HAPPY INDIA 23 



on the Malabar coast on the west, and thence through 

 Bangalore in the State of Mysore to Poona and 

 Bombay. I had introductions to the Governor- 

 General and the Governors of Bengal, Madras and 

 Bombay, and with the aid of these introductions 

 I was able to get information from officers of high 

 rank, both English and Indian. 



I also bought a great many Government reports 

 and statistics and other books, and came in contact 

 with British instructors in agriculture, and British 

 medical men (studying malaria), British engineers 

 constructing works of all kinds. I also met Indian 

 gentlemen and also some of the cultivators of the 

 soil, and I verily believe that after my four months' 

 tour I had collected more information about India 

 as a whole than a resident in one locality would 

 get in thirty years. 



But in dealing with the great problems of the 

 government of a country it is not so much what 

 a man knows, but what opportunities he has for 

 making use of his knowledge. Now every Govern- 

 ment official knows that it is wise to observe the 

 wishes of his superiors, and not to trouble them 

 with suggestions which they do not want, and there 

 is a tendency to centralisation in all Governments, 

 and this is so in India. There is centralisation in 

 each of the great Presidencies and there is. further 

 centralisation with regard to the Imperial Govern- 

 ment of the Governor-General, so that we must 

 not expect that an official will step outside of the 

 course of conduct of ordinary official routine to 



