RESTRICTIONS ON TtfE ALIENATION OF LANDS. 



the explanation, which I have felt it my duty to give, unnecessary. It 

 would have made it clear that while the measure now before the 

 Council goes beyond the utmost recommendations of the Local Govern- 

 ment itself, it has the support, on the one hand, of the deliberate judg- 

 ment of the Government of India, and, on the other, of a strong 

 body of opinion within the Province ; it would have shown that while 

 I was personally very doubtful, and even apprehensive, of the effects 

 of such a measure, I had waived my personal opinion, and confined 

 my efforts to shaping it so as to conduce in the best possible manner 

 to the end desired. This attitude has been described in one quarter, 

 which I am bound to regard with veneration, as ' correct. * It will no 

 doubt be described by others as timid. I do not much care what is 

 thought of it, but I am anxious for reasons which I will explain that 

 my position should be made quite clear. That position is described in 

 the following extract from the opinion already mentioned : 



Assuming that the Government of India have determined to adopt stringent 

 measures for checking the alienation of land, and to make those measures of general 

 application to the Punjab, subject to special exemptions, I recommend that the 

 Bcheme accepted by the Committee for dealing with permanent alienations, of which 

 I have given sgme account above, be approved. I believe it to bo workable, and to be 

 as little open to objection as any which can be devised j while, if successful in check- 

 ing the transfer of land to the hands of the money-lender without unduly depre- 

 ciating the wealth of the zamindar or creating wide agrarian discontent, it will be a 

 boon to the country. 



This, after the fullest consideration, is all I am able to say in 

 favour of the Bill, and it is on this assumption and subject to this 

 consideration that I shall record my vote in its favour. 



But, my Lord, it is not merely for the purpose of justifying my 

 vote, still less with the object of gratifying a not unnatural desire to 

 explain precisely my attitude towards a measure which will affect so 

 closely the vast majority of the people of the Punjab, that I have 

 taxed the patience of the Council with what sounds I fear too much 

 like a long personal explanation. I have a more important object in 

 view. The passing of this Bill is only the first act in a long drama, 

 The working of it will be for many years the subject of anxiety to the 

 Administration. A large number of opinions have reached the 

 Council, some of them professing to come from bodies of agriculturists 

 who are intimately affected by the measure. There are no doubt < 

 many genuine sentiments in these papers, but neither the agricultural 

 community nor the village money-lender have really had their say, 



