the intentions and acts of Government, and their action is necessarily one-sided and oftentimes exaggerated. Moreover, in such extraordinary crises it often becomes the duty of Government in its public utterances to express more confidence than it feels, and to withhold information in order to avoid panic and disorder, and the loss of self-confidence which panic engenders. It must have been for reasons of high policy, such as those indicated above, that the Government have exercised a wise discretion in withholding from the public the information in its possession. Under these circumstances the Sabha feels it to be its duty to refrain from bringing prominently to the notice of Government accounts of local and temporary mismanagement received from its agents. It will therefore, in its present representation, confine itself to such observations as it deems necessary in view of the fact that the worst crisis is over, and that the time has come when steps should be taken not so much to prevent loss of life among the workpeople as to enable them to regain the strength and the resources they possessed before the famine, so that when the rain sets in, they may settle at once into the old grooves and become selfdependent on their own means.'

The working of the reduced ration is then discussed at great length, and, recognising that the greatest pressure was past, much assistance would be needed to help the people to resume their former occupation. 'There is a very urgent demand for additional charity funds. As the resources of local charity have been exhausted, the Sabha submits that the time has come when, as his Excellency the late Governor apprehended, an appeal will have to be made to the other provinces of India and to the public spirit of England to contribute their help to the charity funds.' The suggestion, however,