arrived.  “I might have dwelt,” he says, “upon the fact that I have not met a single official who does not admit that some changes which should gratify Indian longings were necessary, and I might have expatiated upon the abounding evidence that Lord Morley’s despatch and speech have unquestionably eased a tension which had become exceedingly alarming.”  That is a most important thing, and I believe Parliament has fully recognised it.

We cannot fold our arms and say that things are to go on as they did before, and I rejoice to see what this gentleman says.  He is talking of officials, and I always felt from the beginning that if we did not succeed in carrying with us the goodwill of that powerful service, there would be reason for suspecting that we were wrong upon the merits, and even if we were not wrong on the merits, there would be reason for apprehending formidable difficulties.  I have myself complete confidence in them.  I see in some journals of my own party suspicions thrown upon the loyalty of that service to his Majesty’s Government of the day.  It is absurd to think anything of the kind.  If our policy and our proposals receive the approval of Parliament and the approval of officials, such as those spoken of in The Times the other day, I am perfectly sure there will be no more want of goodwill and zeal on the part of the Indian Civil Service, than there would be in the officers of his Majesty’s Fleet, or his Majesty’s Army.  It would be just the same.  I should like to read another passage from The Times letter:—­“It would probably be incorrect to say that the bulk of the Civil Service in the Bombay Presidency are gravely apprehensive.  Most of them are not unnaturally anxious”—­I agree; it is perfectly natural that they should be anxious—­“but the main officials in whose judgment most confidence can be placed, regard the future with the buoyant hopefulness without which an Englishman in India is lost indeed.”  All that is reassuring, and no sign nor whisper reaches me that any responsible man or any responsible section or creed, either in India or here, has any desire whatever to wreck our scheme.  And let me go further.  Statesmen abroad showing themselves capable of reflection, are watching us with interest and wishing us well.  Take the remarkable utterance of President Roosevelt the other day at Washington.  And if we turn from Washington to Eastern Europe, I know very well that any injustice, any suspicion that we were capable of being unjust, to Mahomedans in India, would certainly provoke a severe and injurious reaction in Constantinople.  I am alive to all these things.  Mr. Ameer Ali said he was sure the Secretary of State would mete out just and equitable treatment to all interests, if their views were fairly laid before him.  He did me no more than justice.