YOUNG CIVIL SERVANTS 175 



Provinces to serve under me for a brief period at 

 the Ministry of Finance. 



No doubt many Commissioners take especial 

 pains to train their young subordinates not only 

 in their official duties but also in their attitude and 

 tone towards Indians. But some do not, and a 

 cross-grained or neglectful Commissioner can taint 

 the whole staff of his district. 



Many young Civil Servants land in India full of 

 enthusiasm, desperately anxious to do their duty, 

 and quite ready to receive the Indian as a fellow- 

 subject and a comrade, but there are also thor- 

 oughly promising but somewhat casual beginners 

 who require guidance to turn them into really 

 good officials. 



I came across one such at Bombay. He had 

 not long landed and I heard him humming : 



" Oh ! I thank my God for this at least 

 I was born in the West and not in the East, 

 And He made me a human instead of a beast 

 Whose hide is covered with hair." 



A bad beginning, thought I. 



I scraped acquaintance with him (he had no 

 notion who I was) and asked him to lunch with 

 me at the Taj. I led him on to tell me all he 

 thought, and gradually I extracted from him his 

 ideas, his intentions, and his aspirations. 



I believe he turned out, eventually, an ex- 

 ceptionally promising officer, but I shudder to 

 think of what he might have turned into had he 

 been left entirely dependent for his training on a 

 certain type of Commissioner. 



I am convinced that greater attention to the 

 training of young civilians in what I may term 



