SLAVERY IN THE INDIAN STATES
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. Ramanujam must possess an enviable credulity, if he elevates Mr. Chudgar's Indian Princes under British Protection to the rank of an authority upon this, or any
other, question of fact. A book which, in describing the taxation_ levied. in a particular State, mentions the same tax six times, and ranks it as six separate impositions, would stand self-condemned in the eyes of any well-informed person.
In many States slavery is specifically proscribed by an article in the treaty or engagement with the British Crown. In others, the institution is quite unknown : and no question of its existence arises. Following the signature of the Geneva Convention, the Government of India enquired in detail into all the allegations which Mr. Ramanujam copies parrot- like, from Mr. Chudgar's jeu d'esprit : and were satisfied that there was nothing approaching slavery in the Indian
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