Defence of the new Viceroy

AS far as we have been able to see, only one responsible Indian journal has taken it upon itself to defend the appointment of Edward Wood as Viceroy in succession to Lord Reading — the Indian Daily Mail. In a recent issue, our contemporary once more states its views about the Viceroy-designate, and in doing so quotes profusely from a book titled The Great Opportunity, published by him sometime ago in collaboration with Sir George (now Baron) Lloyd — the only book, as it rightly points out, in which Wood’s political views find expression. We have carefully gone through these extracts, but in spite of the ingenious attempt made by our contemporary, we have seen nothing in them from which anyone in India could derive hope or comfort. The nearest approximation to a hope-inspiring statement is the faith which the authors express in the “principle of nationality” and “the responsibility of service.” Men and women, they write, “can best perform their duty to the world by discharging adequately their duty towards their own people first, and before the race can successfully win acceptance for its ideals by the world, it must demonstrate their value by its own experience.” The writers further say: “It cannot be too often emphasised that the lodestar by which we must steer our course must be insistence at all times and in all quarters upon the responsibility of service.” These are excellent sentiments, but are they nobler or loftier than those which Lord Reading repeated scores of times before he came to India about the paramountcy of the claims of justice? What became of these sentiments the moment his lordship came in contact with the realities of Indian politics?