OCCASIONAL BIOGRAPHIES : XIII. LORD WILLINGDON
By SIR STANLEY REED
AFASCINATING if sometimes baffling study for those who live overseas is the paradox of Empire. Lord Willingdon, who Avill reach England on Monday after his five years of office, went to India as Viceroy the embodiment of that precious gift, the liberal mind. It fell to him, almost on the morrow of the assumption of office, to enforce the most draconic regime India has known for three-quarters of a century. The foundations of law had been shaken. The .wise attempt to enlist the National Congress in the work of constitutional reform had failed. The civil disobedience 'movement was in full blast with its defiance of respect for authority, and the objective of setting up a parallel administration to supersede that by law established. That movement was most vehement in the Presidency of Bombay. Mr. Gandhi was born in 'Western India. The centre of his activities was the ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. His most enthusiastic supporters were the Gujaratis, and they are dominant in the commercial life of Bombay City. There should be no attempt to disguise the character of the Ordinances which struck at the revolutionary movement ; they were of the most drastic form and placed immense powers in the hands of the Executive. Inevitably they fell with the greatest weight on Western India, where the civil disobedience movement had assumed the most menacing and dis- ruptive proportions. They were administered there, as elsewhere, with prudence and discretion ; but. the blow was severe. Yet on leaving Bombay Lord Willingdon was the recipient of marks of respect and affection to which there is no parallel since Lord Hardinge sailed.
What is the secret of this almost uncanny influence ? The right note, it seems to me, was struck in the farewell address presented by the Bombay Municipal Corpora- tion. It was the more significant because there is in the Municipality a strong swaraj element, and the address was read by a Mayor long associated with the Congress and Trades Union movement. It said : " From the day you set foot on Indian soil you discouraged anything savouring of racial distinction in the relations between Indians and Englishmen. By your unremitting zeal in breaking down social barriers you have, we feel, rendered a great service to the Empire." Those words were well and truly written. They are as applicable to Lady Willingdon as to the ex-Viceroy himself. They seem to me to convey a lesson of profound significance in the difficult days before not India only but the whole of the Commonwealth.
It is, I hope, violating no confidence to say that Lord Willingdon went to Bombay as Governor in 1913 charged with a special responsibility from King George and the Secretary of State, Lord - Crewe ; it was to smash through all fences which socially divided com- munities ; to enlist all, without 'exception, in the common task of the better governance of India. The times were difficult. The previous regime, whatever its other merits, had alienated most men of independent views. Dis- contents melted in the sun of his sincerity and charm. Then came the War. It found in India two men above all others who rose to the heights of the occasion— Lord Hardinge, the 'Viceroy, who without hesitation pledged the last man and gun to the service of the Empire, and Lord Willingdon who knit a whole people into common effort for the prosecution of the War and the alleviation of the tide of human suffering which flowed from Mesopotamia. Those were great days.
The effects might have been transitory if they had stood alone. Fortunately, these emotions were crystallised in two directions. The social barriers he broke down might have crept up again had he not made the destruction permanent by establishing the Willingdon Sports Club. Leaving each community, if it so desired, to run its communal club, he brought all together in this splendid establishment, which is, and seems destined to remain, the great solvent of social isolation. Then, when the crucial issue of constitutional development arose, he threw himself heart and soul into the task which Lord Chelmsford and Montagu had set themselves of evolving a real measure of self-government containing the seeds of growth from within. He would have gone farther in the direction of provincial autonomy and responsibility than the dyarchy embodied in the Act. of 1919, but made that dyarehy the effective unitary administration which was its larger purpose when he inaugurated the new constitution as Governor of Madras.
Precisely the same inspiring force dominated his Viceroyalty. Behind the iron hand which combated the revolutionary movement called civil disobedience was the same ardent desire to serve India's true interests. No Secretary of State for India is entitled to greater respect than Sir Samuel Hoare for the tenacity with which he pursued the goal of a federal government based on autonomous provinces and States ; but he would be the first to recognise the unwavering support lie received front Lord Willingdon. That, when the first flush of resentment, at the Ordinances passed. was recognised ; it found expression when he came to say good-bye. I might. write of many other traits : of his genius for friendship, of his all-pervading charm, of his loyalty to all who served, high and low. 1 alight write of Lady Willingdon's dynamic energy, and of the enduring character of the work she has done for the elevation of Indian womanhood. But these things must have been experienced to be appreciated ; they are very precious memories to all who served under their banners. I prefer to concentrate on the outstanding purpose of his work in India and elsewhere and that is complete identification with the interests of the land where he laboured.
Vigorous criticism of sonic of the acts of his adminis- tration, of course, there has been. The hour has possibly struck when one of the tasks of Lord Linlithgow is to weld the Departments constituting the Government of India more firmly into a cohesive whole. But criticism was tempered by the conviction that his fundamental purpose was to serve India as he saw the way. One of the conditions which make life and work in India attractive is the readiness of her people to forgive almost anything if this spirit of service is behind it. And my thoughts go hack to a conversation with one of the stormy petrels of Indian politics, a fierce and uneoni- promising nationalist, in the last year of the War. Ile asked me what I would do if there was a conflict between British and Indian interests. My answer was the obvious one : " Nothing which is for the good of India can be opposed to British interests." Ile pressed the point : " Supposing such a conflict does arise ? " Again, my answer was the obvious one : " In that case the interests of India should prevail, for she is the poorer country."
Lord 1Villingdon's secret then is no secret. at all. It is this complete identification of Englishmen who serve overseas with the interests of the country to which t hey are commissioned. in the full confidence that its welfare must be an Imperial gain. None can have read the moving speech Lord Linlithgow broadcast to the peoples of India without feeling confident that his mantle has fallen on a worthy successor.
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