The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-03-26
PAST FAM|NES N INDIA
MILLIONS or HUMAN BEINGS PER
ISHED FOR WANT OF FOOD.
The Indian Government Pays a Quart
er of Million Rupees Every Day
for Famine Reief-England's Aid.

LONDON, March 6.-The Indian Gov
eminent has now to face daily eX-
penditure of quarter of "A million
rupees on famine relief, with a possible
rise to nearer million per diem. The
of the tasi> gives emphasis
to the question raised by Sir Henry
Fowler as to whether the burden may
not have to be shared eventually by
British state aid as well as by British
benevolence. That question lies apart
from the scrutiny of the royal commits
sion into the partition of expenditure
in normal years between Great Britain
and India. The opinion of the experts
seems to be that as matter of ac-
count India is on the whole, ana sub
iect to certain reservation, fairly
treated by the English treasury, if
we accept the doctrine that India shall
defray the home charges in connec-
ton with her imperial control which
the colonies and other dependencies of
Great Britain are not called on to
bear. Nor is it possible to reject this
ton by Parliament of the basis on
which it rests To many critics, both
in India and Great Britain, it seems
questionable to make the Indian tax
payer pay for the India Office and the
Indian secretary of state, while the
colonial taxpayer has not to pay for
the colonial Office and the secretary of
state for the colonies. The contrast is
also pointed out between the treat
ment of India and the colonies with
regard to certain military and diplo-
matte charges. But these and similar
differences had their origin in hlstori-
cal causes and have an historical con-
cussion, can be best discussed when
the nation is in calm mood. At pres
ent, while demanding that the Indian
Government shall maintain the calm
ness on which wise action depends,
Great Britain views the suffering Of
India with the heart rather than the
head. 1t is right that she should do
so. Nor is it wrong that, alike in re-
spect to public benevolence and to pos
sible state aid, she should bear in mind
that India does as matter of fact
contribute to the charges of imperial
control in a special manner and to an
extent not enforced from any other
of her dependencies beyond he seas.
This is not the time for constitu-
tional argument, but for effective re-
lief. The nation has taken on itself
a responsibility which no other Asiatic
power, whether in India or elsewhere,
ever assumed-the responsibility of
saving from death some 40,000,000 Of
peasants whose food supply has been
gradually depleted and finally eX-
hausted by successive failures of the
rain on which the cultivation of their
fields depends. 1t has also taken on
itself the responsibility for other
50,000,000 of peasants who are going
through the earlier stages of the same
process, and whom another year of de-
ficient rainfall would reduce to the
famine point. How slowly, and how
recently, this responsibility has been
accepted by the British Government of
India may be realized from the fol-
lowing facts. Besides the terrible
dearths under native rule fifteen true
famines have occurred in India since
1869, when the actual management If
the Bengal districts began to pass in
to English hands. In that year, which
may be regarded as the last great fam
inc year under the native rural admin
istration of Bengal, the new and dis
tant English supervision proved inef-
fectual to arrest the calamity; 10000
900 of human beings perished; and
one-third of the country was left bare
of inhabitants. The famine of 1790-92
in Madras is memorable for the first
serious attempt by government to en-
ploy the people on relief works. After
the experience of many intermediate
calamities relief works wre organized
on an adequate scale in the limited
scarcity area of the Northwestern
provinces in 1S60-61. Such measures
proved unable to cope with the more
widely spread and intenser famine of
1866, in which whole villages in the
recesses of Orissa and Southwestern