Letters to the Editor which we receive, we would remind
correspondents that short ones are generally read with more attention. it that of one of our paragraphs on "News of the
SPECTATOR.]
[In view of the length of many of the letters that we often cannot give space for long letters and The length which we consider most suitable is abm Week."—Ed.
THE COLOUR BAR
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The tone of the letter of "X," which appeared in the issue of your paper of April 11th, respecting the question of the Colour Bar, indicates that he is an Indian. He states that there is a great difference in the attitude of Indian Civil Ser- vants towards Indians, between young civilians up to the age of thirty, and those of the age of forty or forty-five who have risen to executive rank. This may be true, but a little reflection might have shown him that there are cogent reasons for this.
Up to the age of thirty the young Civil Servant is in a subor- dinate position, and has no plums to offer in the shape of appointments and promotion to office, and he is, therefore, not pestered by thousands of men who are aspirants to office under Government. On the other hand the Executive Officer has many plums at his disposal and has, perforce, to assume a self-protecting "reserve. Were he to mix with Indians in the free and easy manner, as the man up to thirty years of age is said to do, he would be pestered to distraction by men seeking employment, or by their relatives, and he would have but little time left for his proper job.
I have spent over forty-eight years in India, and I have had the privilege and the pleasure of knowing many Civil Servants in the upper ranks and, with very few exceptions, I have seen that their demeanour towards those whom they have been appointed to govern has been courteous and sympathetic, and their sense of duty has urged them to serve the -Indians by day and by night.
" X " has cast an unwarranted slur on the character of men who deserve all praise and gratitude.—I am, Sir, &c.,
E. GUILFORD
(Late Canon of the Lahore Cathedral). The Anchorage, Cottesmore, Rutland.
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