Sir Edward MacLagan’s tenure

TODAY at Bombay, Sir Edward MacLagan hands over the charge of the administration, of which he has been the head during the last five years. The period has been one of great storm and stress, and no one who has been in touch with the province during this period will claim for His departing Excellency that nature had endowed him with the gifts necessary for piloting the ship of the State at such a time. He was an essentially good-natured but weak man, and like so many other weak men, he had the habit, while depending upon and probably following the lead of others, to cling to the line of policy chalked out for him with an obstinacy which could not have been greater if the policy had been his own. In reality, the last five years, when, if ever, Punjab needed a strong man of the right stamp, she had the misfortune to be ruled by one who had no mind and no will except the mind and will of those around him, of the permanent Civil Service on the one hand and on the other an ambitious Minister whose one dominating purpose was to make his own position secure. Between the one and the other, Sir Edward has committed blunder after blunder, all the time imagining, as we firmly believe, that he was acting in the best interests of the province committed to his care. Here is a real tragedy, but it is a tragedy which is inseparable from the experiment of putting a round peg in a square hole. There were plenty of offices even in India in which Sir Edward could probably have acquitted himself with both credit and distinction. The Governorship of Punjab was clearly not one of them.