Indian speeches (1907-1909) | Page 2

overheard thousands of
miles away by a vast and complex community. They are overheard by
others who are doing the service and work of the Crown in India. By
those, too, who take part in the immense work of commercial and
non-official life in India. We are overheard by great Indian princes who

are outside British India. We are overheard by the dim masses of
Indians whom, in spite of all, we shall persist in regarding as our
friends. We are overheard by those whom, I am afraid, we must
reluctantly call our enemies. This is the reason why everybody who
speaks to-day, certainly including myself, must use language that is
well advised, language of reserve, and, as I say again, the fruit of
comprehensive consideration.
The Budget is a prosperity Budget. We have, however, to admit that a
black shadow falls across the prospect. The plague figures are appalling.
But do not let us get unreasonably dismayed, even about these
appalling figures. If we reviewed the plague figures up to last
December, we might have hoped that the horrible scourge was on the
wane. From 92,000 deaths in the year 1900, the figures went up to
1,100,000 in 1904, while in 1905 they exceeded 1,000,000. In 1906 a
gleam of hope arose, and the mortality sank to something under
350,000. The combined efforts of Government and people had
produced that reduction; but, alas, since January, 1907, plague has
again flared up in districts that have been filled with its terror for a
decade; and for the first four months of this year the deaths amounted
to 642,000, which exceeded the record for the same period in any past
year. You must remember that we have to cover a very vast area. I do
not know that these figures would startle us if we took the area of the
whole of Europe. It was in 1896 that this plague first appeared in India,
and up to April, 1907, the total figure of the human beings who have
died is 5,250,000. But dealing with a population of 300,000,000, this
dire mortality, although enormous, is not at all comparable with the
results of the black death and other scourges, that spread over Europe in
earlier times, in proportion to the population. The plague mortality in
1904 (the worst complete year) would only represent, if evenly
distributed, a death-rate of about 3 per 1,000. But it is local, and
particularly centres in the Punjab, the United Provinces, and in Bombay.
I do not think that anybody who has been concerned in India--I do not
care to what school of Indian thought he belongs--can deny that
measures for the extermination and mitigation of this disease have
occupied the most serious, constant, unflagging, zealous, and energetic
attention of the Indian Government. But the difficulties we encounter
are manifold, as many Members of the House are well aware. It is

possible that hon. Members may rise and say that we are not enforcing
with sufficient zeal proper sanitary rules; and, on the other hand, I dare
say that other hon. Members will get up to show that the great difficulty
in the way of sanitary rules being observed, arises from the reluctance
of the population to practise them. That is perfectly natural and is well
understood. They are a suspicious population, and we all know that,
when these new rules are forced upon them, they constantly resent and
resist them. A policy of severe repression is worse than useless. I will
not detain the House with particulars of all the proceedings we have
taken in dealing with the plague. But I may say that we have instituted
a long scientific inquiry with the aid of the Royal Society and the Lister
Institute. Then we have very intelligent officers, who have done all they
could to trace the roots of the disease, and to discover if they could, any
means to prevent it. It is a curious thing that, while there appears to be
no immunity from this frightful scourge for the natives, Europeans
enjoy almost entire immunity from the disease. That is difficult to
understand or to explain.
Now as to opium, I know that a large number of Members in the House
are interested in it. Judging by the voluminous correspondence that I
receive, all the Churches and both political Parties are sincerely and
deeply interested in the question, and I was going to say that the
resolutions with which they have favoured me often use the expression
"righteousness before revenue." The motto is excellent, but its virtue
will be cheap and shabby, if you only satisfy your own righteousness at
the expense of other people's revenue.
Mr. LUPTON: We are quite ready to bear the expense.
Mr. MORLEY: My hon. friend says they are quite prepared