LETTERS TO NOBODY 



S 



LETTER I. ARRIVAL 



CALCUTTA, November 2gth, 1908. 



HERE am I, having survived a journey which for 

 me has been a genuine delight, and having sur- 

 vived also the fellow-passengers on the P. and O. 

 Some proved to be attractive and friendly, the 

 rest, the major portion, assumed a critical attitude 

 undisguised and distinctly unfavourable. These 

 decided and asserted: 



1. That I have a wife and four children, that I 

 maltreat the first and neglect the rest. 



2. That I suffer from cancer, and that one year 

 in India will kill me. 



3. That I have been removed from the public 

 service of the Crown in England, and that I have 

 been jobbed into the position I now hold by my 

 uncle, John Morley. He is no relation. If he 

 were, I should proudly claim him as such, for he 

 is the ablest, the most far-seeing, and the strongest 

 Secretary of State who has ever presided at the 

 India Office. 



4. That I am hopelessly incompetent and alto- 

 gether unfit to be Finance Minister in India. 



As to 4, 1 am not altogether disinclined to agree 

 with them. 



