relations are not to be the beginning and the end of the duties of an Indian administrator.  It has been my pleasure and privilege during the three or four years I have been at the India Office, to see a stream of important Indian officials.  I gather from them that one of the worst drawbacks of the modern speeding up of the huge wheels of the machine of Indian government is, that the Indian Civil servant has less time and less opportunity than he used to have of bringing himself into close contact with those with whose interests he is concerned.  One of these important officials told me the other day this story.  A retired veteran, an Indian soldier, had come to him and said, “This is an odd state of things.  The other day So-and-so, a commissioner or what not, was coming down to my village or district.  We did the best we could to get a good camping-ground for him.  We were all eagerly on the look-out for him.  He arrived with his attendants.  He went into his tent.  He immediately began to write.  He went on writing.  We thought he had got very urgent business to do.  We went away.  We arrived in the morning soon after dawn.  He was still writing, or he had begun again.  So concerned was he both in the evening and in the morning with his writing that we really had nothing from him but a polite salaam.”  This may or may not be typical, but I can imagine it is possible, at all events.  That must be pure mischief.  If I were going to remain Indian Secretary for some time to come, my every effort would be devoted to an abatement of that enormous amount of writing.  You applaud that sentiment now, and you will applaud it more by-and-by.

Upon this point of less time being devoted to writing and more time to cultivating social relations with the people, it is very easy for us here, no doubt, to say you ought to cultivate social relations.  Yet I can imagine a man who has done a hard day’s office work—­I am sure I should feel it myself—­is not inclined to launch out upon talk and inquiries among the people with whom he is immediately concerned.  It may be asking almost in a way too much from human nature.  Still, that is the thing to aim at.  The thing to aim at is—­all civilians who write and speak say the same—­to cultivate social amenities so far as you can, I do not mean in the towns, but in the local communities with which many of you are going to be concerned.  I saw the other day a letter from a lady, not, I fancy, particularly sentimental about the matter, and she said this:  “There would be great improvement if only better social relations could be established with Indians personally.  I do wish that all young officials could be primed before they came out with the proper ideas on this question.”  Well, I have no illusions whatever as to my right or power of priming you.  I think each of us can see for himself the desirability of every one who goes out there, having certain ideas in his head as to his own relations with the people whom he is called upon