Hevtexo of Reviewn, 2')/i/'JG. 



Leading Articles. 



405 



AN ANGLO-INDIAN ON LORD CURZON'S RECORD 



An "Anglo-Indian" contributes to the Mo>itld\ 

 ReviCK' a highly ap|irecialive account of Lord Cur- 

 zon's record in India from 1899 to 1905. Much of 

 v.'hat he says lias been said before, and I tiierefore 

 only allude to what is less familiar. 



I'EKSERVATlUX OF MONUMENTS. 



'Anglo-Indian" confesses that until Lord Curzon 

 took the matter in hand the British Government in 

 India has not looked after the preservation of the 

 country's archa»logical remains as it should. Price- 

 less monuments had been scrawled over with names, 

 lid a famous carved lion had been used as a target 

 tor tiall practice. Other famous monuments had 

 lieen jiut to similarly degrading uses. Lord Curzon 



imiounceil his intention "to assert more definitely the 

 Imperial respunsibility of Ooveinment in iesi)e<'t of Indian 

 ^iiit;(itiities ": and all over India lauinus hnildings and 

 reninins have heen reclaimed from inappropriate uses and 

 plaied in repair so as to enable Iliem to display their 

 ariiiitectural lieauties to advantage. 



UGHTENlNt: OF TAX.\TIiiN. 



Lord Curzon. in liis Hudget speech. 1901. estimated that 

 the average annual income of an Indian had risen from 

 Ks. 17 (£1 16s.) in 188J to Rs. 30 i£2i in 1900. hut that uie 

 income of an average agriculturist was only Rs. 20 (£1 68 

 8(1.). Out of this miserable pittance of £2 a year each 

 native of India has to pay in land revenue and taxation 

 OS. 3id. 



In 1903. for the first lime for twenty years, the burden 

 of taxation was lightened by levying the Salt Tax at Ks. 

 2 (2s. 8d.) instead of Hs, 21 (3s. 4d.) per ni;iuiid '83 lb.), and 

 by increasing the luinimnm annual income exempted from 

 income tax from Rs. 500 (£33) to Rs. 100<) (£66). 



NOT A POf'ULARIT\'-HUNTER. 



"Anglo-Indian" vigorously defends Lord Curzon 

 against the charge of |)o|)ularity-luinting : — 



He strove to hold the balance even between the white 

 man and the black, and his attempts to bring white men 

 to punishment for brutality to natives of India made him 

 Iiersonally disliked. . , He cared nothing for popu- 

 larit\". as is shown by his Calcutta University Convocation 

 speech of 1905 on the general want of resi>ect for trutli 

 :inion5 Indians. 



Tlie general effect of his Viceroyalty may be summed up 

 in Ins own words: "I should like, if I have time, while 

 in India to plate iijion the anvil every branch of Indian 

 policy and administration, to test its efficiency and 

 uurabilit.\', and. if possible, do something for its improve- 

 ment." 



The American Ocean Nursery. 



Thus does Mr. Herliert Shaw, in the Sunday 

 Mag^azinc, describe the hospital ships w-hich the chari- 

 table New York public send on freiuent short voy- 

 ages with invalid or delicate children on board — 

 tenement children, of course. Miss Emma Abbott 

 found the money to build and fit up a steamer as n 

 floating hosjiital for these children, and every day 

 in summer the hospital ship sails out, with children, 

 doctors, and nurses. Generally they go twenty miles 

 away to .Vew^ Dorp, where there is a fine sandy 

 : lieach, and also a permanent hospital. The more 

 delicate children remain here till stronger; the 

 tougher ones go back home the same day. Special 

 provision has, naturally, to be made for the nume- 

 rous babies on board. The management of the ship 

 is in the hands of St. John's Guild, various commit- 

 tees controlling the various departments. 



FOOTBALL AN ANCIENT CHINESE GAME. 



In the X'nteteenth Century Mr. H. A. Giles, Pro- 

 fessor of Chinese at Cambridge, writes on football 

 and polo in China. He remarks that football was 

 played by the Chinese several centuries before Julius 

 Csesar landed in Britain. Its invention has been 

 ascriljed to the mythical Yellow Emperor of the 

 third millennium B.C. He quotes an ancient re- 

 cord : — 



The Kmperor. Ch'eng Ti. B.C. 32-6. was fond of football; 

 but his officers represented to him that it was both physi- 

 cally exhausting and also unsuitable to the Imperial dig- 

 nity. His Majesty replied: "We like pla.ving; and what 

 one chooses to do is not exhausting. ' An appeal was then 

 made to the Empress, who suggested the game of tiddly- 

 winks for the Emperor's amusement. 



Several writers have left us accounts of actual games: 

 " On the Emperor's birthda.v two teams played football 

 l>efore the Imperial pavilion. A goal was set up, of over 

 thirty feet in height, adorned with gaily-coloured silks, 

 and having an opening of over a foot in diameter. ' The 

 object of each side appears to have been to kick tlie ball 

 through the opening, the players taking it in turns to 

 kick, and points being scored accordingly. The winners 

 " were rewarded with flowers, fruit, wine, and even silver 

 bowls and brocades. The captain of the losing side was 

 flogged, and suffered other indignities." 



The names of several great footballers have been 

 h.tnded down to posterity. .Ancient Chinese poetry 

 is (juoted descriptive of various football games. Polo 

 was also very popular. A maker of polo clubs, as 

 duly recorded in the Book of Marvels, was taken up 

 to heaven in broad daylight. 



The Milan Exhibition. 



The World's "Work and Play gives some particu- 

 lars of the Milan Exhibition. The writer says, '' Os- 

 tensibly promoted as a celebration of the opening of 

 the Simplon Tunnel, the Milan Exhibition is in a 

 wider sense the celebration of the fact that Italy has 

 found her feet in the career of material and moral 

 advancement." In everything pertaining to ma- 

 chinery the Italians are very clever. The Exhibition 

 will L-e the largest ever held in Europe, excepting 

 rhat in Paris, The province in which the city stands 

 is the most productive portion of Italy, with its 300 

 silk mills, 200 cotton mills, twenty woollen mills, 

 and 100 mills for linen, hemp, jute, etc. All the 

 small toivns and villages in Lombardy have electric 

 light and power from hydraulic installation. Japan, 

 Germany, France, Mexico, Belgium, Switzerland, 

 .Austria, Great Britain, and Italy will be officially 

 represented. Xearly every other country in the 

 world will be represented by their exhibits. France 

 will have the largest space amongst foreign 

 nations: — 



The dominant feature will be motion. .\11 products, as 

 f.ir as possible, are to be shown in connection w-ith the 

 processes, tlius filling the halls with live exhibits. Ar- 

 rangements will be made for field-tests and competitive 

 trials in all classes where it is exiiedient. Xxi especial 

 feature will Ije the motor-car display, to which an entire 

 pavilion will be devoted. This show will terminate in 

 mid-summer, so that machines exhibited may be sold for 

 early delivery. 



Many other interesting details are given. Much is 

 said to prove that the Milan Exhibition is " to be a 

 \Vorld's Fair in every sense of the term." 



