Ciiait. xxvi. S Food Supply. 375 



therefore, that I may be forgiven the following remaiks, although 

 they may contain nothing new, and aim only al putting well 

 known facts in such juzta-position aa to convince and move to 

 action. 



5. I -lull h"i>e to establish every one of the fifteen propositions 

 above set forth, and if this is done successfully, I shall, I trust, 

 enjoy the satisfaction of seeing a Government which is in down- 

 right earnest to alleviate and prevent famines, availing itself of a 

 means at once so potent and so inexpensive, 



6. That the sea is not assailable by drought even in the tropics 

 is a point not likely to be contested. The same will be conceded 

 of estuaries. These are my main points as regards famine. 



7. As regards the non-tidal rivers and lakes it may be safely 

 asserted that there are in India hundreds and thousands of square 

 miles of them, millions of acres of them, that have never been 

 known to succumb to the severest longest drought that ever visited 

 India. They, as well as the sea and estuaries, are a perennial 

 source of food supply, unassailable by drought. 



8. There are rivers and lakes again that dry up, some of them 

 annually, some only in famine years. For even these this much 

 may be advanced, that in their very drying up they yield their all, 

 and that if the land farmer will abandon the cultivation in 

 favourable years of every field that is barren or in danger of being 

 barren in time of long continued drought, I too will throw all my 

 like fields out of the category. He will not do it. He will take 

 his risks and try his best with them. 1 will be more liberal as far 

 as the data at my command will allow me. I will throw out of my 

 calculations such uncertain sources of supply, for I am not dealing 

 here with pisciculture generally in ordinary or favourable years, but 

 wish t<> keep strictly to my subject — famine alleviation and the 

 sources of food supply that may be relied on at all and the worst 

 seasons. I wish further to eliminate all objects of suspicious 

 doubt, objects which might cast a shadow larger than themselves, 

 and thus injure the rest of the argument. I wish to be well on 

 the safe side of reliable truth. I would rather sacrifice the larger 

 half of my p'sitimi to secure a thorough working belief in the minor 

 half than i ndanger the whole by endeavouring to establish the 

 whole. I am satisfied that, if the minor half that I shall pul 

 forward is accepted, the rest must in coun E time lone its own 



