126 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, SIMLA, AND I.C.S. 



present dispensation obtains, to the Indian the 

 Viceroy is the personification of power and 

 majesty, the dispenser of favours and the up- 

 holder of justice. Everything centres in that one 

 man, and every time that one man is overruled, 

 English rule receives a serious set-back. If a 

 Viceroy is a capable, strong man, is well in touch 

 with English opinion and English politics, and if 

 he takes his Council into his confidence and has 

 their support, he will very rarely find himself 

 in conflict with the English Government. But 

 if, on the contrary, he is out of touch with English 

 public opinion and is entirely in the hands of his 

 bureaucracy, he is likely to assume an attitude from 

 which he may be obliged to recede, and every 

 time he does so, the position of England in India 

 is weakened. 



Many of our Indian difficulties are attributable 

 to the marvellous system under which for some 

 six months of each year the Government of 

 India goes to sleep and does so on the top of 

 a mountain seven to eight thousand feet high. 

 There the Government devotes itself to a mild 

 form of seaside holiday. It is entirely out of 

 touch with India, and especially out of touch with 

 the English commercial and industrial communi- 

 ties. But sedition, unrest, and even murder may 

 have been going on elsewhere none the less. Up 

 at Simla the news of an outrage is received with 

 languid and transient interest. The burning 

 questions are polo finals or racing, with the all- 

 absorbing tennis tournaments to fill up voids in 

 the daily life ; consistent and sustained policy is 

 apt to disappear at Simla. 



