INDIAN DOVOTION TO THE SOVEREIGN 203 



reconquer India. I firmly believe that we could, 

 but how shall we stand when we have done so ? 



In the distant past we governed India by the 

 sword. There was then no alternative. We can- 

 not, and we assuredly have no wish to do so, in the 

 future. 



That we honestly desire the good- will of Indians 

 is indisputable, that we can retain it I have no 

 doubt whatever , but we can only do so by keeping 

 constantly and prominently before us the right of 

 Indians to a place in the sun. 



One of our greatest assets is the Indians' devo- 

 tion to their Sovereign. It is almost a religion, 

 and this makes it imperative never to allow the 

 influence of the Sovereign to be used to " bolster 

 up " an incompetent Viceroy or to " whitewash " 

 the failures of self-seeking politicians at home. 



Twice only, outside Council, have I made a 

 public speech in India. At a farewell banquet 

 given to me by the leading citizens of all races in 

 Bombay I thus preached the gospel of good-will: 



" These will be my farewell words in public 

 before leaving this land of memories and regrets. 

 No one could possibly go away unmoved from India 

 after sharing the burden of its hopes and fears, 

 and each word of farewell has become harder and 

 harder to utter. For this dear country that I 

 leave has had a strange and powerful attraction 

 for me. Every phase of its life, from the simple 

 village peasant or the patient brave shikari, to 

 keen intellectual Indians hi the different ranks 

 and professions whom I have learnt to call my 

 friends every phase of this manifold Indian life 

 has become more and more endeared to me. And 

 bound up with these delightful memories there are 



