Lord Lyon
speech on
Famine
Legislation,

national wealth, India will eventually enjoy as complete an immunity from the worst results of scarcity Dec. 27, 1877 as that which now exists throughout those regions of France where but a century ago such a result might have seemed as difficult of attainment as it now appears to be in many of our own provinces ?'

Famine
Commission

These plans, however, were destined not to be carried out, at least at that time. The English Government had taken alarm at the apparent increase of expenditure in India, and a Committee of the House of Commons decided that a large reduction should be made in the outlay on Productive Public Works, and that the borrowing of the Government of India for this purpose should be curtailed so as not to exceed for the present the amount of 2,500,000l. a year. It was not till the Report of the Famine Commission had restored public confidence in the really productive and remunerative character of these works that Parliament allowed the Government to increase its annual borrowing up to the limits of 3,500,000l. a year.

Lord Lytton was not content with the active steps he took to make himself acquainted with all the details of famine distress and to supervise and direct the measures of relief. He saw that famine must be treated as a periodically recurring calamity, and that the time had come for collecting and handing down to posterity, not only the experience which had been gained as to the most efficient way of dealing with famine when it occurs, but also the knowledge which had been accumulated as to how to forecast its imminence, and the measures best calculated to obviate or to lessen its severity. Accordingly, he proposed and obtained sanction to the appointment of the Indian Famine Commission,

Commission

and in May 1878 he laid down the principles which Famine were to govern the scope of their inquiries. They were directed to investigate the effect of famine on the vital statistics, and to report how far 'local influences, peculiarities of administration or tenure, climate, soil, water, density of population, system of cultivation, &c., have tended to mitigate or intensify its inevitable effects.' The character of the works on which relief was to be given, the need of a special system of village inspection, the restrictions under which gratuitous relief can safely be given; the duty of the Government in respect of the supply, importation and distribution of food; the benefit which might be expected from the extension of irrigation canals and railways, or from improvement in the system of agriculture, from encouragement of emigration, and from suspension or remission of the land revenue, and the relations to be observed with Native States in famine management, were among the chief topics expressly brought to their notice.

The Famine Commission completed its labours in July 1880, and their report, which embodied the principles hereafter to be adopted for famine administration, was at once accepted.

The great famine of 1876-78 was followed by a long period of fairly prosperous years, during which local scarcities occurred from time to time, but no widely spread catastrophe overtook the agricultural population. This period was utilised in carrying out the recommendations of the Commission, and when famine again visited the land, in 1896, the Effect of Government and the country were found in a very Commission different state of preparation from that which had on Famine existed in 1876. A Famine Code had been drawn in every province, comprising in the fullest detail

up

Famine

of 1896

Famine
Commission

the rules under which every branch of the Adminis-
tration was to act, and the manner in which the
services of every agent were to be utilised in carry-
ing out the measures for relief. An Agricultural
Department had been created, whose special charge
it was
to bring together a comprehensive and
exact record of the agricultural, vital, and economic
condition of the people, and to co-ordinate the
machinery necessary for combating the disaster.
Lists of works were drawn up for every district, on
which the masses of men deprived of their usual field
occupations would be employed. Rules were framed
for utilising the existing staff and creating additional
impromptu establishments for the supervision of these
works and for the distribution of gratuitous relief
to non-workers in their homes. The principle was
established, that unless under certain peculiar local
conditions, Government ought not to intervene in
order to control or aid the activity of private trade
in the supply of food to the distressed tracts, and
that its functions should be confined to the improve-
ment of communications, and especially to the con-
struction of railways by which the requisite supplies
could be brought in. Accordingly, when the famine
of 1896 broke out, it was found that in every tract
to which the Commission had pointed as both liable
to the occurrence of drought and insufficiently pro-
vided with the means of obtaining food, the necessary
railways had been constructed, and the whole length
of railway communication had risen from 8,200
miles in 1876 to 19,600 in 1896. With one or two
exceptions, all the irrigation canals recommended
by the Commission, and several not suggested by
them, have been carried out, and the area irrigated
in this way and rendered completely independent

of the accidents of the season has risen from 7,000 Famine Commission square miles in 1876 to about 12,000 in 1896. Everything possible has been done at the same time. to increase the area protected, though less securely protected, by tanks and wells. There has been much legislative activity, directed to the improvement of the relations between the Government and the landlords, and between the landlords and their tenants, and facilities have been granted for remission or suspension of the land dues and the granting of loans from the public treasury. Universal testimony is borne to the success with which the recent famine of 1896-7 has been met, both as regards the prevention of mortality, and disorganisation of native society, the useful objects on which famine labour has been employed, and the economy with which the work has been carried out. This success is largely due to the far-seeing policy of Lord Lytton, in his determination that the experience gained under his Administration should not be wasted or forgotten.

Of the financial measures for providing for the cost of recurring famine, which have been so misdescribed and misunderstood under the name of The Famine Insurance Fund,' more will be said in another chapter dealing with the various financial reforms of Lord Lytton's Viceroyalty.

Russian mission to the Amir

ALL communications with the Amir of Kabul having ceased with the termination of the Peshawur Conference in March 1877, there followed an interval of suspense and inaction on the Afghan frontier. But in April 1877 war broke out between Russia and Turkey, and in January 1878 the Russian army had passed the Balkans and encamped before Constantinople; whereupon the English Government had made overt preparations for armed intervention, and a body of Indian troops had been summoned to Malta. The reverberation of these great events had been felt throughout Asia, for the Russians had taken measures to counteract English intervention in Europe by moving troops towards the Afghan frontier and by sending a mission to the Amir. The mission seems to have left Samarkand on June 14, the day after the first meeting of the Congress of Berlin. In the meantime Lord Salisbury had, in March 1878, become Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Lord Cranbrook succeeded him as Secretary of State for India.

On receipt of this news Lord Lytton wrote to his first chief:

April 3, 1878.

My dear Lord Salisbury,-It is with a real pang that I read your telegram informing me of the change