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



the most marvellous, the most prosperous, and, 

 not impossibly, the most high-minded Empire 

 of the world. 



My debt of gratitude to the Civil Service of 

 India is not only personal, it is immeasurable. 



I recognise somewhat sadly that I am not at all 

 a persona grata to the great majority of Indian 

 Civil Servants. My policy has perforce been a 

 policy of retrenchment, and I question whether 

 any Finance Minister anywhere can be popular 

 if he does his duty without fear or favour. He 

 must, in fact, be an animated negative, and how- 

 ever successful his administration may prove the 

 noes are numerous and ever remembered, whilst 

 the yesses, ran nantes in gurgite vasto, are soon 

 forgotten. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach was perhaps 

 one of England's best Finance Ministers, but I 

 have yet to learn that he revelled in popularity 

 when Chancellor of the Exchequer. Of a Finance 

 Minister beloved by all I should be disposed to 

 say, Timeo Chancellor et dona ferentem. So few 

 gifts have I had to bestow that I have earned the 

 sobriquet of " Not a bob !" 



Unpopular though I may be with the Civil 

 Service, they have, I hope and think, accorded 

 me their respect, and most assuredly have they 

 lavished on me supreme loyalty, ready and in- 

 valuable assistance. Not once has any one of 

 them tried to trip me up. Rather have they 

 helped me over many a stile. What perhaps has 

 touched me most has been the keen, unselfish 

 and unjealous manner in which they have, when 

 opportunity offered, helped me in shikar. More 

 cannot be said. 



