report, " the presence of an official element on the boards has been prolonged beyond the point at which it would have afforded very necessary help, up to a point at which it has impeded the growth of initiative and practice. It is proposed to increase the elective ele- ment, to widen the municipal franchise, to replace official chairmen by elected chairmen, to give the boards greater financial and admin- istrative powers, and to substitute control from without for control from within. The same policy is to be applied to the rural boards which even more than the municipalities are Government agencies. It is hoped in this way to make local affairs a training-ground for political work and to bring home to the people the realities and responsibilities of local self-government. In the second place the reconstitution of the public services is contemplated. They are to be " Indianized " in general accordance with the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Public Services of India, as ampli- fied by the Montagu-Chelmsford report. For the civil service of India, which is the administrative service of the country, the pro- portion of Indians has been fixed at 33 %, rising by ij % annually for a period of ten years to a maximum of 48 per cent. In the Indian educational service the proportion of Indians will be even larger. Some of the services which hitherto have contained a more or less considerable number of Europeans will in future be recruited entirely in India. Along with this change in the composition of the public services of India, their position and functions will undergo a change in consequence of the establishment of ministerial government in the provinces. Hitherto the greater services, and especially the civil service of India, have in practice had the administration in their hands and held the places involving superior control. They have formulated policy while being the executants of it. Under a system of responsible government this position will gradually change. They will be the executive agents of ministers who in their turn will be accountable to the Legislative Councils and the electorates. The authors of the Montagu-Chelmsford report have not overlooked the consequences of this change both as regards the recruitment and fortunes of the European members of the services and as regards the efficiency of the administration. But they take a sanguine view. They believe that to make the Indian people self-governing the presence of the English officer will be found indispensable, and while forbearing to forecast the future organization and disposition of the services, they consider that the English official will continue to play a large and useful part in the administration of the country.
Constitution for Burma. The authors of the reforms scheme ex- cluded Burma from the scope of their proposals and left the problem of its political evolution for separate and future consideration. They remarked that Burma was not India. Its peoples belonged to another race in another stage of development, its problems were altogether different, and it was impossible to say how far their proposals would be applicable to Burma until the Government and the people of that province had had an opportunity of considering them (Mon- tagu-Chelmsford report, para. 198).
Acting on this suggestion the Government of Burma drew up and published for public discussion a tentative scheme of con- stitutional reform. After some delay due to this procedure the local government submitted to the Government of India in June 1919 its matured proposals, with a lengthy statement of its reasons for not recommending the application to Burma of the distinctive features of the constitution about to be given to India proper. Briefly speaking, the country was at present unfit for responsible government. The Burmans were politically a generation behind the people of India. They had not undergone the training in public affairs which had fallen to the lot of the latter. Municipal and local self-government in Burma were in their infancy. The elective principle was unfamiliar to the people. Comparatively few Burmans had an advanced knowledge of the English language and very few had attained to high office in the public service. The Indian con- stitution applied to Burma would result in an inexperienced elec- torate, a Legislative Chamber unequal to the responsibilities thrust upon it, and ministers with no administrative knowledge. The Burma Government therefore advocated a transitory scheme by which the people might be trained for the exercise of larger powers.
Instead of a dual Government, consisting of an official executive council and ministers drawn from and responsible to the Legislative Council, the Burma Government proposed that the head of the prov- ince, remaining autocratic, should be assisted in the administration by boards. Each board would consist of a non-official president nominated by the governor, to be chosen from the Legislative Assembly, and one or more official members. The boards would refer to the governor for decision cases in which the members were not agreed and cases of major or special importance. The boards would not be responsible in any respect to the Legislative Council. The methods of legislation would be similar to those in the provinces of India, but resolutions on the budget would be only recommendations to the governor. There would be no transferred subjects, no minis- ters and no responsibility to the Legislature.
The Government of India agreed with the Government of Burma as to the impossibility of imposing on Burma a constitution on the Indian model and as to the necessity for an intermediate period of preparation and training. In March 1920 they laid these views before the Secretary of State and asked for sanction to the scheme, which they said would give to Burma at least as great an advance as
the disparity between it and India in political conditions warranted. In one important particular they modified, with the consent cf the Burma Government, the original scheme, substituting for the proposed system of boards an executive council of three officials and three non-officials. The Executive Council would work in committees of two, so that the non-official Burman would have an official as his colleague and mentor. An appeal was to lie from a committee to the full council in case of a difference of opinion.
The decision of the Secretary of State was not announced until Nov. 1920. While this leisurely constitution-making was in prog- ress, indifference in Burma had given place to a vigorous political agitation to secure for the province at least as ample a measure of responsible government as India was about to receive. In India " dyarchy " was in act of being established and the magnitude of the advance it implied was now realized. The Burman's pride was touched to the quick by the idea that it was proposed to put him on a lower plane than the Indians. He began to regard as an insult to his country and race the reform scheme which in 1919 Conserva- tives and Moderates had been disposed to accept. The rising feeling in Burma was patent to the Secretary of State when he refused to adopt the Government of India's proposals and informed them that His Majesty's Government had decided to apply the Act of 1919 to Burma. He based this decision on the ground that the Morley- Minto " training," which in substance was the same as the Indian Government's scheme, had proved " fallacious in India as a means of fitting Indians to exercise responsibility." He wished to avoid creating in Burma the situation which now threatened to prejudice success of reforms in India, and thought it better " to train Burmans in exercise of real responsibility rather than in criticism." The Government of India was perturbed by this decision. They replied that the immediate application of the Act of 1919 to Burma would be fraught with grave risks for which they could not accept respon- sibility, and urged that if it was decided to legislate, Parliament should be made acquainted with their views.
In March 1921 a bill to apply the Act of 1919 to Burma was introduced in the House of Lords. The debate on the second reading was adjourned until the House was in possession of the latest cor- respondence on the subject between the India Office and the Govern- ment of India. In the meantime the Secretary of State referred the whole correspondence to the Standing Joint Committee on Indian Affairs and asked them to advise him as to the form of constitution which should in their opinion be introduced in Burma. On the merits respectively of the Government of India's scheme and that of the Secretary of State the committee were divided. But they were at one in the conclusion that matters having gone thus far, Burma must be granted the same constitution as India. They had less difficulty in reaching this conclusion insomuch as the Burma Government, confronted with an agitation that had grown in in- tensity and strength since the intention of the home authorities had become known, telegraphed that the time had paseed for pressing any scheme for an intermediate period of " training," and that the only course open was to extend " dyarchy " to Burma as soon as possible. The Government of India expressed similar views. Any scheme falling short of that adopted for provinces in India would, they said, no longer meet the aspirations of moderate Burmans. The acceptance of the bill was necessary.
In spite of the report of the Standing Joint Committee, and the strong expressions of opinion from Indian authorities hitherto opposed to the bill, it was found impossible by the Government to find time in 1921 for passing the Burma bill. It was decided, therefore, in August merely to proceed by notifying, under section 583 (i) of the Government of India Act, that it applied to Burma. It was then only necessary to settle the provisions of the franchise, determine the constituencies, divide the sphere of government into " transferred " and " reserved " subjects, and frame regulations on ancillary matters. It was hoped that the first elections to the Legislative Council would take place in 1922.
EDUCATION
The census of 1911 showed that only 11-4% of the male pop. and 1-1% of the female pop. of British India were literate, according to a very modest standard of literacy. That is, under 6% of the pop. could read and write. The number of persons, male and female, returned as having an elementary knowledge of English was under a million and a half in a pop. (British India only) of 240 millions. Corresponding figures of the 1921 census were not available up to Aug. 1921, but it was believed that they would show a substantial advance. During the 10 years ending 1918 the number of persons undergoing instruction in colleges and schools increased by 50 per cent. In 1909 the number of students undergoing university education in arts and vocational colleges was 25,000, and in 1918 63,000; in secondary schools 800,000 in 1908 and 1,200,006 in 1918; in primary schools 4,420,000 in 1909 and 6,000,000 in 1918. These figures are for colleges and schools classed as public institutions. Adding to
