Personal.

NAWAB SIR SYED SHAMS-UL-HUDA.

His Excellency Lord Carmichael paid a handsome tribute to the work of Nawab Sir Syed Shams-ul-Huda as member of the Bengal Executive Council, at the meeting which was held at Darjeeling the other day to congratulate the Nawab on his being elevated to the dignity of a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire. Lord Carmichael said :—

"The Nawab knows all the mysteries of the work of what they call the Governor in Council and I can say that his work in Council has been very important and of real value to Government. I consult him on many matters and his opinions always carry their weight. The Nawab always gives his advice freely and fearlessly, and I am grateful for the help I have always received from him. The Nawab has been most fair to everybody and done a great deal for the country and for his community."

GENERAL MAXWELL.

General Sir J. G. Maxwell has been in military control of Egypt since the outbreak of war with Turkey in November 1914. Great sympathy is felt with him and liveliest expressions of regret at his departure and of appreciation of the excellent work he has done during the past year and a half. Though the new Sultan and all the Officers in charge of Egypt have been capable hands, nevertheless the fact remains that the moving spirit in the administration and the centre about whom everything revolved was throughout the G. O. C. All the credit for the past and present peaceful and satisfactory state of the country must be given to General ir J. G Maxwell. Egypt at the best of times is no easy country to rule, and General Maxwell was admittedly one of the hardest worked men in the land.

GENERAL G. H. FOWKE.

General G. H. Fowke, whose promotion to General Macready's late post as Adjutant-General to the British Expeditionary Force was recently announced, distinguished himself in the siege of Ladysmith, and was specially mentioned by Sir George White, who in conversation, called him his "right haud and indispensable man." He was specially attached to the Japanese Army in the Russo-Japanese Russo-Japanese War, and has kept in close touch with the friends he then made in

the Far East. This may prove a useful factor in the months to come. Unlike most Englishmen, he has a gift for language, and some prose fancies by him given to a Japanese friend may have appeared in print in Japan. Prior to the present post General Fowke was Engineer-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in Franee from the very outbreak of the war. The tremendous tasks achieved by the Sappers in the present campaign are testimony enough to the efficiency of the corps d'elite.

THE CZAR AS TEMPERANCE REFORMER.

Dr. Saleeby, in the course of a lecture in the Bath Guildhall, said: "The Czar, by his abolition of vodka, was nothing short of the greatest Temperance Reformer in history; his action was by no means sudden and theatrical but the result of a long resolve, because before the war he began to realise more and that more mortal injury was being done to his beloved people by this cursed liquor, and that by its sale he was conniving at the exchange of their lives for gold."

LORD FISHER'S PROPHECY.

In 1908, Lord Fisher wrote in his daughter's birth-day book that Germany would be at war with England in 1914, and that Jellicoe would be the Nelson of the Fleet. He justified his prohecy at the time by saying that by 1914 the Kiel Canal would be enlarged, the German Fleet greatly strengthened, and the financial burden in Germany so great that it must mean war.

Political.

LORD WILLINGDON ON THE WAR.

There is a passage in Lord Willingdon's interesting speech at the Durbar of Deccani Chiefs, that is of more than local and provincial interest. In the concluding part of his speech, His Excellency advised the country to lay aside all political discussion.

The single object, to which all our activities and energies should be directed, is to secure the victory of the great cause of liberty and justice, to which 80 many of our fellow-citizens have devoted their lives. It is not possible for all to participate personally in the perils and hardships of the fight, but it is not only possible for, but incumbent on, every man to do his own share in his own sphere, whether exalted or humble, to shorten the struggle and enhance the victory. This cannot be done if energies are dissipated on matters which, for the present, must remain of subsidiary concern; still less if they are directed towards objects which, whatever their merits or justification may be in normal times, cannot but be an embarrassment to the authorities in the prosecution of their primary duty of bringing to bear all the resources of the Empire on the successful prosecution of this war. I think I may justly claim a sincere and ardent desire for political as well as for the economic and social progress of India, and it is that very desire which leads me to appeal to all men of influence and intelligence to employ their positions and their talents to tranquillise and not to exasperate at this critical time the asperities of political discussion, to conciliate rather than to excite animosities and prejudices, and to spread among their less enlightened fellow-citizens a feeling of calm confidence in the issue of the great struggle now convulsing the world.

LORD ISLINGTON ON SELF-GOVERNMENT.

Lord Islington, Under-Secretary of State for India, recently said to a representative of Reuter's Agency :

It is the deliberate and steady policy of the British Government to associate Indians more and more with the government of the country. There are no less than twenty-five different services engaged in the administration of India, and the work that Indians are doing is of a most important character.

As to reforms, these can be uniform in principle although not so in quality or degree. The general contentment of the people under our rule has been exhibited in the most extraordinary loyalty on the part of all classes of Indians, and fully exemplified in the help and devotion of India in this war. A critic once described British rule in India as a gigantic machine for managing the entire public business of one-fifth of the inhabitants of the globe without their leave and without their help. The description carries its own refutation. One-third of the total area and more than one-fifth of the total population of our Indian Empire is under the direct administration, not of the Government of India, but of ruling Princes and Chiefs, who make their own laws and whose administration is Indian.

Within the last few months the Indian Government has accepted and acted upon resolutions brought forward by distinguished Indian non-official members of Council on such vastly important questions as Indentured Emigration and Indian Representation at the Imperial Conference. These two instances show how real, effective, and growing is the influence of Indians in the administration of the country. Still wider is their influence in local self-government, and official control will be relaxed with the rise of public spirit and morality. On all sides we see increased vitality and growth.

General.

MRS. BESANT AND THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT.

The following Order from the Government of Bombay was served on Mrs. Annie Besant on Monday, the 10th July:

"Whereas in the opinion of the Governor in Council there are reasonable grounds for believing that Mrs. Annie Besant has acted and is about to act in a manner prejudicial to the public safety. "Now, therefore, the Governor in Council, in exercise of the powers conferred by Rule 3 of the Defence of India (Consolidation) Rules, 1915, published in the Notification of the Government of India in the Legislative Department, No. 86, dated the 9th December, 1915, is pleased to direct that the said Mrs. Besant shall not enter and shall not reside or remain in the Province of Bombay, pending the further orders of Government.

"And the said Mrs. Besant is hereby informed that, if she knowingly disobeys this order, she will be liable to imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and will also be liable to fine."

With reference to this Order, Mrs. Besant writes in New India that she would not "knowingly disobey this order," because to do so would be the act of a maniac; on the contrary, she respectfully sympathises with the fear of the Governor in Council that she may prejudice public safety, for it must be in very unstable equilibrium if it can be so easily disturbed.

I wonder, she continues, it does not strike our rulers that they cannot stop the desire for Home Rule by showing how objectionable is Other Rule. The more they try to strike me, the more resolved does India become to win freedom from such tyranny. Lord Willingdom has been very slow; I was in the Bombay Presidency at Christmas and was there for a couple of days in May. And this is July 10th!

RAILWAY PASSENGERS.

"What every

Under the arresting headline: Indian Railway Passenger ought to Know," Young India points out:

(1) That he has a legal right to offer resistance to any railway servant or to any member of the railway police whenever he attempts to overcrowd the passengers' compartment.

(2) That it is the duty of every educated passenger to spread a knowledge of this legal right amongst the illiterate passengers.

(3) That it is the duty of every educated passenger to exercise this legal right for the benefit of himself and his less fortunate fellowpassengers.

(4) That India expects every one of her sons, whether he is first or second class passenger, to rush to the help of third class passengers whenever he sees that they are on the point of being ill-treated.

CONSULS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS.

A recent discussion in Parliament concerning the Consular Service drew from Lord Robert Cecil the frank admission that a great many changes must be made therein. He thought, however, that it was a mistake to regard our Consuls as a kind of glorified commercial traveller. They should be officers of the Foreign Commercial Intelligence Department of the Government. They ought to be officers to collect and to co-ordinate all the information which is serviceable and available to the traders. They ought not to enquire with a view to pushing a particular trader's interest; they ought to be machinery by which information and knowledge is acquired for our trading purposes. If a greater number of Consuls were provided, they ought to be able to devote their whole time to the commercial public, and we might have a trade commissioner or superior officer in the various countries dealing with the Consular Service.