Smyrna times., 1888-08-08
THE WHITES TN INDIA.
THE CORPORATION AND GARRISON
WHICH FORM 1.-THE EMPlRE.v

India-What Would Happen if the
Brown 3Ien Strucl-EngIish officials
Tarry but a. Few Years.
Above this inconceivable mass of hu-
manity, governing all, protecting all, tax
ing all, rises what we call here ''the en-
pire, corporation of less than fifteen
hundred men, part chosen by examina-
tion, part by co-optation. who are set to
govern, and to protect themselves in gov
erning by finding pay for a minute white
garrison Of Gj,OO0 men, onc-fifth of the
Roman legions-though the masses to be
controlled are double the subjects Of
Homeless than tho army of Sweden, OF
Belgium, or Holland. That corporation
and that garrison constitute the "Indian
empire. There is nothing else. Danish
those FIFTEEN hundred men in black, defeat
that slender garrison in rcd, and the en-
pire has ended, the structure disappears,
and brown India energies unchanged and
unchangeable. To support the official
world and its garrison-both, recollect,
smaller than those of Bclgium-there is,
except Indian opinion, absolutely nothing.
no ONE WILL STAY.
Not only is there no white race in India,
not only is there no white colony, but
there is no white man who purposes to
remain. Lord DulTerin, whom we scarcely
think of as middle aged, is possibly the
Oldest, certainly among the oldest, of
white men in India. No rulerstays there
to help or citicise or moderate his sue
cesSOr. No successful white soldier
fOunds a family. No white man who
makes fortune builds house or buys
an estate for his descendants. The very
planter, the very engine driver, the very
foreman of works, departs before he is 60,
leaving no child, or house or trace Of him
self behind. No white man takes root in
India, and the number even of soiournors
is among those masses imperccptiblc The
whites in our own three capitals could
hardly garrison them, and outside those
capitals are, except in government en-
ploy, only few planters, traders and pro-
fessiondl men, far fewer than the black
men in London.
In city like Bcnares, Il stone city
whose buildings rival those Of Venice, a
city OF temples and palaces beautiful
enough and original enough to be q
worlds wonder, yet in which no white
mans brain or hand has desisncd or cx-
ecuted anything q traveller might live
year talking only with the learned or the
rich, and, unless he had official business
to do, might never see white face. And
away from the 'stations" planted outside
the native cities it is so everywhere.
There are no white servants, not even
grooms, no white policemen, no white
postmen, no white anything. If the
brown men struck for week, the "em-
pire' would collapse like house of cards,
and every ruling man would be a starry
ing prisoner in his own house lie could
not move or feed himself or get water.
NOTHING IS PERMANENT
shall not soon forget the observation
Of one Of the Eeenest and most experienced
of all observers who arrived in India dur
ing the mutiny. lie had just landed. and
had consented to drive with me to a house
sixteen miles out Of Calcutta. On the
road as usual, he noted everything, but
at last turned to me with tic question.
''Where, then, are the white mcn?" "No-
where was the only possible reply; and
it is true Of the entire continent. This
absence Of white men is said to be due TO
climate, but even in "the hills" no one
settles Englishmcn live on the sultry
plains Of New South Wales; Americans.
who are only Englishmcn a little desic
Gated, are filling up the steamy plains Of
Florida; Spaniards have settled as a rov-
ernlng caste throughout the tropical sec
tlons of the two Americas Dutchmen
dwell on IN Java; but the English. what
ever the temptation, will not stay in
india. No matter what the sacrifice
whether III money, or dignity, or pleasant
occupation, an uncomfortable diSrust. an
oyerpowering sense of being aliens mex
orabIy divided from the people Of the
land, comes upon them, and they glide
silently away.
1t follows that even in the minute
official world and the minute garrison
nothing is permanent. The viceroy rules
Tor tive years, and departs. The coun-
cllor advises for five years, and departs.
The general commands for five years, and
departs. The official serves for thirty
years, probably in ten separate countries.
and departs. There is not in India one
ruling man whom two generations of In
dlans have known as ruling man. Of all
that in Europe comes of continuousness.
heredity, accumulated personal expert
ence, or the wisdom of old age, there is in
India not one trace, nor can there ever be.
Imagine if in Europe no sovereign or
premier or cOmmander-in-chief ever lived
SIX years! Yet these men, thus shifting.
thus changing, do the whole work of lep-.
lslating, governing, and administering.
all that is done in the whole Of Europe bv
all the sovereigns, all the statesmen, all
the parliaments, all the judges, revenue
boards, projects, magistrates, tax gath
erers and police officers They are .the
empire, and there is no other.-Meredith
townsend III tOrtnightly Review.