The Indian Medical Service.

THE evidence given by Colonel R.H. Elliott, I.M.S., before the Joint Committee of Parliament, is typical of the attitude of a considerable proportion of European officials in India towards the question of reform. “The decision to make the Indian Medical Service a transferred subject,” the witness began by saying, “would be extremely unpopular and would lead to many retirements, especially of senior officers and make recruiting very difficult.” We do not complain of this statement, except to point out that the only unpopularity of which the witness was probably thinking was unpopularity with the representatives of vested interests—which, after all, is inseparable from any large measure of reform—and that far too much is being made of the trump card of threatened retirements by some of the witnesses before the Committee. But when the witness goes on to say that “the objection to transference is not racial” and that “there are many Indians under whom Europeans would be glad to serve,” it is difficult to avoid the remark that the witness might have been more candid.