of 60,000 dollars for the Canadian Ambassador at Washington. This should supply considerable food for thought to those Indian statesmen wlx* do not want to take the responsibility of conducting Indian Foreign Affairs. It is hig-i time for India to have Indian diplomatic representatives in all important countries. Even little Afghanistan and Ireland have the r own diplomatic represantatives in various countries, and India has none in any country. It is humiliating for India to be in such a position internationally. This carnot be changed unless Indian statesmen take the bold stand that India must have f*L control over her own foreign relations. T. D.
Sushil Kumar Rudra
By the death of Sushil Kumar Rudra, retired principal of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, India has lost an eminent educationist, a genuine patriot and a man of high character who led a truly devout and spiritual life. We had the privilege of his acquaintance,
The late Principal Shusil Kumar Rudra
but we will let those speak who have known him more intimately and longer. According to a biographical sketch of Mr. Rudra by Mr. J. C. Chatterjee, published in The Indian Daily Mail, the deceased gentleman was born at Calcutta in 1861 and was the only son of the late Rev. Peary Mohan Rudra of the Church Missionary Society. Considering the purity of his character and his quiet life he might have been expected to live longer. But the conditions of life in India are not health-promoting and many of our best men do not, unfortunately, take as much care of their health as they ought to, India is, therefore, deprived of their devoted services just when they become best fitted to render them.
Mr. Rudra took his degree of Master of Arts in natural Science from Duff College, Calcutta, and at first obtained a post in the Board of Revenue Office.
To this College Mr. Rudra gave the devoted labour of his whole career and has left on it so distinct a mark of his own, that at a recent Reunion Day Dinner an old resident of Delhi remarked that he had always believed that St. Stephen’s College was Mr. Rudra, and Mr. Rudra was St. Stephen’s College. After several years of successful work Mr. Rudra was appointed Vice-Principal of the College in 1899. After another seven years, when the post of Principal fell vacant in 1906 it was offered to Mr. Rudra, with the approval of Government, who consented to the withdrawal of the agreement by which the Mission had undertaken always to have an English Principal.
“These were days when Indianisation had hardly begun and the appointment of an Indian at the head Of a large European Staff caused a good deal of sensation and was looked upon more or less in the nature of a doubtful experiment. Mr. Rudra accepted the office with considerable reluctance and after much persuasion by his friend Mr. C. F. Andrews, who was then on the Staff of the College. During the seventeen years of his office of tenure as Principal Mr. Rudra’s relations with his European colleagues continued to be of the happiest nature. To his tact and sympathy in his relations with his staff, both English and Indian, must be largely attributed the signal success that came to the College under his administration. With the students the secret of his power lay rather in the combination of gentleness and patience with firmness. The students knew he loved and trusted them and they gave him trust and love in return. The general public know his ardent patriotism, and it gained for the college a confidence that carried this institution through the troublous days of political ferment unscathed. In 1907, in 1917 and again in 1920-21, when successive waves of national bitterness swept over the country, and most educational institutions with Englishman in them experienced great difficulty and much friction, the bond of
