On Thursday, September 11th, the Indian Legislative Assembly rejected the
Lee Report by 68 votes to 46. In the last part of the debate the non-official Indians concen- trated on a demand for the immediate cessation of European recruitment for the Civil Service. In vain Sir Alexander Muddiman pointed out that under the Lee proposal when half the posts in the Indian Civil Service had been assigned to Indians only 400 posts of real responsibility would be filled by British officials. And that would be in a country which has a population of 800,000,000. Of course, the Secretary of State tan, if he so wishes, put the Lee Report into operation at once. But even if he does so the continual resort to certification by the supreme authority, and the discouragement to young Englishmen who had thought of entering the Civil Service, will be only fresh symptoms of the difficulty (which has already reached virtual impossibility) of making the reforms work.
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